it's nice to see all of you I love fairy
tales I won't apologize for it I believe
in the power of once upon a time and
tonight I'd like to share with you how
these Once Upon a times and happily ever
afters saved my life as a child and how
it can have the incredible power to save
other children's lives I was born in a
small village in Kerala India the
southern tip of India right above the
Indian Ocean and next to the Arabian Sea
the house I grew up in my grandmother's
house was surrounded by mango trees
tapioca trees coconut trees and during
the days I would hop skip and run from
one house to the other
visiting my grand anse my uncle's my
friends my neighbors and in the evenings
I would bathe in the small Creek near
our home and sit by the paddy fields
with my aunt and watched the Sun go down
occasionally I would run and scream
snake but overall life was good and I
was happy but one day my life changed I
suddenly had to move here to America to
join my parents who had come here
earlier in my life for further
opportunities and further education
leaving everyone and everything behind
now moving to a new country moving to
America there was definitely some
confusion I had to learn a new language
there were new customs new cultures but
that confusion was the least of my
problems my destiny my childhood took
down it took me down a darker path a
darker road while definitely there were
definitely glimmers of hope glimmers of
happiness with growing up with three
younger brothers who were just beautiful
I found myself experiencing long-term
pain throughout my childhood and what
they call long-term sustainable trauma
or
type three trauma and what type three
trauma is is when a child experiences
something like that they have gone
through either mental sexual physical
abuse or have suffered long-term because
catastrophe and living in such a
situation and I think all of us can
agree that it doesn't matter what type
of trauma child goes through ultimately
and every child deserves the hope of a
happy story long-term sustainable trauma
has incredible effect on the dark path
on brain development as you could see
white matter actually goes missing but
it also affects a child's ability to
learn to memorize to handle social
situations to be able to learn easily
but most of all I think the greatest
damage it can do is can damage how you
believe how you think about yourself are
you worthy enough are you smart enough
are you beautiful enough and these type
of mental messages entrenched in your
psyche can actually lead to long term
highly destructive behavior from
prostitution to to violence and to many
many other things
so most people believe that when you're
a child everything is possible but when
you're a child of trauma many things are
impossible so the question is how do you
reverse the damage that is being done if
you're a victim if you're a child of
trauma how can you change your
consciousness so that you could believe
in new possibilities for yourself it's
an incredible feat to turn that around
right for me I had a safe haven
I had solace I had the beautiful story
books the fairy tales the Cinderella's
Beauty and the Beast Chronicles of
Narnia all these books represented to me
the hero's journey the hero struggle
overcoming so ultimately and you are the
hero of your own life
and these messages once they become
entrenched can actually change the
consciousness
do you remember these lines no matter
how your heart is grieving if you keep
on believing the dream you wish can come
true
Cinderella she warned him not to be
deceived by parents's for beauty is
found within Beauty and the Beast his
own image no longer a dark grey bird
ugly and disagreeable to look at but a
graceful and beautiful swan to ugly
duckling beautiful messages right and
when that is constantly repeated over
and over in your head what actually
happens you reimagine you make believe
and I reimagined what-if like Cinderella
I was kind no matter what what if like
beauty in Beauty and the Beast
I appreciated someone's inner beauty
also others inner beauty including
myself what if like in the ugly duckling
that there was more to me than what was
seen in the eye what if like Little Red
Riding Hood I could conquer the big bad
wolf and shape my own destiny what if I
myself can also live happy ever after
very very strong messages and it is this
power the power that fairytales can save
a life is what I have taken and shared
with a hundred and forty-three million
orphans around the world 25 million
refugees and as you know in the news
many many more children are experiencing
tremendous trauma let me show you some
of my work I ended up going into like
they mentioned earlier during my MBA
worked in business planning ideation all
of these things but about nine years ago
I left it all to start book wala
organization these are some of the
children refugee children having fled
war and violence Rohingya refugees and
they now live on the border of Myanmar
and Bangladesh
you could imagine the trauma after
experiencing people being murdered right
in front of them children of farmers who
committed suicide because of severe
drought conditions 30% of these children
and dep committing suicide themselves
are attempting to commit suicide
themselves children found starving in
the streets and being rescued and
brought into an orphanage
now for all the cynics out there we were
fortunate enough to have psychologists
on our board and we start to look at
whether or not there's a correlation
between the storybooks the fairytales
and some of the very attributes and
qualities that suffer when children go
through trauma so take a look at this
slights decline is that get used to the
programming and the increase isn't that
amazing
so increased persistence a decrease in
hyperactivity this is all under one year
an increase in Hope and the pro-social
contact the ability to deal with others
and ultimately the end be able to
socially integrate children who just
started with the book wallah program and
the treatment with the book while a
social emotional storytelling sessions
isn't that amazing
now this is just some data but one story
I'd like to be able to communicate and
it's a beautiful story that represents
the power of these fairy tales there was
a little girl named Roshi
roshni who lives in one of the
orphanages and when we first started our
storytelling sessions
roshni was very angry disruptive she was
just always upset and about six months
to eight months we found out that she
was actually sexually abused by her own
biological father but she was brave
enough to speak up because she saw the
father moving on to the younger sister
so you can imagine the fear the trauma
and she because of her bravery she was
kicked out of the home now six months
eight months into our sessions one of
our project leaders received a beautiful
thank-you card with ducks in the water
and one duck flying in the air and her
explanation was before I was in the
river and now sometimes I could fly she
was around 1012 years old at this time
now she's around 15 to 16 living in the
orphanage and as you can imagine by the
time she's 18 years old she's gonna be
in a much stronger stronger happier
place she can actually shape her own
destiny she'll have a control over her
own life that's an amazing thing that we
could do with something so simple as a
storybook
as a fairy tale now I'm not a doctor
scientist or a psychologist I am here
today because these fairy tales saved my
own life and these fairy tales told me
that whatever is happening to me or
around me that I to have a choice to
live happily ever after
thank you
[Applause]
you