Thread by @bnashat

"The 🇯🇴 soldiers welcomed us at the border to sent us toward the camps. I told him 'wait a minute, I want to have a last look at Syria.'"
Listening to @lysedoucet & @LoraElwen report on the 10th anniversary of @ZaatariCamp and it brought back memories bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3… /1

Memories of spending close to a decade working with @SavetheChildren for children and families affected by conflict in #Syria, #Iraq, #Somalia, #Myanmar, #Palestine, and many other places. And losing #cynicism, finding #purpose, and changing my perspective on conflict and war. /2

In 2011, I was sitting in an air conditioned office at @WorldBank in Washington DC. I thought I had landed my dream job. But instead I had tasted #bureaucracy, #hierarchy and the #cynicism of organizational politics. If you had met the 2011 version of myself, you would agree. /3

It was March 2011, and the #ArabSpring had unfolded. I saw the photos of the children of #Daraa who had been tortured and killed for protesting the regime in Syria. I thought about what I would tell my own children decades later when they ask what I did during the Syria war. /4

I decided to join @SaveChildrenDE and spend the next 5 years supporting work for children in conflict. During these years, we raised and implemented over $20 million dollars from German donors for the #Syria crisis alone. /5

And meeting them and their families in person in refugee camps in #Iraq #Jordan #Lebanon and many others places, including a Syrian teacher in a desert camp a few miles across the border. /6
medium.com/@bnashat/teach…

Regardless of their dire situation, missing their home, sharing how they survived bombing, losing parents, friends & relatives, they always shared their hopes for when the war ends. How they could become doctors, detectives & teachers. /7
linkedin.com/pulse/resilien…

It also changed my perspective on conflict, from the cold and analytic international power analyses on mostly men making decisions that I worked on before, to witnessing first hand the way it affects the most vulnerable in the worst possible way. /8

To the assets and benefits that they can bring to the societies that they become part of. /9

https://twitter.com/bnashat/status/1521549958884872192?s=20&t=lXtUqNlU2vSB5iikLX0UTA

So 🔟 years later, working with @atlascorps to find people with #talent & #potential in a #futureofwork where we can create opportunities for everyone regardless of background and location, follows these #lessons on losing #cynicism, and finding #purpose. /END

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