By Ibrahim Katib
I have undergone many events in my lifetime where I helped dozens of families that are in need. Helping another person or persons really feeds my spirit and makes me feel that I am giving back out of selflessness. Many humanitarian crises have been happening all over the world, and we can do only a handful of things to help the needy individuals who are affected by such crises. A notable humanitarian crisis that I have been helping in is the Syrian Refugee Crisis.
Syria is a war-torn country that has affected thousands of families. Some have sold their properties and fled to another country, and some don’t even have properties to sell because they have been destroyed. Therefore, this has led many people to gather what they have left and flee to the surrounding countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.
Over the years of the Syrian Civil War, my father and I made several trips to the refugee camps in Turkey. My first impressions were quite astonishing. Kids are going through the dumpster to look for any sort of food. Without any hesitation, I left my car and gave the kids, four if not more, all my candy bars. I would rather see myself hungry than these kids, because once they begin to feel hungry, they will feel this for days. My father’s friend asked him if I we both can take a flight to Turkey so I may be an instructor to the refugees for Brazilian Ju Jitsu. Currently I am a black belt in BJJ but back then I was only a green belt, but gladly I did have much experience in BJJ.
I went into a makeshift martial arts school in the refugee camps and watched the Karate session by an instructor named Hussein. I was very impressed on their performance in such a small period of this dojo being opened. With only two steps into the dojo I was greeted by everyone, the kids ran to me as if I was a savior or someone that is meant to be at this very place, and that is what motivated me to not look back. Then after a few moments of their vigorous greetings, I finally got a chance to speak to the instructor, and get things settled on how I am going to donate my knowledge of martial arts to these teenaged kids.
I wanted to get familiar with them, and I eventually did. All these kids had different stories on how they ended up in Turkey. One kid by the name of Abood, from Aleppo, said that one night Russian bombers did a series of airstrikes on his district as an alleged “counter terrorist operation”. Abood and his family fell victim to such airstrikes. When humanitarian aid reached Abood’s house, his brother and his mother died as the result of these strikes. Nearly all these kids have such a similar traumatic experience, and the sounds of barrel bombs going off still haunts them to that day.
I consider this voyage as a voyage of humanity, to make people’s lives better, and to think about them rather than myself, and to ultimately cleanse myself from greed and selfishness that would engulf my spirit. After two weeks in this dry summer, the kids really thanked me for my instruction on how to perform the art of Brazilian Ju Jitsu. Some came up to me and told me that I have helped them rid themselves from their past experiences, and that they have overcome their fears. I taught them in a way that not only has physically enlightened them but also in the mental point of view. As the kids were greeting me goodbye on my final day in the refugee camps, a sudden purity of my spirit hit me. From then I would go there for the next three years, to cleanse my soul from selfishness and fill it with selflessness.
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