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So I started working

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with refugees because I wanted

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to make a difference,

4
00:00:06,673 --> 00:00:08,080
and making a difference starts

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00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,436
with telling their stories.

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So when I meet refugees,

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I always ask them questions.

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Who bombed your house?

9
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Who killed your son?

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Did the rest of your family make it out alive?

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How are you coping

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in your life in exile?

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But there's one question that always seems to me

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to be most revealing, and that is:

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What did you take?

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What was that most important thing

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that you had to take with you

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when the bombs were exploding in your town,

19
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and the armed gangs were approaching your house?

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A Syrian refugee boy I know

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told me that he didn't hesitate

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when his life was in imminent danger.

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He took his high school diploma,

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and later he told me why.

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He said, "I took my high school diploma

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because my life depended on it."

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And he would risk his life to get that diploma.

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On his way to school, he would dodge snipers.

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His classroom sometimes shook

30
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with the sound of bombs and shelling,

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and his mother told me,

32
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"Every day, I would say to him every morning,

33
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'Honey, please don't go to school.'"

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And when he insisted, she said,

35
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"I would hug him as if it were for the last time."

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But he said to his mother,

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"We're all afraid,

38
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but our determination to graduate

39
00:01:44,128 --> 00:01:47,462
is stronger than our fear."

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But one day, the family got terrible news.

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Hany's aunt, his uncle and his cousin

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were murdered in their homes for refusing

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to leave their house.

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Their throats were slit.

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It was time to flee.

46
00:02:02,711 --> 00:02:05,725
They left that day, right away, in their car,

47
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Hany hidden in the back because they were facing

48
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checkpoints of menacing soldiers.

49
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And they would cross the border into Lebanon,

50
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where they would find peace.

51
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But they would begin a life of grueling hardship

52
00:02:21,586 --> 00:02:24,590
and monotony.

53
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They had no choice but to build a shack

54
00:02:27,289 --> 00:02:28,622
on the side of a muddy field,

55
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and this is Hany's brother Ashraf,

56
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who plays outside.

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00:02:32,678 --> 00:02:35,100
And that day, they joined

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the biggest population of refugees in the world,

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in a country, Lebanon, that is tiny.

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It only has four million citizens,

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and there are one million Syrian refugees living there.

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There's not a town, a city or a village

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that is not host to Syrian refugees.

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This is generosity and humanity

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that is remarkable.

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Think about it this way, proportionately.

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It would be as if

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the entire population of Germany,

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80 million people,

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would flee to the United States in just three years.

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Half of the entire population of Syria

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is now uprooted,

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most of them inside the country.

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Six and a half million people

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have fled for their lives.

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Over and well over three million people

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have crossed the borders

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and have found sanctuary
in the neighboring countries,

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and only a small proportion, as you see,

80
00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,534
have moved on to Europe.

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What I find most worrying

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is that half of all Syrian refugees are children.

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I took this picture of this little girl.

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It was just two hours after she had arrived

85
00:04:00,294 --> 00:04:04,636
after a long trek from Syria into Jordan.

86
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And most troubling of all

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00:04:08,061 --> 00:04:11,802
is that only 20 percent of 
Syrian refugee children

88
00:04:11,802 --> 00:04:15,277
are in school in Lebanon.

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00:04:15,277 --> 00:04:18,210
And yet, Syrian refugee children,

90
00:04:18,210 --> 00:04:20,508
all refugee children tell us

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education is the most important thing in their lives.

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Why? Because it allows them to think of their future

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rather than the nightmare of their past.

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It allows them to think of hope rather than hatred.

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00:04:38,784 --> 00:04:40,813
I'm reminded of a recent visit I took

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to a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq,

97
00:04:44,390 --> 00:04:46,202
and I met this girl,

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00:04:46,202 --> 00:04:47,979
and I thought, "She's beautiful,"

99
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and I went up to her and asked her,

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"Can I take your picture?"

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And she said yes,

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but she refused to smile.

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I think she couldn't,

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because I think she must realize that she represents

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a lost generation of Syrian refugee children,

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a generation isolated and frustrated.

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And yet, look at what they fled:

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utter destruction,

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buildings, industries, schools, roads, homes.

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Hany's home was also destroyed.

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This will need to be rebuilt

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by architects, by engineers, by electricians.

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Communities will need teachers and lawyers

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and politicians interested in reconciliation

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and not revenge.

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Shouldn't this be rebuilt

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by the people with the largest stake,

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the societies in exile, the refugees?

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Refugees have a lot of time

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to prepare for their return.

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You might imagine that being a refugee

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is just a temporary state.

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Well far from it.

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With wars going on and on,

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the average time a refugee will spend in exile

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00:06:15,362 --> 00:06:18,827
is 17 years.

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00:06:18,827 --> 00:06:22,415
Hany was into his second year in limbo

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when I went to visit him recently,

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and we conducted our entire conversation in English,

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which he confessed to me he learned

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from reading all of Dan Brown's novels

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and from listening to American rap.

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We also spent some nice moments of laughter

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and fun with his beloved brother Ashraf.

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But I'll never forget what he told me

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when we ended our conversation that day.

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He said to me,

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"If I am not a student, I am nothing."

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Hany is one of 50 million people

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uprooted in this world today.

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Never since World War II

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have so many people been forcibly displaced.

143
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So while we're making sweeping progress

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in human health,

145
00:07:18,881 --> 00:07:23,875
in technology, in education and design,

146
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we are doing dangerously little

147
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to help the victims

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and we are doing far too little

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to stop and prevent

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the wars that are driving them from their homes.

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And there are more and more victims.

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Every day, on average,

153
00:07:46,267 --> 00:07:48,449
by the end of this day,

154
00:07:48,449 --> 00:07:52,297
32,000 people will be forcibly displaced

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from their homes —

156
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32,000 people.

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They flee across borders like this one.

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We captured this on the Syrian border to Jordan,

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and this is a typical day.

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Or they flee on unseaworthy and overcrowded boats,

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risking their lives in this case

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just to reach safety in Europe.

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This Syrian young man

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00:08:24,638 --> 00:08:27,424
survived one of these boats that capsized —

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most of the people drowned —

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and he told us,

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"Syrians are just looking for a quiet place

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where nobody hurts you,

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where nobody humiliates you,

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and where nobody kills you."

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Well, I think that should be the minimum.

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How about a place of healing,

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of learning,

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and even opportunity?

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Americans and Europeans

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have the impression that proportionally

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huge numbers of refugees are coming

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to their country,

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but the reality is

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that 86 percent, the vast majority of refugees,

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are living in the developing world,

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in countries struggling with their own insecurity,

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with their own issues of helping their own populations

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and poverty.

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So wealthy countries in the world should recognize

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the humanity and the generosity of the countries

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that are hosting so many refugees.

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And all countries should make sure that no one

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fleeing war and persecution

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arrives at a closed border.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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But there is something more that we can do

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than just simply helping refugees survive.

195
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We can help them thrive.

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We should think of refugee camps and communities

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as more than just temporary population centers

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where people languish

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waiting for the war to end.

200
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Rather, as centers of excellence,

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where refugees can triumph over their trauma

202
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and train for the day that they can go home

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as agents of positive change

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and social transformation.

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It makes so much sense,

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00:10:37,508 --> 00:10:41,817
but I'm reminded of the terrible war in Somalia

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that has been raging on for 22 years.

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And imagine living in this camp.

209
00:10:48,250 --> 00:10:49,823
I visited this camp.

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It's in Djibouti, neighboring Somalia,

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and it was so remote

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that we had to take a helicopter to fly there.

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It was dusty and it was terribly hot.

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And we went to visit a school

215
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and started talking to the children,

216
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and then I saw this girl across the room

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00:11:06,936 --> 00:11:08,785
who looked to me to be the same age

218
00:11:08,785 --> 00:11:12,066
as my own daughter, and I went up and talked to her.

219
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And I asked her the questions

220
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that grown-ups ask kids,

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like, "What is your favorite subject?"

222
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and, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

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And this is when her face turned blank,

224
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and she said to me,

225
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"I have no future.

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My schooling days are over."

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And I thought, there must be some misunderstanding,

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so I turned to my colleague

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and she confirmed to me

230
00:11:37,217 --> 00:11:39,910
there is no funding for secondary education

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in this camp.

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And how I wished at that moment

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00:11:43,649 --> 00:11:45,967
that I could say to her,

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00:11:45,967 --> 00:11:48,372
"We will build you a school."

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And I also thought, what a waste.

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She should be and she is

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the future of Somalia.

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A boy named Jacob Atem

239
00:12:03,131 --> 00:12:06,326
had a different chance, but not before he experienced

240
00:12:06,326 --> 00:12:08,418
terribly tragedy.

241
00:12:08,418 --> 00:12:10,882
He watched — this is in Sudan —

242
00:12:10,882 --> 00:12:13,176
as his village — he was only seven years old —

243
00:12:13,176 --> 00:12:15,558
burned to the ground, and he learned

244
00:12:15,558 --> 00:12:17,397
that his mother and his father

245
00:12:17,397 --> 00:12:19,386
and his entire family

246
00:12:19,386 --> 00:12:21,250
were killed that day.

247
00:12:21,250 --> 00:12:23,040
Only his cousin survived, and the two of them

248
00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:25,320
walked for seven months —

249
00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:27,170
this is boys like him —

250
00:12:27,170 --> 00:12:30,378
chased and pursued by wild
animals and armed gangs,

251
00:12:30,378 --> 00:12:32,738
and they finally made it to refugee camps

252
00:12:32,738 --> 00:12:34,271
where they found safety,

253
00:12:34,271 --> 00:12:36,394
and he would spend the next seven years

254
00:12:36,394 --> 00:12:39,581
in Kenya in a refugee camp.

255
00:12:39,581 --> 00:12:42,109
But his life changed

256
00:12:42,109 --> 00:12:44,212
when he got the chance to be resettled

257
00:12:44,212 --> 00:12:46,417
to the United States,

258
00:12:46,417 --> 00:12:49,113
and he found love in a foster family

259
00:12:49,113 --> 00:12:51,701
and he was able to go to school,

260
00:12:51,701 --> 00:12:53,995
and he wanted me to share with you

261
00:12:53,995 --> 00:12:55,563
this proud moment

262
00:12:55,563 --> 00:12:57,868
when he graduated from university.

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00:12:57,868 --> 00:13:01,810
(Applause)

264
00:13:03,829 --> 00:13:06,243
I spoke to him on Skype the other day,

265
00:13:06,243 --> 00:13:11,237
and he was in his new university in Florida

266
00:13:11,237 --> 00:13:14,236
pursuing his Ph.D. in public health,

267
00:13:14,236 --> 00:13:17,306
and he proudly told me how he was able to raise

268
00:13:17,306 --> 00:13:19,990
enough funds from the American public

269
00:13:19,990 --> 00:13:24,575
to establish a health clinic back in his village

270
00:13:24,575 --> 00:13:27,655
back home.

271
00:13:27,655 --> 00:13:30,939
So I want to take you back to Hany.

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00:13:30,939 --> 00:13:33,160
When I told him I was going to have the chance

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00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,877
to speak to you here on the TED stage,

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he allowed me to read you a poem

275
00:13:38,172 --> 00:13:41,532
that he sent in an email to me.

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He wrote:

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"I miss myself,

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my friends,

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times of reading novels or writing poems,

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birds and tea in the morning.

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My room, my books, myself,

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and everything that was making me smile.

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Oh, oh, I had so many dreams

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that were about to be realized."

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So here is my point:

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Not investing in refugees

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is a huge missed opportunity.

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Leave them abandoned,

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and they risk exploitation and abuse,

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and leave them unskilled and uneducated,

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and delay by years the return

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to peace and prosperity in their countries.

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I believe how we treat the uprooted

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will shape the future of our world.

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The victims of war can hold the keys

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to lasting peace,

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and it's the refugees

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who can stop the cycle of violence.

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Hany is at a tipping point.

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We would love to help him go to university

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and to become an engineer,

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but our funds are prioritized for the basics in life:

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tents and blankets and mattresses and kitchen sets,

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food rations and a bit of medicine.

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University is a luxury.

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But leave him to languish in this muddy field,

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and he will become a member

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of a lost generation.

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Hany's story is a tragedy,

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but it doesn't have to end that way.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)