Speaking from a refugees perspective, in this very moving talk Tima Kurdi explains how a simple photograph of her nephew ‘the boy on the beach’ galvanized the world into action, yet it shouldn’t have taken tragedy to motivate us. She encourages everyone not to be silent, instead use your voice to plant seeds of hope and recognize we are all the same.
A Kurdish woman from Syria, Tima immigrated to Canada in 1992. A hairstylist by trade, she has supported her family back home in Syria. In September 2015, a personal tragedy struck Tima’s family – her brother, Abdullah, lost his wife, Rehanna, and two boys, Alan and Ghalib, while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. The picture of Alan Kurdi lying on the beach woke up the world to the plight of the Syrian refugees escaping their country and brought international attention to the Syrian refugee crisis. Since then, Tima’s been speaking out to bring awareness to the reality of Syrian refugees in the hopes that this tragedy can be resolved.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
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