Ted Audio Collective.

Audio Collective.

You're listening to Ted Talks Daily.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Today's speaker is one of the millions of displaced people

from around the world.

In her 2023 talk from Ted Women,

Refugee Advocate Shantal Zuzi leader reflects on losing home and a sense of safety

only to break through all that loss to find community and home after the break.

It was my 13th birthday.

My mother made my favorite dish of rice and beans. In the afternoon, some neighbors celebrated in front of our house,

dancing, laughing, eating, with music, filling the air in our usually quiet small village in the Congo.

Several hours later, the peaceful evening was torn apart, torn apart by gunfire.

Terrified screams fill the air.

My mother and father wanted us children to seek shelter from this danger.

I remember my mother shouting to us all,

go to the tree, go to the tree, she said.

There was no time to say goodbye.

Nine of us children run to the forests and huddle together through the night under that tree.

It was our place of sanctuary, our place of safety.

After hours of terror, the guns went quiet. The sun appeared in the morning but not our parent they still

had not returned the long stretching branches of our tree could not protect us from our growing worry.

...