 Welcome, viewers! We are so lucky today to have you again here, Alice Corner, at Channel 17. And today we have special guests, and one of them is a high school student, and the other one is his dad. So they both live in Burlington. We will let them introduce themselves a little bit. So today, the emission is all about student-led initiative to support Yemeni children. We will delve into some conversation, because Burlington is a special place, and Burlington, we don't only support each other, but we support also other people around other communities. Thank you so much for joining me, my guests. Would you like to introduce yourself, please? Hello, everyone. My name is Qatar Hashim. I got to Burlington High School. I'm 15 years old. I am rising junior. I came here in 2013 from Iraq with my family as a refugee. My dream job is to be a cardiologist, and hopefully I can serve my lovely community. Wonderful. And how about that? Thank you for having us here. We appreciate that. My name is Ahmad Latif. I'm an attorney back in Iraq. I came with my own family. My wife and six kids came here in 2013. Wonderful. So it seems that both of you also came at the Burlington City Council. You made a presentation there. What was the topic about? Why are we here? Why are we having this conversation today with you? Yeah, we presented our work at the City Hall Councilor of Burlington. So the presentation was about the Yemeni kids and what was happening in Yemen. And again, today we're also talking about it in here. But I am curious and wanted to know what exactly are you working on? What is the situation in Yemen and what are you doing to support Yemeni's children? So yeah, what I'm doing is that I'm donating, raising money for them. And hopefully that can somehow help them. You know, letter is better than nothing. Absolutely. And so as we said, we made an account from GoFundMe and that will also help. And we made some shirts and pins and we also sell them. Absolutely. So yeah, that's basically the plan. Wow. A 15-year-old child from Iraq who is attending Burlington High School and as she said, she's a rising star. So that you must be very proud of your daughter. Oh, of course I'm very proud of her because as you said, such a girl in this year, in this all 15 years old and have this deep feelings to feel what the other kids suffering from. That's really amazing me and I supported her. That's great. So what got you curious about this issue? I mean, it's a heartbreaking story. So as I said, it's a really heartbreaking story. And of how I got curious is like usually my family just talk about public stuff, public topics. And my dad is the one who usually talks about them. And so one night he was talking about the speech that Bernie Sanders did at Congress at the beginning of this year. And so I saw the speech and like I was heartbreaking. And so after that I did my research about it and find a lot of shocking facts. And then after that I talked to my teacher and everything started from there. Amazing. 15 years old child who been having public conversation with the family, mom and dad. And then from there you heard Bernie Sanders who inspired you to look deeper into the issue. And then you talked to your dad. So basically dad, why are you supporting your daughter? Why couldn't you just say, oh, go to school. Don't worry about this. This is not your problem. Actually, I supported her for two reasons. First of all, as we said before, a girl with 15 years old has such feelings to feel what the other kids suffering from. So I really support that because at the same back in my home country, Iraq, the children over there suffering the same story. And the second thing, because when I was in Iraq, I participated in two campaigns. Both of them, they was aiming women and children. One of them talking about the wives with missing husbands because this campaign aiming to rise awareness to those women to take necessary legal action because they don't know the legal action. They should not talk to take it to take it. So and that make them waiting very long period will take few years. And the second one is the second campaign and our title is out court marriage and that's kind of marriage. The children produced by such marriages have no access to the educational or health or any government service because they have no ID. They have no any official documents. So yeah, for both of these reasons, I really supported him. Okay, wonderful. And it seems that the problem there is that kids don't have clothes, couldn't have soccer balls, but it's more than that. It's like malnutrition. Kids don't have the medicine, the basics that people need to survive. They don't have it. But can you maybe help us understand what are the conditions there? How are the kids are living? And it seems you have, you know, you did research, you've seen a lot of documentaries, a lot of, you know, shows about it. Can you tell us a little bit what type of issues those kids are experiencing? Yeah, so they're basically experiencing starvation and a lot of diseases and sicknesses. As I said, I did a lot of research and one of the website that I visited was from the UN. And so that was like really helpful and like they showed a lot of pictures, they showed a lot of facts. And so like if you just look at the pictures, I think the pictures can speak itself. And so you can see the bones of these children. So yeah. So are you the oldest in your family? I'm the oldest sister. You're the oldest sister, so you have brothers and sisters younger than you. I am pretty sure that they must be very proud of you, as your dad is as well. But now, you know, you learned the problem, you took an action. And now what are the next steps in where you are? I think you're doing great raising awareness of the issue. But what are the next steps for you, you think? So my next step is I just want to raise more awareness of it. I want to raise more awareness about this whole issue and about the campaign itself and the goal of it. Because I think that a lot of people have very busy lives. And so I think like they don't have the chance to like, you know, maybe like watch the news or like maybe like they don't have the chance to just know about it. So I want to help with that. It's kind of my job. That's great. And you know, you immigrant or you came here as a refugee, I believe. And it seems that you were a lawyer back in Iraq. Yes. But what are you doing now in the United States? What is your role here? Yeah, actually, I just graduated from Vermont Law School. I got my master in law. They call it Allah Allah is Allah and Sentence is Logum or Logum Magistrate. And I'm planning to have a bar exam here in Vermont. I submit my application, my application in the process right now. Once it's approved, hopefully I can take the exam on February 2020. Wow, February 2020. And we think that maybe back then Bernie Sanders will be a president. Let's hope so. But I wanted to also circle back around the way that people can support this initiative. What can people do to help you with your initiative to help children in Yemen? You know, just like, I don't know, like just kind of do some research and like just have an idea of what's going on there. And maybe check out GoFundMe. Okay. And yeah, so people, if they wanted to donate, you created a GoFundMe page that, I mean, you probably have a Facebook account for it. No, not yet. No, no, really, we're working on it. Okay. And but you know, part of your plans in the future, will you be considering maybe in the future, you know, to go just and visit how things are there and the money that you collected, how is it being used? Is it a plan for you in the future? It's a good idea. It's a good idea. Yeah. So something to think about. Yeah, something to think about. Wonderful. And so last Monday, let's say Friday, Sunday, last Sunday, the Muslim, you guys Muslim, right? Like me, they did a big celebration called Eid al-Adha. And how was the celebration like? And do you think people are feel safe here as Muslim? How is the quality of life for people like you who immigrated here doing great work? How is it like? Yeah, I'm talking my experience in Vermont. The people here very peacefully and very friendly. Actually, we feel as a family, we feel safe and we don't think there's any problem here. And thank God for this. Absolutely. But as a Muslim, we need to be play positive role in community because that's what I'm raising my kids about. I'm all the time telling them they need to be educated in order to help their lovely community. So as a Muslim part of the diversity, we are very happy here and we supported this idea, diversity. We need all the people from all backgrounds. Absolutely. And that's what makes our city and our state the best as it can be to embrace the diversity, the equity that is needed. Yeah. So, Calza, you probably know a young girl doing similar work. Her name, I believe, is Greta. She's from Sweden, I believe. It's all about climate change that she's doing. She organized a march every Friday. All students get out and do some march around to protest against climate change. You familiar with her at all? I've heard of her name. So it seems that currently there is this big meeting that is happening in New York City, United Nations. All the leaders around the nation will be coming. And she was invited to talk about climate change. But as a way to address this issue, she refused to take an airplane. She refused to drive. But she is currently in a sailboat sailing from Europe to New York City. So basically to send a message, a general message, that the world we basically in the planet, you know, and I think you can say it, because it seems you're from Iraq, but you are helping kids who are in Yemen. But why don't you, why didn't you think about kids who are in Iraq? Why people, kids who are in Yemen? Because, I mean, you know, the whole world is a small village. We need to help each other. It's like an immoral duty. So yeah. And also the same thing happened in my country. My country had a lot of wars. A lot of UN sections, a lot of government terrorism. And the kids from all of that, they suffered the most. They had starvation, lack shortage of medicine, basic supplies, food. So I don't want that to happen to other kids from all around the world. So that's why I'm helping. Wonderful. And, you know, your dad is a lawyer. And initially you did talk about what you want to become when you graduate from high school. What is it? I want to become a cardiologist. It's my dream job. So hopefully, after graduating from high school, I can go to UVM. And then from there, everything will start. Wow. That's amazing. She is on her way. She's going to places, people. I'm telling you. So dad, you know, for example, you had brothers and sisters, I'm sure, you know, you yourself. And how are you managing raising your kids in this country compared to in Iraq, where it's all basically, you know, military ruling system, where maybe girls don't have the power that they might have in here. How do you manage all of that in pushing them to become the best they can be? Yeah. This idea back to Iraq, when I was an attorney or a lawyer, I was educating them about the rule of law concept. That's me. And there's no one above the rule. And the law protect you, protect your safety and so on. When we came to United States, so we found the freedom of religious freedom of speech. And rule of law concept. So they found what I was talking was in Iraq before. So they like it. Even we got some problems, of course, and challenges when we first came here. But after that they realize found what we was talking about. And they like it when I was telling them they need to build up this community. They need to participate to save this safely environment. When you have right to speak. When you have right to express about your feelings. You have right to express your religious. And you need to respect other's religious at the same time. So they like it. I was it will be difficult for me to let them rise up in this way. But I surprised it was easy because all the society helped me about that. Absolutely. Absolutely. So it seems that what you're doing here with them you have been talking to them about the rule of law. Respecting everyone, embracing differences. And now when you came here it seems that they've seen what you've been talking about in terms of supporting each other, supporting. But Calder, you know, whenever I see you, you still have this, you know, and you go to school, you're young. And do you experience any, you know, type of discrimination or judgment about the way you, the clothing you wear, you know, like within your school, your friends. No, no, they're really friendly. They're really friendly and they accept you. And there are other people who wear just like you do. Okay. That's great. And so the GoFundMe page looks like you're working on it currently. It's not ready yet. But when it's ready, you should be able to send it to me. It will be on my website, aleyjeng.com, and we will definitely send it to Channel 17 as well to put it there. But currently right now, if people wanted to make a donation, since you don't have that set up yet, where people can donate. Should they just send it to who, the schools, your house, or what? What would be the best way? We've already made an account on Mercy Corps, like a fundraiser page where people can go there and like they can just like click and donate. So yeah, it's a really easy process. So yeah. Mercy Corps. Yeah. Okay. And is it an international organization? It's an American international organization. American international organization. Thank you for that education. So viewers, as you can hear, you want to donate for this great cause of a young 15-year-old Burlingtonian going to Burlington High School who took this initiative. As she said, you can make your donation at Mercy Corps. It's a very easy process where you can just put some click and donate to the great cause. This is amazing. And so it seems that we have a little bit more of time and there might be a couple of things that you feel like I missed to ask you. That is important for the viewers to know. Anybody for you? Yeah, for me, I like to take this opportunity and appreciate and thank all the people who helped my daughter, especially the hair school and teacher and all the people that support her, supporting her. We are really happy we are here. We are really happy for these feedbacks. Thank you. That's great. And how about you? Message you want to send to the viewers, Burlingtonian, watching? So my message is to stop all the worlds. Because when a war happens, it won't just affect the civilians, it will also affect the soldiers. And not to mention a soldier also have a loved one, also have a spouse. Also have parents, kids, community that loves them. And also when a war happens, it will also affect the countries economically, environmental, humanitarian and socially too. So we will bring all these challenges. So please stop all the wars. So the message, no wars please. We want peace, we don't want war and I think the message is very clear. Because only when two people are fighting, the consequences, the effects, you know, affect all members of society. Whether they are military or their families or just community, economy, everything. So no war, we want peace, we want justice and we want inclusion. It has been a great honor having you here today. And viewers as you know, Ali Kona is always the third Monday of every month here at Channel 17. For more information about this show and the past show, please visit my website, AliJeng.com. Thank you so much for having an incredible day today. Thank you so much.