A Coquitlam mom whose nephew was photographed drowned on a Turkish beach in 2015 is turning the tragedy into positive action by taking her message of hope and empowerment to schools, universities and conferences around the world.
And now, after months of telling her family's tragic story in person, Tima Kurdi is finally ready to publish her memoirs in a book. This week it was announced that Simon and Schuster Canada would publish The Boy on the Beach: A Syrian Family's Story of Love, Loss and Hope during the Global Refugee Crisis. Kurdi said she will soon start writing the book and hopes it will be published in spring 2018.
"I want to do it for my neighbourhood, my country," Kurdi told The Tri-City News. "it's a call to action. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to tell the world and see the positive effects of tragedy."
In the last year, she has welcomed her brother Mohammed and his family to Coquitlam, where they now live, and continues to raise awareness about the plight of Syrian refugees on social media while sharing her experiences in speaking engagements at university campuses, high schools and even a TedX talk.
Available on YouTube and at www.kurdifoundation.com, Kurdi's presentations show how a person can take their suffering and turn it into action. Her speech is emotional, and in the TedX talk, drew a standing ovation.
"It's very powerful," said Kurdi who tells her audience she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her and her family. "When I finish and people come up to me they say thanks for giving me love and hope; [sometimes they say] I'm going to do something."
It's feedback that makes Kurdi feel some good can come out of her family's tragedy.
In a heartbreaking series of events, Kurdi was trying to find ways to bring her family to Canada when Alan, his five-year-old brother, Ghalib, and their mother, Rehanna, died in September 2015. The family had paid human smugglers to take them from Turkey to Greece but their boat capsized. The children’s father, Abdullah Kurdi, survived.
Now, Kurdi and her brother Abdullah, who lives in Kurdistan, have started a foundation in the hopes of raising funds to provide nutritious food, clothing and medicine to children living in refugee camps. The foundation is a way of keeping Alan and is brother Ghalib's names alive but is also giving Abdullah something to keep him going, said Kurdi — she notes he has already made one trip to a refugee camp to deliver goods to children.
Her goal now is to build up the foundation and to take her message to local high schools.
Kurdi would also like to bring her sisters and her family to Canada one day — they continue to live in Turkey — but in the meantime hopes to make a difference by speaking to people so they don't forget the Syrians whose country has been devastated and whose people continue to seek refuge.
Recently, refugees, including Syrians, have been crossing into Canada from the U.S., concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump's executive orders banning refugees from obtaining asylum.
Kurdi says the issue just reinforces the need to resolve the Syrian refugee crisis and support the people in the aftermath of war.
• To volunteer, donate or support the Alan and Ghalib Kurdi Foundation, whose aim it is to provide nutritious food, clothing and medicine, visit www.kurdifoundation.com. To schedule a public speaking engagement, email info@jeffjacobsagency.com or info@kurdifoundation.com
