Resilience the unexpected gift of this pandemic

[Music]

once upon a time

there has been a farmer who used to go

to the river every day

to bring water to his family one day one

of his two pots cracked

and the poor farmer couldn’t afford to

fix it days went in while the clocked

pot kept leaking water

and all the farmer could do is continue

walking and feeling sad about it

spring came and the farmer realized how

the leak in water

gave birth to hundreds of flowers

throughout the road

today coveted 19 cracked our lives we

all felt sad about it

and so many people still struggle to

feel positive or to overcome the

consequences of the pandemic

and this is why i’m here today to share

with you one

golden lesson that i learned from nine

months experience

as a medical doctor in the emergency

room in my hospital here in morocco

i’ve seen so many vulnerable patients so

many being brought to the hospital

after attempting suicide or after having

severe depression

or anxiety attacks one of them a 19

years old girl

who attempted to end her life by taking

medication

and after talking to her privately i

realized the girl had severe depression

loss of hope in life and lack of support

from her family

and best friends today covet 19 affected

us all

either our education our work our

personal or professional relationships

and it made us all vulnerable like this

girl

i remember so many patients coming to

the hospital with beating marks in their

faces in their hands in their bodies

especially women day and night one time

at 2 am a man came in being severely

injured by his drunk wife

and he was begging us to let him stay in

the hospital for the night

because he couldn’t get back home and

with the lockdown measures

he couldn’t go anywhere else and this is

how covid is affecting our families and

our personal relations

yet so many people still speak about the

importance of

economical effects and tackling those

issues related to social effects of

covet

but for me the real issue and the real

matter

is the human capital is being us as

humans

able to support ourselves and to thrive

during the pandemic

five months ago we did a study with four

global youth organizations about

confident youth

and we found out that mental health was

the second most concerning issue for

youth

in the pandemic period we also found

that 58

of young people were negatively affected

in mental health

caused to the pandemic a similar survey

conducted by the international labor

organization found out that

at least one in two young people will

possibly suffer from anxiety

or depression because of the pandemic a

very serious issue to tackle yet

it doesn’t need a miracle or a fortune

to solve

it only needs care for each other

i remember those days when i was in the

hospital wearing those tight protective

suits

to go and treat covet patients it used

to give me the courage

and the resilience to go and fight the

disease and similarly

when you care and cherish each other you

share the positivity

the courage and the resilience they need

to fight the consequences of the

pandemic

one of those days i was in hospital

surviving my 24 hour shift

hungry tired i had no lunch

unfortunately too much work

out of nowhere a 24 years old girl comes

in

she handed me a butter of water and a

colorful paper

saying thank you i still remember seeing

that girl one week earlier

in coma because of her uncontrolled

diabetes she wrote a poem for me

thanking me for helping her and helping

other patients

and let me tell you something at that

moment my hunger and

my tiredness weren’t an issue anymore

that feeling

was positivity and energy which helped

me survive the day

and that little gesture of kindness gave

me

the energy and made me feel valued and

recognized

and this is what care is about caring

for each other doesn’t mean

making some special gifts or gesture it

can be as simple as calling your people

your friends your family asking them how

they are doing

if they were fine and if you can help

them somehow

three questions that you can do after

listening to this talk

you can talk to people show them that

you are there for them

and that they are not alone and as oprah

winfrey said

life is a reciprocal exchange if you

want to move forward

you have to give back so if you want

people to care about you

you have to care about people first

during

the past seven years i worked as a young

activist in different

ngos i traveled to 20 countries trying

to solve different problems and

challenges related to youth and public

health

i also worked as a trainer to educate

and empower and build the capacity of

youth in different levels

i have lived the magic and power that

education can have on lives people

and this is my second step to surviving

the next pandemic

so here is a question for you how many

people here

know what are the five steps of mental

health first aid

let’s say you don’t know okay so if you

spend five minutes

searching and reading about it you will

have a rough idea about what you should

do and should not do

if you face a similar case how great is

that

now if you spend a couple of hours doing

a free online course about mental health

first aid

you will have the ability to offer

advanced support

to people in need isn’t that awesome

dave chappelle once said modern problems

require modern solutions

and with the covet 19 pandemic and the

new normal

there are several sets of skills that

can make our lives better and easier

and we can start learning them right

away

so today i just want you to get out of

that comfort zone of yours

go read the book read resources watch a

video

an online course download an app

whatever suits you people

just keep learning now of course when

you do that

there will still be many other issues

and challenges caused by the pandemic

that needs to be solved and here is

where our third and final step comes in

hand

helping others and contributing to

change

in the past year i’ve been acting as the

liaison officer to students

organizations

and the coordinator of the kovitt

campaign in the international federation

of medical students association’s ifmsa

where i have been guiding and supporting

medical students for more than 90

countries to work on covid

i have seen young people educating

others raising awareness

creating innovations and creative

solutions supporting vulnerable

populations by giving them food and

sanitation

volunteering in call centers and doing

different kind of actions

to help alleviate the impact that kovitt

had on their communities

now here is my question for you today

how many hours per week

do you volunteer for your community and

believe me it’s not something difficult

at all

the amount of rewarding you feel when

you help others

and you help contribute to solving their

problems is limitless

my friends the past nine months have

been really life changing for me

i have seen so many people suffering and

struggling from the pandemic

i have also seen so many people standing

up

growing themselves and spreading

positivity

and my lesson for you today is that no

matter how bad the covid19 pandemic or

any other pandemic cracks our lives

if we stand up and keep walking and keep

improving ourselves

if we keep watering our community and

watering others by helping them and

supporting them

we will be able to grow flowers of

positivity and resilience

and we will be able to survive the next

pandemic

thank you very much