Whether watching fellow refugees being separated from their families, drown, or subjected to human trafficking, Zaynab Abdi has already experienced an incredible amount of trauma – and she’s only 29. But that’s not uncommon for the millions of people around the world who every day are forced to flee their countries due to war, extreme climate issues, persecution, or violence. She herself was a refugee of three countries by age 17.
Now a social justice advocate and speaker, Abdi is eager to share her powerful story of survival and trauma, including graphic details such as the sensation of hot sauce in her eyes when exposed to tear gas. She does so because she says she wholeheartedly believes that “with knowledge, comes solutions.” Abdi spoke with Ivey’s CEMS students and other guests virtually on October 22 just before presenting at Estoril Conferences 2024, an event focused on dialogue on global challenges in partnership with the CEMS Alliance to which Ivey belongs. Moderated by Kanina Blanchard, Ivey Academic Director of the CEMS Alliance, the discussion at Ivey included insights on the role of accountability, building resilience, and how to make an impact. Here are some highlights.
Putting a human face on world issues
Noting there are 120 million refugees around the world and each individual’s journey is different, Abdi said it’s important to share those stories so others can ask questions, have empathy, and take action. In addition to speaking engagements, she has chronicled her own journey from Somalia to Yemen and eventually the U.S. in books on the refugee experience, including her latest Voice for Refuge and Voice for Refuge (Our Stories Carried us Here). Her story includes being born and growing up in Somalia where she felt she “had it all” until her family immigrated to Yemen when she was a child due to the Somali Civil War. She and some family members then fled to Egypt when the Yemeni revolution broke out in 2011. Abdi later applied to become an asylum seeker in the U.S. and eventually immigrated to Minnesota where she was reunited with her mother, but separated from her sister who was unable to obtain a visa.
“Putting a human face to the crises we are going through is very important to me. How can we shift from numbers to stories – to individuals, to identity, to dignity? To do that, I have to start with my own story,” she said. “I’m dedicated to addressing the humanitarian crisis by putting a storytelling aspect to it … I’m using education as a weapon for changing things.”
Revealing that eight out of 10 people she speaks with haven’t met a refugee or heard a refugee’s story, Abdi said she is committed to sharing the challenges and prejudices that she and other immigrants have faced in hope of inspiring future leaders to drive positive change for a brighter future.
“We always talk about the need to be mindful and empathetic, but we can’t get there when we are in our own bubble – the same culture, same religion, and same race,” she said. “I always tell people, ‘Get out of your comfort zone and into your learning zone. Get into a place where you can challenge yourself and the biases you grew up with.'”
Build resilience to create change
An important quality of leaders is resilience, particularly when tackling the world's challenges. Acknowledging that she built resilience while pushing through the many crises she faced, Abdi said people often focus on achieving results and lose resilience if they fail to achieve them, instead of recognizing that continuing the journey is the most important thing. Citing the example of the U.S. civil rights movement that endured for more than a decade, Abdi said the results of efforts are often not immediate, but make a difference down the road.
“Part of it is resisting the idea that you cannot change and you cannot do something or putting a timeline on it,” she said. “You can’t say, ‘I didn’t get the result, I’m done.’ The issues can keep changing and shifting. Instead you have to think, ‘I’m going to solve other issues then. I’m going to bring people into this movement.’ Resilience comes when we think beyond our bubble to the planet we live in as humans.”
Accountability fuels action
Abdi said it’s easy to have empathy for refugees and others who are suffering, but it’s hard to say, “I have to do something.” But it will take a collective effort to end war and aid global development and we can all contribute in our own ways – everything from talking to our elected officials to just having a conversation with a refugee.
“We ask, ‘Why do we have so many refugees and where are all these refugees coming from, without asking what’s happening in their countries?,’” she said.
Recalling former U.S. president Donald Trump’s past attempts to block migrants and asylum seekers, Abdi acknowledged that the resilience that’s needed to address the world’s suffering has been a weak point in the U.S. and other western countries.
“Sometimes countries forget where they came from and where they started … There is no one amazing country that has it all. We all have our own issues in one way or another,” she said. “It’s time to put aside our differences. We are obligated not just to work on global peace, but on global development. Even when your country is not directly involved, you can help.”
Noting that our shared humanity is bigger than our differences, Abdi said we need to hold each other accountable and realize we have control of the impact we make.
“The world we live in is your neighbourhood. You have an opportunity to care for something bigger than yourselves,” she said. “We owe it to each other to see ourselves as siblings … Everyone’s suffering is our own suffering.”
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