(tense orchestral music)
- I think that delivering first aid
is not just needed for the body.
We need also to train people
to save the soul and the mind
of people who are suffering from a traumatic event.
- This is Essam Daod, a child psychiatrist,
former surgeon, and father.
- I'm a brand new daddy. (laughs)
- Four years ago, he and his wife traveled
to the Greek island of Lesvos
at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis,
to help with the relief effort.
These refugees were fleeing a brutal civil war back home.
And many of them were children.
It was here that Essam came to a startling realization.
- Today, all the focus of the humanitarian aid
delegation and efforts goes to the basic needs
of, you know, body, shelter, food.
And really little goes to the mental health.
- In fact, PTSD among Syrian refugee children
has been so severe that a new phrase
was coined to describe it, human devastation syndrome.
- It's not the life that I want,
as a doctor, as a surgeon, as a child psychiatrist,
to give to anyone.
- Essam realized that something
needed to be done.
And he had to be the one to do it.
This is how to stop a trauma.
When our brain experiences a traumatic event,
the toll it takes on our mental health can last
for a very long time.
- I think trauma is an experience.
It's an overwhelming experience.
And when this experience is shaped as bad,
it can cause traumatic stress disorder
and can cause depression and anxiety
and violence and aggression.
I think that we have this very short window of opportunity,
what I call the golden hour, that we can really
do the intervention before
the experience can be stored and imprinted in the brain,
especially for kids.
- How does this work?
Essam explains with a story about Omar,
a young Syrian refugee.
- He arrived in a boat with his family.
And he was, like, terrified.
I'd say, "Don't worry, Omar.
"They are coming to film you.
"You are a hero across the sea."
The volunteers came around him and started saying,
"Oh, Omar, the superhero!
"Let me see your muscles!"
And he start laughing, and he was so happy
in less than 15 minutes.
- By telling him he's a hero,
Essam gives Omar an empowering narrative
that he can tell himself for the rest of his life.
- And then, all these experiences and memories
that he had from that event will be stored
as something good.
And that's it.
Omar now is not suffering from PTSD.
He is a superhero.
- In 2015, Essam and his wife
started Humanity Crew,
an organization that provides mental health services
for refugees in the Mediterranean.
- Humanity Crew, until now, since 2015,
delivered 32,000 hours of mental health support
to over 12,000 refugees.
- The work they do underscores
the vital role mental health plays in helping refugees.
But, unfortunately, with little funding for treatment,
millions of refugees are left to grapple
with their trauma on their own.
- Providing this intervention is not just
saving the souls and the minds of the people,
but it is also the future of them and the future of the
host society and the future of their homeland
because they will rebuild it.
- I think we can all agree
that, as human beings, we deserve to see ourselves
as individuals with value,
as heroes of our own stories, not victims.
- I give them the ability to think
that they are heroes.
I believe, truly, that they are heroes.
- And for that, we believe Essam is a hero, too.
(dramatic piano music)
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