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