Start with Your Heart | Cyrielle Hariel | TEDxIHEParis
[Music] three years ago I was celebrating a double anniversary my 27th birthday and the end of the first year of my personal development quest and I received an unexpected present for it this gift looks like a piece of jewelry right well in a way it's a jewel but a vital in a sustainable one it's the prosthetic umbrella that fixed my heart for you I have a copy it I made a necklace with it I was victim of what is today the number one first cause of death in the world a heart disease more than 17 million people die every year from a heart-related issue it's a live the population of a country like the Netherlands disappeared each year women are especially vulnerable to the threat why we women are smaller there's more fragile heart not men lack of gender focus research on the topic also means that we are not aware of certain symptoms specific to women especially when you have a heart attack despite being a victim of her disease myself I believe I was also very lucky when I look at my gift today I see a reflection of a world in it it is both beautiful and fragile not everyone is as lucky as me to receive presents from life this brings me back to where it all started in 2014 a humanitarian mission in a refugee camp in Bangladesh turned my life upside down in this camp I meet a lovely little girl in the dirty orange dress she wears around eight dog hair brown eyes and a beautiful white smile despite the fact that we cannot speak the same language we smile at each other during the whole visit we were both curious to explore each other built an emotional bound in love together at the same time I felt desperate and powerless it was my first time in a refugee camp I felt devastated because behind a wonderful smile what are so in her Eaton's eyes was despair and suffering she belongs to the Rohingya community there more than a million of them in Burma in more than 30 thousand in the Bangladeshi refugee camp where worse they do not have any rights no education no health care not even a death certificate stateless just like ten million people all around the world why am I telling you this have you ever had an unexpected encounter that you remember even to this day an encounter that unspayed you to change your entire life meeting this ranga girl change my world vision not only because I saw misery poverty of children suffering from malnutrition but also because this trip saved my life let me explain I've had a hole in my heart since my birth my heart was completely deformed but I live twenty-seven years without even knowing I was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect during routine checkup needed specifically for this mission to Bangladesh if it wasn't for this mission maybe I couldn't follow it too late a few weeks after my return I had an emergency surgery and I received this prosthesis that I'll show you at the beginning this gift is what I was missing that fixed the hole between the right and left side of my heart now I'm very lucky you know why because I've got a golden heart after meeting this ringa girl and waking up with a brand-new heart I knew that I needed to commit to a bigger purpose to start in your life so I started with the question what's my calling good question deep inside my heart had already been beating for Humanity and environment since my very youth how did that happen my parents got divorced when I was a baby and I was often left alone as a child luckily I had the coolest babysitter in the world I was watching him for hours in hours on TV screen I even believed that it was the first person to see me walk please don't tell my parents for you it was young yo King of Pop your moonwalk father for me it was my first teacher when I were three it showed me a suffering world full of poor people endangered species and a destroyed planet my favorite lullaby was men in the mirror this is where my aspiration to be a change maker came from and in 2014 I finally took action I decided to become an alternative green and positive journalist what does it mean I actively seek out an interview change makers people who fight for better a more sustainable and more possible future be it social trip activists or hunters of nonprofit organizations they are committed to funding solution to reduce inequalities in the impact of climate change added ticket EDD carried my blog to sharing their stories and project to show the true beauty of a humanity but beautiful and fragile one of my most remarkable encounter would was with jadav payeng who saved his island from disappearing Missoula Island the world largest river iron suffers from erosion that has already eaten 60% of the land and could disappear under the wave of Brahmaputra in 15 years it's two hundred thousand inhabitants will be climate refugees to fight this tragic fate trader starting planting seeds in the salt of his land to make it stronger thanks to the roots of the trees no machines no pesticides you have been doing this for the past 36 years now this seeds have become plants and trees and turn into an entire interest bigger than Central Park many vulnerable species such as Asian elephant rhinoceros or Bengal tigers live there now dad has worked to preserve my Shirley Island not only up to for climate change but also to preserve its traditional culture in addition to affecting the living land erosion destroys many unique cultural monuments were disappearing under the waters the work of this simple man it just a wonderful wonderful example that we can all take action and bring solution event to the hardest problems by starting simply with your two hands I want to share with you another meeting that I will never forget what with father Pedro father Pedro are empowering thousand and of people in Madagascar for almost 30 years thanks to ease Association akima su Madagascar is one of the poorest country in the world more than 92 percent of the population lives with less than $2 a day children suffering from malnutrition and thousands of them do not have access to school to fight this human misery father Pedro starting Alpen poor people of all Tanana River living in a damp and industries it's starting by bending families houses schools hospital for thousands of my legacy people to facilitate human rehabilitation and social reintegration hakama su as grants summits in 1999 that today it looks like two real city where more than 25,000 people live where thousands of families of shelters and jobs where thousand of children now go to school helping Malagasy people is not only about fighting poverty empowering thousand of citizen by educating them improved the economy of one of the poorest countries on the planet that is also one of the first victim of climate change just like Jeddah father Pedro show how easy it is to be a change maker politics is your two hands in a heart sensitive to social injustice what do all these changemakers are in common and some point in their lives they listen to the hurts and follow the calling just like I did the hurts connects us it is in the center of every one of my countries I created well Accord my heart pick movement and make a hut pick with everyone out of you the fragility over hurts mirrors the fragility of a planet both are the most pressure thing that we have we often forget that we are all part of the same humanity which makes us in turn dependent in since we aren't independent we need to help each other out it can be by creating your own initiative or simply by standing the left on changemakers around you little by little small action elope to change on a big scale we are on ocean of 7.5 billion water drops can you imagine if we all act together this trend that we can have now it may be your turn to have this kind of impact we need to have the same long-term vision for a world but wait a minute what if we already do tada fiber Pedro and hundreds of other prove that we do share the will to build a more beautiful sustainable impossible future listen to your heart inform yourself be sensitive to injustice and make a decision to take action it is all mobile responsibility to be changemakers each and every one of us and on a dividual level it starts with you with you with you now it's your turn to start with your heart if you want to hear the world and make a change I would like each of you to close your eyes close your eyes think at one person one organization one cause that touches you deeply in your heart and from the bottom of your heart commit to help it in any way you possibly can and say I will now this is it you are a change maker you are in the mirror [Applause]