How to Change the Life of a Child Alissar Abdel kareem TEDxAlManaraSquare

grandma can they have another piece of chocolate please dad did you see the fairy last night she didn't exchange my tooth for the candy wonder why mom don't want suspense please stop stuffing me with food plus ii has no onions and it goes on these were my typical concerns as child now after giving you glimpse of my pure real life as child would like you all to close your eyes and imagine child just normal child raise your hand if you imagine child playing soccer with his or her friends in the streets okay raise your hand if you imagine child being lectured about keeping the house clean this child would be me always managed to keep the house dirty raise your hand if you imagined child going to school on the school bus raise your hand if you imagine child playing 49 yay raise your hand if you imagine child going to school with bare legs with the sink physical and mental abuse this was the case for bite it's 12 years old Palestinian boy from Jerusalem who would have to go through propagations physical violations checkpoints bombs and restrictions almost every day on his way to school or Beit can't play soccer with his friends in the streets because tear gases and armed soldiers will appear out of nowhere he can't play fortnight because each time his house get invaded all electronics get confiscated because of abide is being exposed to actions that children in his age cannot emotionally and physically withstand his thinking of leaving school and start working this is how occupation manages to destroy hopes ambitions and Bright Futures did you know that since 2000 at least 8,000 Palestinian children were arrested and prosecuted in military detention system study by CRI suggested that is that shortage of more than 2,000 classrooms in East Jerusalem is the main cause of low public school attendance rate of only 53 percent now if will continue with this ho-hum boring information you will get bored will not finish and also prove the children in Palestine are suffering and they need help so let's talk at the time started talking about something more interesting whenever walk in the old city of Jerusalem see hundreds of our bites trying to sell some fruits or vegetables or trying to scare soldiers with their artificial plastic guns or being propagated by armed soldiers and it makes me devastated to see oppressed children's in this holy city so thought and asked my dad why why do get to live this happy joyful life while these children are suffering every day think it's unfair that child with my same abilities my same desires is thinking of me for escaping war crimes my dad told me bring fairness to light bring fairness to light didn't understand the statement at the time but to keep running in my head since time passed went to boarding school in Jordan during my time over there participated in community services where give sessions to children from public schools and how to improve their English using technology would sit with them three stories with them research stuff and do presentations yet didn't do it the normal way did it my way aka allosaurus way showed empathy and commitment towards them whenever they talk listened would sit with them before each session start talking about our latest concerns and this empathy this commitment made these kids feel that they are important made them feel that their existence actually matter made them feel that they should also commit and take these sessions seriously used to give stories for them to read at home and they would gather as family and read them together father once thanked me for giving these stories to his child he told me that she was so quite before and she wasn't involved in their gatherings now she's the loudest they beg her to stay quiet whenever she comes back from the sessions she starts teaching her mother and her siblings what taught her the father continued and told me that the whole family speaks English now Hammad another kid taught was able to write whole page in English without having any mistakes about his dream of going to the University of Cambridge Miriam girl also taught once up once came up to me and told me decided saw it was able to direct foreign to resident in madaba my usual answer is my usual answer is before these sessions was knowing Lister see it may seem that these stories are small and that they have no impact but these stories changed the life of child these sessions changed the life of child these sessions guided the children to the way for communicating to the outside world these sessions give the children hope hope to dream and hope to achieve this is when my statement my father told me popped in my mallet bring fairness to light as part of the Palestinian community can't just stand there thinking about the Ferren if she'll be able to make its way to my bed and magically exchange my tooth with candy while children in Jerusalem are thinking of ways for escaping war crimes yes am child and it may seem impossible for me to change the life of child while I'm still child am child and people like me form about half of the population to the Palestinian Bayou of statistics the number of children in Palestine is approximately 2 million and 2000 their 4 children play major role in forming our community and in building the next generation don't you think so for this reason for this reason being child didn't stop me from searching for contribution for this issue and discovered contribution for this issue after seeing all the positive results from the sessions gave from the hard work commitment the kids and gave according to after long thought decided to come back to Palestine to start my own nonprofit and when told my grandma that came all the way back from Jordan to benefit my own country by starting my own nonprofit she told me he expect me to believe that it didn't come all the way back here to eat your grandma's cooking and everybody has the right to believe that but think of it this way the existence of children with no childhood is like having mac and cheese with no cheese which doesn't taste good by the way perhaps children will always be seen as the minority in the community if we didn't start sacrificing our time for them so thought that it was time for me to take the step in helping my country in creating the next generation and helping my country to turn these oppressed at faces into happy smiley faces and guess what will do it my way aka Allosaurus way according to great powerful leaders of all time like malcolm nelson mandela martin luther king education is the strongest weapon you can use to change the world have figured that obeyed and all the other palestinian children need this weapon need this weapon to face occupation heartily and proudly the nonprofit created is dedicated to the children living under hard conditions in Jerusalem through education through this nonprofit our by was able to speak read and write in English he was also convinced to not leave school and face all the obligations with his new weapon and thought that if I'm able to change the life of child and my mother will finally be able to cook it in satsang don't you think so believe in your mom before ending this peach would like to say that at the age of 16 was able to bring fairness to light by creating this nonprofit in Jerusalem ten years from now will be able to bring furnished lights in my whole country and to the whole world to my generation to my generation bring fairness to to this world to your country in your own way thank you