Sometimes, you have a negative feeling about things. You're not happy about the way things are going. You feel frustrated and dissatisfied, and so often, we choose to live with it. It's a negative that we tell ourselves we have to endure. And yet, I passionately believe that we all have the ability to turn that negative feeling into a positive by allowing our dissatisfaction to give birth to change.
Ponekad imate negativna osećanja u vezi sa nečim. Niste zadovoljni time kako se stvari odvijaju. Frustrirani ste i nezadovoljni, i često odlučimo da živimo sa tim. Govorimo sebi da moramo da istrpimo. Ali, ja snažno verujem da svi imamo sposobnost da to negativno osećanje pretvorimo u pozitivno tako što ćemo dozvoliti da naše nezadovoljstvo proizvede promenu.
On January 6, 1999, I was working in London when the news channels began to report the rebel invasion of my hometown, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Thousands of people lost their lives, and there were bodies littering the streets of Freetown. My husband's elderly aunt was burned alive, and I thought of my own two-year old as I saw images of little children with amputated limbs.
Šestog januara 1999. radila sam u Londonu kada su vesti počele da izveštavaju o upadu pobunjenika u moj rodni grad, Fritaun u Sijera Leoneu. Hiljade ljudi su izgubile živote, i tela su zatrpala ulice Fritauna. Tetka mog supruga, žena u godinama, bila je živa spaljena, i pomislila sam na svoje dete od dve godine dok sam gledala slike dečice sa amputiranim udovima.
Colleagues said to me, "How could we help?" I didn't know, so I began to call the telephone numbers that came up on my screen as international aid agencies started to make appeals to raise money to address the tragedy. The vagueness of those telephone conversations disappointed me. It felt like the people who were raising the money seemed so far removed from the crisis, and understandably so, but I wasn't satisfied and I wasn't convinced that the interventions they would eventually implement would actually have the level of impact that was so clearly needed. There were butterflies in my stomach for days as I continued to watch horrors unfold on television, and I continuously asked myself, what could I be doing? What should I be doing? What I wanted to do was to help children affected by the war. So that's what we did.
Kolege su mi govorile: „Kako možemo da pomognemo?” Nisam znala kako, pa sam počela da pozivam brojeve telefona koji su mi izlazili na ekranu kao brojevi međunarodnih agencija za pružanje pomoći koje su apelovale da bi sakupile novac radi saniranja tragedije. Razočarala me je neodređenost tih telefonskih razgovora. Imala sam utisak da su ljudi koji su prikupljali novac delovali toliko udaljeno od krize, što je i razumljivo, ali nisam bila zadovoljna i nisam bila ubeđena da bi intervencije koje bi oni na kraju primenili zaista imale onoliki uticaj koji je očigledno bio neophodan. Danima mi je kuvalo u stomaku dok sam nastavila da gledam na televiziji kako se ti užasi odvijaju, i uporno sam postavljala sebi pitanje šta bih mogla da učinim. Šta treba da uradim? Ono što sam želela jeste da pomognem deci koju je pogodio rat. I to smo i uradili.
Myself, my sister and some friends started the Sierra Leone War Trust For Children, SLWT. We decided to focus on the thousands of displaced people that fled the fighting and were now living in really poor, difficult conditions in camps in Freetown. Our work started with the Ross Road Camp at the east end of the city. Working with a local health organization, we identified about 130 of the most vulnerable single mothers with children under the age of five, supporting them by providing business skills, microcredit, whatever they asked us. Working in those difficult conditions, just getting the basics right, was no small task, but our collective sense of dissatisfaction at an unacceptable status quo kept us focused on getting things done. Some of those women went on to open small businesses, repaid their loans and allowed other mothers and their children to have the same opportunity they did.
Ja, moja sestra i nekolicina prijatelja osnovali smo Ratni fond Sijera Leonea za decu, SLWT. Rešili smo da se fokusiramo na hiljade raseljenih ljudi koji su pobegli od borbi i koji su živeli u vrlo teškim uslovima siromaštva u kampovima u Fritaunu. Najpre smo radili sa Kampom Ros Roud u istočnom kraju grada. U saradnji sa lokalnom zdravstvenom organizacijom, pronašli smo oko 130 najranjivijih samohranih majki sa decom ispod pet godina, i obezbedili im podršku tako što smo im pružili poslovne veštine, mikrokredite, šta god da bi nam zatražile. Rad u tako teškim uslovima, samo briga o osnovnim stvarima, nije bio jednostavan zadatak, ali naš kolektivni osećaj nezadovoljstva i neprihvatljivi status kvo držao nas je usredsređenim na obavljanje posla. Neke od tih žena su kasnije otvorile male firme, isplatile kredite i omogućile drugim majkama i njihovoj deci da dobiju iste prilike kao i one.
And we, we kept on going. In 2004, we opened an agricultural training center for ex-child soldiers, and when the war was behind us, we started a scholarship program for disadvantaged girls who would otherwise not be able to continue in school. Today, Stella, one of those girls, is about to qualify as a medical doctor. It's amazing what a dose of dissatisfaction can birth.
A mi smo nastavili dalje. Godine 2004. smo otvorili poljoprivredni centar za obuku za bivšu decu vojnike, a kada se rat završio, započeli smo program stipendija za devojčice u lošim uslovima koje inače ne bi mogle da nastave sa školovanjem. Danas je Stela, jedna od tih devojčica, nadomak toga da postane lekar. Neverovatno je šta izvesna količina nezadovoljstva može da iznedri.
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Ten years later, in 2014, Sierra Leone was struck by Ebola. I was working in Freetown at the time on a hotel construction project on May 25 when the first cases were announced, but I was back in London on July 30 when the state of emergency was announced, the same day that many airlines stopped their flights to Sierra Leone.
Deset godina kasnije, 2014. godine, Sijera Leone pogodila je ebola. U to vreme sam radila u Fritaunu na projektu izgradnje hotela, tog 25. maja kad su objavljeni prvi slučajevi, ali sam se vratila u London 30. jula kada je proglašeno vanredno stanje, istog dana kada su mnoge avio-kompanije ukinule letove ka Sijeri Leoneu.
I remember crying for hours, asking God, why this? Why us? But beyond the tears, I began to feel again that profound sense of dissatisfaction.
Sećam se da sam plakala satima i pitala boga zašto se to dogodilo i zašto baš nama. Ali dok su suze padale, ponovo sam počela da osećam to duboko nezadovoljstvo.
So when, six months after those first cases had been confirmed, the disease was still spreading rapidly in Sierra Leone and the number of people infected and dying continued to rise, my level of frustration and anger got so much that I knew I could not stay and watch the crisis from outside Sierra Leone. So, in mid-November, I said goodbye to my much loved and very understanding husband and children, and boarded a rather empty plane to Freetown.
Zato kada se, šest meseci nakon što su potvrđeni ti prvi slučajevi, bolest i dalje ubrzano širila u Sijera Leoneu i broj zaraženih i umrlih je nastavio da raste, nivo frustriranosti i besa je kod mene toliko narastao da sam znala da ne mogu da stojim i da posmatram krizu izvan Sijera Leonea. Zato sam se sredinom novembra oprostila sa svojim voljenim suprugom i decom koji su imali puno razumevanja, i ukrcala sam se na prilično prazan avion ka Fritaunu.
Freetown was now the epicenter of the outbreak. There were hundreds of new cases every week. I spoke to many medical experts, epidemiologists and ordinary people every day. Everyone was really scared.
Fritaun je sada bio epicentar zaraze. Stotine novih slučajeva pojavljivale su se svake nedelje. Razgovarala sam sa mnogim stručnjacima u oblasti medicine, sa epidemiolozima i običnim ljudima svakog dana. Svi su bili stvarno uplašeni.
"We won't succeed until we're talking to people under the mango tree." So said Dr. Yoti, a Ugandan doctor who worked for WHO and who had been involved in pretty much every Ebola outbreak in Africa previously. He was right, and yet there was no plan to make that happen.
„Nećemo uspeti dok ne porazgovaramo sa ljudima pod drvetom manga.” Tako je govorio dr Joti, ugandski doktor koji je radio za SZO i koji je bio angažovan u gotovo svakom izbijanju ebole do tada u Africi. Bio je u pravu, ali nije postojao plan da se to ostvari.
So during a weekend in early December, I developed a plan that became known as the Western Area Surge plan. We needed to talk with people, not at people. We needed to work with the community influencers so people believed our message. We needed to be talking under the mango tree, not through loudspeakers. And we needed more beds. The National Ebola Response Center, NERC, built on and implemented that plan, and by the third week of January, the number of cases had fallen dramatically. I was asked to serve as a new Director of Planning for NERC, which took me right across the country, trying to stay ahead of the outbreak but also following it to remote villages in the provinces as well as to urban slum communities.
Stoga sam jednog vikenda početkom decembra osmislila plan koji je postao poznat kao plan Talasa zapadne oblasti. Bilo je potrebno da razgovaramo sa ljudima, a ne da im samo mi govorimo. Bilo je potrebno da sarađujemo sa uticajnim ljudima u zajednici da bi ljudi poverovali u ono što im poručujemo. Bilo je potrebno da razgovaramo pod drvetom manga, a ne preko zvučnika. I bilo nam je potrebno još kreveta. Nacionalni centar za reagovanje na ebolu, NCRE, nadogradio je i primenio taj plan, i do treće nedelje januara, broj slučajeva je značajno opao. Ponudili su mi da postanem novi direktor planiranja NCRE-a, što me je odvelo na put po zemlji, na kome sam pokušavala da budem ispred zaraze, ali sam je takođe pratila do udaljenih sela u provincijama, kao i do urbanih sirotinjskih zajednica.
On one occasion, I got out of my car to call for help for a man who had collapsed on the road. I accidentally stepped in liquid that was coming down the road from where he lay. I rushed to my parents' house, washed my feet in chlorine. I'll never forget waiting for that man's test results as I constantly checked my temperature then and throughout the outbreak.
Jednom prilikom sam izašla iz auta da pozovem pomoć za čoveka koji se onesvestio na putu. Slučajno sam ugazila u tečnost koja se slivala niz put na kome je ležao. Pojurila sam u kuću svojih roditelja i oprala stopala hlorom. Nikada neću zaboraviti kako sam čekala rezultate testa tog čoveka dok sam neprekidno proveravala da li imam temperaturu, tada i tokom cele epidemije.
The Ebola fight was probably the most challenging but rewarding experience of my life, and I'm really grateful for the dissatisfaction that opened up the space for me to serve.
Borba protiv ebole je verovatno bila najveći izazov, ali i najviše nagrađujuće iskustvo u mom životu, i zaista sam zahvalna na nezadovoljstvu koje mi je stvorilo prostor u kome sam mogla da pomognem.
Dissatisfaction can be a constant presence in the background, or it can be sudden, triggered by events. Sometimes it's both. With my hometown, that's the way it was.
Nezadovoljstvo može biti stalno prisutno u pozadini, ili može biti iznenadno, podstaknuto nekim događajima. Ponekad je i jedno i drugo. Tako je bilo u slučaju mog rodnog grada.
For years, our city had changed, and it had caused me great pain. I remember a childhood growing up climbing trees, picking mangoes and plums on the university campus where my father was a lecturer. Went fishing in the streams deep in the botanical gardens. The hillsides around Freetown were covered with lush green vegetation, and the beaches were clean and pristine. The doubling of the population of Freetown in the years that followed the civil war, and the lack of planning and building control resulted in massive deforestation. The trees, the natural beauty, were destroyed as space was made for new communities, formal or informal, and for the cutting down of firewood. I was deeply troubled and dissatisfied.
Naš grad se godinama menjao i to je u meni stvaralo veliki bol. Sećam se kako sam u detinjstvu odrastala penjući se po drveću, berući manga i šljive u univerzitetskom kampusu gde je moj otac bio predavač. Išla sam na pecanje u potocima duboko u botaničkim baštama. Obronci brda oko Fritauna bili su prekriveni bujnom zelenom vegetacijom, a plaže su bile čiste i netaknute. Udvostručavanje stanovništva Fritauna tokom godina nakon građanskog rata, nedostatak planiranja i kontrolisane izgradnje doveli su do masovnog krčenja šuma. Drveće, prirodna lepota, uništeno je dok je pravljen prostor za nove zajednice, formalne ili neformalne, i radi seče drveta za ogrev. Bila sam duboko zabrinuta i nezadovoljna.
It wasn't just the destruction of the trees and the hillsides that bothered me. It was also the impact of people, as infrastructure failed to keep up with the growth of the population: no sanitation systems to speak of, a dirty city with typhoid, malaria and dysentery. I didn't know the statistics at the time, but it turned out that by 2017, only six percent of liquid waste and 21 percent of solid waste was being collected. The rest was right there with us, in backyards, in fields, rivers and deposited in the sea.
Nije uništavanje drveća i padina jedino što mi je smetalo. Radilo se i o ljudskom faktoru, jer infrastruktura nije uspevala da održi korak sa rastom stanovništva: nije bilo ni govora o kanalizaciji, grad je bio prljav, zaražen tifusom, malarijom i dizenterijom. U to vreme nisam znala statističke podatke, ali ispostavilo se da je do 2017. godine samo šest posto tečnog otpada i 21 posto čvrstog otpada bilo sakupljano. Ostatak je bio pored nas, po dvorištima, poljima, rekama i nataložen u moru.
The steps to address that deep sense of anger and frustration I felt didn't unfold magically or clearly. That's not how the power of dissatisfaction works. It works when you know that things can be done better, and it works when you decide to take the risks to bring about that change. And so it was that in 2017 I ended up running for mayor, because I knew things could be better. It seemed the people agreed with me, because I won the election.
Koraci za bavljenje tim dubokim osećajima besa i frustracije u meni nisu se javili nekim čudom, niti su bili jasni. Moć nezadovoljstva ne funkcioniše tako. Ona deluje kada znate da se stvari mogu obavljati bolje, i deluje kada odlučite da preuzmete rizik da biste ostvarili tu promenu. I tako sam se 2017. kandidovala za gradonačelnika, jer sam znala da stvari mogu biti bolje. Delovalo je da se ljudi slažu sa mnom, jer sam pobedila na izborima.
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Today, we are implementing an ambitious plan to transform our city, and when I say we, what gets me really excited is that I mean the whole Freetown community, whether it's being part of competitions like rewarding the neighborhood that makes the most improvement in overall cleanliness, or whether it's our programs that are leading and joining people and waste collectors through our apps.
Danas sprovodimo ambiciozan plan transformacije našeg grada, i kada kažem mi, zaista me raduje da pod tim podrazumevam celokupnu zajednicu Fritauna, bilo da se radi o učestvovanju u takmičenjima poput nagrađivanja naselja koje najviše poboljša celokupnu čistoću, ili su u pitanju naši programi koji predvode i pridružuju ljude i sakupljače otpada putem naših aplikacija.
In Freetown today, it's a much cleaner city, and those trees that we're so well known for, we planted 23,000 of them last rainy season.
Danas je Fritaun mnogo čistiji grad, a što se tiče drveća po kome smo poznati, zasadili smo 23 000 stabala prošle kišne sezone.
(Applause)
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And in 2020, we plan to plant a million trees as part of our "Freetown the Tree Town" campaign.
A 2020. godine planiramo da zasadimo milion stabala kao deo kampanje „Fritaun, grad drveća”.
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(Aplauz)
Sometimes, sometimes we have a negative feeling about things. We're not happy about the way things are going. We feel dissatisfied, and we feel frustrated. We can change that negative into a positive.
Ponekad imamo negativna osećanja u vezi sa nekim stvarima. Nismo srećni zbog načina na koji se stvari odvijaju. Osećamo nezadovoljstvo i frustraciju. To negativno osećanje možemo promeniti u pozitivno.
If you believe that things can be better, then you have the option to do something rather than to do nothing. The scale and circumstances of our situations will differ, but for each of us, we all have one thing in common. We can take risks to make a difference, and I will close in saying, step out, take a risk. If we can unite behind the power of dissatisfaction, the world will be a better place.
Ako verujete u to da stvari mogu biti bolje, onda imate mogućnost da nešto preduzmete, umesto da ne učinite ništa. Opseg problema i okolnosti naših situacija se razlikuju, ali svima nam je jedna stvar zajednička. Možemo rizikovati da bismo ostvarili promenu, i završiću time što ću vam reći: zakoračite, rizikujte. Ako se ujedinimo iza moći nezadovoljstva, svet će biti bolje mesto.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
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