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I
recently met a most extraordinary man, and
wanted to share his story with you. Driven
by his remarkable vision, he is constructing
a dynamic team of like-minded people. Together
they are definitely "Making THE Difference!"
The following is an edited version of a
press release written by Joanna Nieves.
I hope you’re as moved as I was. Betsy
Dr. Ali King
|
The year is 1988. It
is 20 degrees below zero. Scantily dressed
women and children and a few men slowly
thread their way through a narrow mountain
pass, their belongings on their backs. It
is silent except for the crying of hungry
children. Along the way, these people, the
Kurds, drop from exhaustion, hunger, dysentery,
frostbite and illness caused by the chemicals
sprayed on them during Sadam Hussein’s
warfare in Iraq, which they are now fleeing.
Most of their men have already been lost
to war.
These Kurdish people are
seen as the "Lowest of the low"
in Iraq. Not even allowed to speak their
own language, they are considered dispensable
by the Iraqis. Hopeful of finding safety,
peace and a new home among the Kurds in
Turkey they discover there is no room for
them. Their numbers have swollen to tens
of thousands. There seems nowhere to go
but to the mountains. Except for a little
help from a few agencies such as The Red
Cross they are on their own trying to establish
camp in the freezing wilderness.
The story is picked up
by journalists. They tell of meager food
rations being air dropped, each tiny packet
fought over by hundreds of starving people.
They take film footage of bread being thrown
from trucks. Tragically, the loaves have
frozen in the sub-zero weather, and the
weakened people trying to catch them are
often hit by these flying missiles, which
wound and sometimes even kill them.
At home in Austria, Dr.
Ali M. Bouye King watches on television
as Kurdish cities are bombed and refugees
flee to the mountains, struggling to survive.
King thinks to himself, "There must
be something I can do to help these people."
Soon he arrives in Tehran
bringing 60 tons of food and supplies. As
his shipment is being unloaded at the airport
he realizes he has no way to get the goods
from the airport to the mountains. He rushes
to town and asks to meet the five most influential
men. By the time he finishes explaining
his need for trucks, the men are so inspired
that they offer the trucks free of charge.
When word gets to airline officials their
hearts open as well, and they give King
an 80% discount on the shipping charges
which he had paid for out of his own pocket.
King spent two years living
side by side with refugees in their camp,
eating refugee food, sleeping in a tent,
dressing as they dressed, speaking their
language and traveling to surrounding countries
for help. He found ways to have nourishing
food delivered and served humanely. He had
typical Kurdish clothing made and donated
so they did not have to wear cast off clothes
from other countries. This way they could
retain a degree of dignity, and a sense
of their own identity during the trauma
and degradation of their dislocation.
King also established schools
by training the few teachers among the Kurds
to train others to teach. He also got three
doctors from Afghanistan to come live in
the camp. They arrived with desperately
needed medical supplies, as well as expertise
and compassion.
King then began negotiating
with Iranian officials, eventually convincing
them to make a place for the Kurds. Over
1,220,000 refugees were given comfortable
and dignified new beginnings, basically
because one man cared, and decided to act
on the prompting of his heart. No project
of such enormity is done alone. It could
not have happened but for the kindness and
help of hundreds of volunteers [teammates].
But Ali King is not a man
with just one success story in one party
of the world. His specific interest in children
started in Calcutta, India, where he took
a weakened child with a severely bleeding
arm to the hospital. He learned that the
boy’s father had purposely wounded
the child in order to gain more sympathy,
and therefore more money, from passers-by.
This so horrified King that he vowed then
and there to dedicate his life to protecting
the rights of children everywhere.
Now Dr. King is in America
with a passionate vision of helping our
children. "People caring for people
builds a bridge," he says as he describes
his vision of creating programs in the U.S.
to help children develop physically, emotionally,
intellectually and spiritually.
"If I can find only
ten people out of the entire United States
who can work at the management level, we
can help children nationwide," says
King as he details his dream of establishing
Children’s Rights Centers. He is looking
for volunteers at every level, including
fund-raisers, grant writers and hands on
volunteers to work with the children. "We
need every kind of help, and believe that
everyone has something to offer," he
says.
Though many people along
the way have joined to help Ali King, what
has been accomplished started with just
one man. Think what would be possible if
you were to join his team. The children
need you!
You may write to Dr. Ali
King at UWICR, P.O. Box 55994, Sherman Oaks,
CA 91413, or call him at 818-788-1002. |
