I'm not the talkative musician, and I will be up here in five minutes. My name is Greg Stucey. I'm the vice president of the Trans and the Waterbury Library. And what we do, we're like the fundraising arm of the library. The library, being part of the municipal government, has their budget, but they can't go out and request more funds. So that's what we do. Being, you know, a non-profit 501C3, that's what we do for the library. Through our generous donors last year, we've been able to help by the digital streaming service called Canobie for the library, as well as some new, Rachel's going, yeah. As well as some new, this year some new rocks which have words carved in them for the word garden. As well as in the spring and the summer, some plants and flowers for the garden. And if anybody is interested in donating, I think there will be some donation envelopes at the table in the back. Which, speaking of that, I failed to mention there's water and some shortbreads and tasty things in the back. I'd also like to take a moment to thank Rachel Muse, the library director. She's in the back. She is a wonderful liaison with the friends. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I actually volunteer in the library as well, so it's a pleasure to work with her. And I'd also like to thank Judy Byron, the adults program. The friends sponsored the event, but Judy did all the heavy lifting with organizing and planning. So again, thank you, Judy, and I'll turn it over to you. So I'm so glad to see everybody, and we've heard from Jeff, and he said all you have to do is put Celtic in the publicity pool cup. So there we are. Jeff is a multi-instrumentalist, and he brought a few of his instruments. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Celtic bazookie, but there is, and you'll get to hear that. The auto harp, I had the privilege of playing earlier, and it is gorgeous. And he has, I think, just the six string, right? No twelve strings today. But hey, that's okay. We've got three instruments, you know? And he not only has he performed for audiences of all ages and so forth, but he's been all over the country and the British Isles. Here tonight is his love of the British Isles and how the history comes through in song. And that's, for me as a musician, how I learn. If it's through song, I'll retain it. And Jeff, he is also featured in the Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and he is a contributing writer to Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Auto Harp Quarterly. I didn't know there was an Auto Harp Quarterly, but apparently there is. And I want to turn it over to Jeff because you're not here to put something to go, blah, blah, blah. You want to hear Jeff perform his magical instrument. So welcome, Jeff Snow. It works best if you scare a kid, please. Thank you all for coming out tonight. It's going to be fun. Come by the hill to the land where fancy is free And stand where the peaks meet the sky and the locks meet the sea Where the rivers run clear and the bracken is golden sun And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done To the land where life is a song And sing while the birds fill the air with their joy all day long Where the trees sway in time, even the wind sings into me And the cares of tomorrow till this day is done Come by the hills to the land where legend remains Where stories of old fill the heart and may yet come again Where our past has been lost and the future is still to be won And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done I went to Waterbury, Vermont tonight. I have not been to Waterbury specifically in many, many years. I've passed through it from time to time. It is just very nice to be here tonight. It struck me as I drove into Waterbury today that Waterbury is known for the ice cream business. That's something you can't get away from probably. And I came to you from the home of what is left of friendly ice cream. I live in Wilberham, Massachusetts, which is where friendly is planted.  So I went from one ice cream place to another. The first tune that I played for you is an old Irish song based on a poem. And that last line of the song, and the cares of tomorrow can wait until this day is done. Isn't that special? Isn't that a great line? Musicians hear other people's things and they say, I really wish I'd written that. I didn't. The second one, some of you recognize, it's an old English tune. Play it this time of year. It's called In the Bleak Midwinter. It's a pretty tune. We're going to touch on all of the Celtic lands tonight. We're going to kind of wander in and out of Christmas. I'm not going to throw a whole barrage of Christmas things at you. I'm not going to throw a whole barrage of Celtic things at you. I'm just going to kind of jump back and forth. I think you won't have any trouble at all keeping up. One of the things that I like to get out of the way quite early every night is this. We're going to play from the Celtic lands, which are Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales. And I am a Scot. My dad was a drummer in a bagpipe band. My great-great-grandparents came over in the Highland Clearances. So I grew up listening to bagpipe music in the house in Scottish folk songs. That's pretty much all I listened to as a child growing up. And some of the things that you hear from me tonight will be pieces of music that I learned as a child. Now those of you who are parents will know that when you became a parent, you raised your children the way that you were raised. So when my kids were little, we would pack everybody in the car and I would use cassette tapes back then. I would pop in a cassette tape of bagpipe music and off we go for six hours. It's what I knew. It was normal for me.  A couple of years ago, my birthday rolls around, but it's one of those things you can't control. And I went out to the mailbox. And in the mailbox was this wee little package from one of my sons who now lives in South Carolina. Now those of you who are parents will also know that when that happens on your birthday, your first thought is, isn't that nice? They remember dad's birthday or mom's birthday. So I went in the house. I was pleased and proud and full of myself. And I opened it up inside the test kit from Ancestry.com. I took a deep breath and I called my son. And I said, thank you for remembering me on my birthday. What's the point? And he said to me, well dad, when the sentence starts with well dad, you know it's not going to end well. My brothers and I were little. It was Scottish this and Scottish that all the time. And now we're going to find out exactly how Scottish you are. Oh, he also put in the part about how I had them convinced his children that McDonald's was a Scottish restaurant. He was not a happy soul. So I took the test because I knew where my family came from. So I say to you before you tonight, very proudly telling you that according to the smart people at Ancestry.com we'll get paid lots of money to know these things. I am 83% Scottish. That's a big number. That is a big number. So if we all start marching around and killing cows and doing all the things that the Scots do, you don't know why we do that.  It is what we call in the music world a piggyback song. A piggyback song is when you take one melody or one piece of music and you just keep writing new words for it. And it keeps popping up in different places. And this one beautiful English folk song that we just take out at Christmas time and call it something else. I'm getting ready for the good stuff. I want to make sure that here. I can't. 1851. 1851. Michael Constantine was born. Remember that name? Michael Constantine was born in County Claire, Ireland in the little village rising the road called Spansell Hill. In 1851, Spansell Hill was kind of a happening place, but not so much anymore. In 1851, there was Michael Constantine and as he was growing up, he realized as so many other young men did at that time period, that there was no future at all for him. And if he was going to make something of himself, it would need to be someplace else. Ireland lost somewhere around 40% of its population in a 10-year period to America. It just came over, but 40% is a lot. So across the ocean came Michael Constantine. And he settled, he came to Boston and he settled there for a short time, a little bit less than a year, before realizing that there were a lot more Irish lads looking for work in Boston than there was work for them. And if he was going to make something of himself in America, it would need to be someplace else. He had heard of the prosperity in California, all the things that were going on out there with the gold rush and all of that. So across the country, he went. He settled in San Francisco. He spent the rest of his life in San Francisco and Michael Constantine died in San Francisco. In 1873, he was 22 years old. History does not tell us what Michael Constantine died of. Back then, they didn't write such things down. They didn't write down causes of death. They just kind of drew a line through your name and checked you off and moved on. But it does tell us this. When Michael Constantine was dying, he knew that he was dying. Whatever he was dying of took him progressively. It was not something that happened suddenly. So he knew that he was dying. And that made him very sad for a couple of reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that he was 22 years old and he knew that he was going to die. But the second reason is that he knew that he was never going to get back to Ireland and back to his village. You see, back then, when the immigrants came here, it was a mark of their success in America. To make enough money, to gather enough resources to go back to Ireland and say to your family, look at me. I went to America. I'm a success. I came back here. And most often, they would come back to their villages carrying a handful of money for their family to help their family get by. And that was just a measure of their success. And that was never going to happen to Michael. That made him sad. Not long before he passed away, he had a dream one night, a very, very vivid dream. And in that dream, he went back to Ireland. And in the dream, he did all the things that he would have done had he been able to go there. He went and visited the house that he grew up in, saw his relatives, and even found his old girlfriend. It was a very, very vivid dream. And when he woke up in the morning, he made a series of notes based on the dream. And he took those notes and he turned them into a poem. This is the good part. With all he had happening in his life, Michael Constantine had the foresight to take that poem, put it in an envelope, and mail it back to his nephew in Ireland. That is the only reason that poem survived all of these years is because he had the foresight to do that. This is Michael Constantine's poem. To Erin Gile, I desired. I stepped aboard a vision. I sailed off with a will. Till we gladly came to anchor at the cross on Spansel Hill. It'd been the 23rd of June, the day before the fair. Here in sons and daughters, they were all assembled there. The young, the old, the stout and the whole, they came to sport and kill. It's a curious combination at the fair on Spansel Hill. To see my old home at every stone hotel. The old boring was just the same, the apple trees over the well. I miss my sister Ellen, my brother's Pat and Bill. There only were strange faces at the house on Spansel Hill. To see my neighbors, to hear what they might say. The old were getting feeble, the young ones turning gray. I met with Taylor Quigley, he brave as ever still, to mend my britches. When I lived on Spansel Hill, to my first and only love. She's pure as any lily, she's gentle as a dove. She threw her on, saying, Michael, I love you still. She's not the ranger's daughter, she's the pride of Spansel Hill. Nice to kiss her, as I did in days of yore. She said, Michael, you're only joking, as you often were before.  I awoke in California, far, far from Spansel Hill. And then my vision faded, and tears came to my eyes. I'd hope to see that dear old land, once more before I die. May the joyous king of angels, his choices bless and spill. From that glorious piece of nature, across Spansel Hill. Different direction from woman, if I may. This is not a Christmas song, per se. Many of you will recognize the song. It was written by a man named Tom Paxton. Tom Paxton is an old folk singer. He finally, I think, just came off the road in the last year or two. He wrote many, many great things, and this is one of his songs. I kind of changed it a little bit. Just a couple little pieces of it that kind of fit for Christmas and for kids. You guys ready? Me too. One Christmas morning, I awoke. A happy little boy. Follow my father had for me a marvelous little toy. I'll wonder to behold it was with many colors of bright. And the moment I laid eyes on it, it became my mark of life. Wait, wait, wait! Move that! Stop that! How hard it is to do that? It's probably even harder when you don't have any front teeth. We're going to try it. Can you help me? It went zippy boop then boop when it popped and boop! Did you do that? Boop! It stood still. I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never would've known.  Right, I thought of one or two big buttons, and it looked like two green eyes. I first pushed one, then the other, then I twisted its lip. When I set it down again, this is what it did. It went zippy boop! Stop! I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never would've known. Well, the first march left, then it then march right, and it then march under a chair. When I looked around again, it wasn't even there. I started to sob that my daddy laughed, because he knew that I was fine. When I turned around, that marvelous toy came chugging the foam behind. It went zippy boop! Stop! It stood still. I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never would've known. Too quickly, it seems, and I have my own little grand boy.  Pop right out of his head, and he'll have this sphere of glee. Neither one of us knows what it is. He knows it just like me, and it'll still go zippy boop! When it stopped, it stood still. I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never would've known. This is the part every night when I look up, and I see many faces looking back at me with repressed middle school memories. The ones that laughed the hardest are the ones that have the memories. You thought you were rid of this, and you only thought that. This isn't auto-harp, and many of you are familiar with it, and many of you are probably not. The reason I say middle school memories is the short version of all that is that there was a period of time from the late 1950s to the end of the 1960s when the Oskar Schmidt Company, the company that still makes commercial auto-harps, got the marketing idea that if we put auto-harps in every middle school that we can find up and down the east coast, every middle school child will get exposed to the auto-harp. Every middle school child will love the auto-harp, and their birthdays and Christmas roll around where we're going to sell a gazillion to auto-harps. I guess there was some merit to the idea, but because they were giving them away, they had to make them as economically cheaply as possible. So they make a lot of plywood, and those of you who understand acoustic instruments know that plywood has no resonating properties whatsoever. So you might want to put some strings on the floor and have that. They painted them black because that's a great color for kids. They painted them black with the strings on them. It didn't work very well. The instrument was designed to be played flat on a desk. It was very simple and just strummed. It didn't sound anything at all like that, but you get the concept of how it was supposed to be played. And it didn't work out very well. Somewhere in the late 1970s, in the very early 1980s, somebody rolled along and said, hmm, let's take the auto-harp out of the musical closet. And there has to be a harder way to play this. I told you I was a Scott. And if you know any Scott, we started the hard way and worked backwards. We don't ever sneak up on it.  What I'm going to do for you tonight, I'm going to play it not the way it was intended to be played. With the funny centers. I'm going to finger pick it, like if you're picking a guitar with a banjo or something like that. I saw this on YouTube already, it wants how hard can it be. You're laughing at me, I haven't done it yet. Seven strings, 37. The standard auto-harp configuration is 36 strings. Being a Scott, and when I had this one built, I wanted an extra Scott. If 36 is hard, 37 is harder. Every time I push down the button, a musical chord or a different palette of notes, and it does that by muting out certain notes. A lot of certain notes are just muted out because they don't play. So if I do this, it sounds very pretty. But if I do it slower, you can hear the strings that click and they don't ring. So about half the strings ring and about half the strings don't ring every time I push down the button. And the combination of strings that ring and don't ring is different depending on the button that you push down. And the strings are only like that far apart. If you watch me play it, I never look at my right hand. And that's because you can't think that fast. You just have to teach your hand with the strings and I'll go get them. Well, it's tunes. The first one is another one of those piggyback things. It's a very pretty tune all by itself. And some of you will recognize it for what it is. It's tunes called... You don't know it as Ash Grove. You might know it as Ash Grove. The music from Ash Grove has been been borrowed and stuck in every hymnal that you can find. It has some version of Ash Grove with their own hymnal words for it. It's just that pretty melody. And then I will kind of pair that one up tonight with another Welsh tune that you might know. It builds a little Welsh wallaby called All Through the Night. Ward 2 was breaking out. Over on the west coast of Scotland, in a wee small village known as Campbellton Scotland. It's kind of southwest corner, if you will. Campbellton Scotland, there was a man named George McIntyre. And George McIntyre was a piper in the village bagpipe band. Every village in Scotland to this day has their own pipe band. And Campbellton had one then. And George was in it. But when the war started out, he did as so many other young men did. And he went off and he joined the British Army to do this part for the Great War. Well, if he went to Germany, and he was not there for very long before, he was captured and held in a prisoner of war camp for the duration of the war. He spent his time in captivity playing his bagpipe games over and over and over again in his head. It was the way of staying connected to his music, connected to the bagpipe, connected to his village, and probably connected to his sanity in some way. He was playing his bagpipe tunes. While he was there, he wrote a bagpipe tune in his head. And when he got back to Campbellton at the end of the war, he taught it to the bagpipe band. And from there, it was taken off. You don't hear it much in America. But if you go over to Scotland and you see the pipe band coming down the street, it's quite likely you will hear this one at some point. He calls his tune The Hills of Argyle. Smile. This instrument is special. It is taking you to all kinds of different places. It's Judy told you, I can play a lot of instruments. Kind of small smattering over here tonight. But when I am home and the house is dark and quiet, this is the one that I will pick up and play for myself. And we just kind of sit in a chair and just let it go. It's really that special. So I'm going to put it down now, but my promise to you is that before we're done tonight, I will pick it up again. You okay with that one? Back in the 1700s and in the 1800s when the merchant ships would leave the various ports in the United Kingdom to go off and deliver their wares around the world, they could be gone for upwards of seven years before getting back to where they started. And that sounds crazy. But you're thinking about that today. Think about it in terms of the times in fact in the 1700s and 1800s. You've got a ship full of whatever and you're leaving Dublin to take it to Boston. Well, it takes you seven to eight weeks just to get there and then an old sailing ship to slow it down. And then you have to wait a couple of weeks to get in to the harbor. And then you have to wait to turn to unload and then you have to unload it by hand because there were no frames or gantries and you had to pick up a load in Boston and you might wait a couple of months for that and then take that load anywhere in the world that it was going.  So look at it this way. You have the wife or the girlfriend of a sailor. It's time for him to go.   And you wait for upwards of seven years to see if he comes back. Sometimes he did sometimes he didn't. If he didn't he didn't know why he just didn't come back. The ship might have sunk, the pirates might have gotten him. He might have found somebody he likes better in another place. I'm sure all of those things happened if you didn't know there were no cell phones back then. He couldn't call you and say I'm just going to hang out in Asia some place. It was so many things that you're learning in the Celtic world the way they record the history of somebody writes a song about it. This is a song about an English sailor. His name is John Riley. Strange young man said fair young man will you marry me? This tensor was very kind no kind sir I cannot marry thee I will love he sails a deep salt sea still no man he said to her what if he's dying or in a battle slain what if he's drowned in a deep salt sea what if he's found another love he ended new life if he's died or in a battle slain I will die when the moon is dark away I will live in salt sea I will be true in his memory Place that music on the bazooki. I've tried, it's never worked. Okay, you have been sitting very nicely for the better part of an hour and this is the moment you've been anticipating for the better part of an hour didn't know that you weren't anticipating maybe you'd better say this part I've been anticipating for the better part of an hour it'll work so far haven't I this is the part where you're going to sing for me don't have to worry don't have to worry I checked with Rachel and Judy at the library and they said the people in Waterbrave, Vermont they're well above average this would be easy for them they can do anything you ask of them what we're going to do we're going to sing a song and I'm going to give you five words five words that's not hard now is it but I want to tell you the back story because with so many things I have the back story that goes with this I told you about my dad a little bit about my dad in the beginning my dad's name was Donald of course, the Scottish name they're all named Donald and my dad's name was Donald one of his very closest friends was also named Donald and Donald and Donald would get together when I was a wheelhead in the house and they would listen to the folk songs and they would march around the house and they would sing and they would do all the different things that they do in the house and as they did that more often than not they would invite their friend Johnny Walker to join them you know him sir, do you Johnny Walker would always be the first one to be done they would march around the house and they would sing the song one particular song popped up I even knew as a wheelhead when this one came it was going to get sung over and over and over again it's a song about a man named Donald and this Donald lived up in the Isle of Skye which is off the northwest corner of Scotland maybe the most beautiful place you will ever go if you've ever been there it is phenomenal and this is a long time ago and Donald left Skye, he thought he would go on vacation to London which was a pretty big deal because back then the Scots didn't go to England they went on terribly well but he went anyway wearing his kilt and the ladies in London were taken back by such a thing as a man wearing a kilt they had never seen anything quite like that before they expected him to be wearing his trousers that's what the English people would call pants back then and not a kilt so when he walked around in London the ladies would just look at him and say Donald what are your trousers somebody writes a song about it and we're going to sing this song and it's okay mom you're good and you're going to help me sing this song so I will sing the first line of the chorus and you will sing to me the second line of the chorus easy enough my part, first time the chorus is let the wind blow high would you like to share what you find so funny man I bet you're really glad I'm not wearing a kilt right now and you will sing back to me let the wind blow low simple enough it goes just like this let the wind blow high let the wind blow low ready let the wind blow high perfect the streets and the kilt don't go oh the last sea shark hello Donald where's your trousers I'm from the isle sky I'm all very big and I'm awful shy the last sea shark when I go by Donald where's your trousers let the wind blow high through the streets and my kilt don't go oh the last sea shark hello Donald where's your trousers down to the big town and I had some fun in the underground the ladies turned their heads around saying Donald where's your trousers let the wind blow high through the streets and my kilt don't go oh the last sea shark hello it was slippery in the hall and I was afraid that I might fall me every morning let them catch me if they can they cannot put the big sun high let the man go they won't wear no trousers let the highlanders couldn't get to fright if they saw me wearing trousers let the wind blow high and because of that I'm going to reward you I'm going to give you another one let's do an Irish sing along this time but instead of just five words I'm going to give you the whole chorus to the song the whole chorus you can do this I know that you can this is your part ready? Mary match fathers make a Mary match marry me my fathers make a me Mary Mary mat got a gun a Mary Mary cause he can't do it you will always feel a Mary when I marry Mary mat that's your part I got the rest here we go no huh Mary match fathers making Mary mat marry me you will sing back to me my fathers making me Mary Mary mat would you like to help me because you seem to know all the words you can kind of lead them you don't want to do that my fathers making me Mary Mary mat that's your part it will sound like this once you get it Mary match fathers making Mary mat marry me my fathers making me Mary Mary mat making Mary mat marry me let's try that again I left that that was on me I left out one part of the instructions let's do it together this time match fathers making Mary mat I can work with that I'm going to Mary Mary for my Mary cause they care you will always feel Mary but I'm Mary Mary mat the last center name is Mary mat make no mistake she's a girl I want to get a lot of other fellas try to get her on her track and I'm making that I have to get up and release Mary match fathers making Mary mat marry me I'm going to Mary Mary for my Mary cause they care you will always feel Mary but I'm Mary Mary mat the last is God a lot of crap God a lot of crap the center father needs to get some ideas he'll ask if I let the matter pass your father says you're really fairly good Mary match fathers making Mary mat I'm going to Mary Mary for my Mary cause they care you will always feel Mary but I'm Mary Mary mat well Mary Mary mother I'm going to go off a lot together in fact I hardly ever see the one without the other and all the people wonder if Mary or her mother or could both put them together that's important Mary match fathers making Mary mat Mary me Mary to be care you will always feel Mary when I'm Mary Mary let's take a detour see she has these little sails on that the sailor do the same when they had to work in rhythm with each other pulling boats, raising sails, whatever they were doing fucking sailor but they don't do the same value to the rest of the day I must say about 1962-ish on Hollywood California the music department of the TV studio was handed the pilot episode for the TV show they said here you go here's the show, write us a song they took drunk and sailor and they moved to about four notes from a different place these kinds of sailor and sideways they kind of twisted sense of humor back then they did if you look at this just to sit right back in each of the pages of the Gilding and Glacier songs that was so good one more time but this last time let's do it fast if you're having fun tonight it's not me Rachel and the friends of the library and all these people and Ruby back there with the microphone and the camera and all they're the ones that made this happen I just show up and sit here and please thank them because this was all on them as much as I'd like you to believe that I randomly wandered into Waterbirds Vermont tonight I don't think anybody randomly wanders in it is a bleep bit off the beaten path up here I love it up here it's a beautiful ride thank you to the friends and to all the people that are part of this I am nowhere near the end I just want to put that piece in I'm going to play for you an English children's song this is a children's song from England and it dates back to about 1650 a long time ago 1650 how many years ago that was very good 400 that's better than I would have done the song is called the Elfin Night E-L-F-I-N K-N-I-G-H-T Elfin Night translated from the language of the times because things were different back then Elfin Night loosely means small boy or wee little lad or something along those terms this is the Elfin Night you're looking at you're looking at me and I said four minutes you said one thing and did something else no I didn't the song that you know is Scarborough Fair and soon they played that little bit in the beginning pretty much all of you would have recognized that as Scarborough Fair that song began its musical life as the Elfin Night in about 1650 it was a children's song back then the way the folk music process works is the songs as they pass through time they morph and change as everybody gets their hands on kind of like I did a Tom Paxson song a little bit differently than Tom Paxson did it you just change it because that's how the process is so the Elfin Night started off in 1650 and around 1900 it started to be called Scarborough Fair because it morphed and changed and that's how you know it today there is a Wikipedia page for the Elfin Night and if you go to the Wikipedia page you can find the original words and when you read the words from the 1600s it's not word for word by any means but as you read through the original words you'll find the little bits and pieces that will sound familiar to you there's little bits and pieces of what was written survived all of these years and made it into Scarborough Fair and that's just how the whole song process works now the little bit that I played in the beginning that little riff that kind of identifies Scarborough Fair thing was not written by Paul Simon it was written by an English folk singer named Martin Cardi and Martin Cardi is still alive and he's still running around in 87 or 8 or 9 years old or something now and he wrote that back in the 40s he wrote that instrumental version of it and he taught at the Paul Simon he was there at 18 years old after he got out of high school they traveled England together and he taught at the Paul and Paul came back he wrote the second part to that the canticle part was like a call and answer thing he wrote that and he wrote the canticle part that belongs to him the arrangement that he used he kind of borrowed from Martin Cardi which is fine you can do that but you have to pay him for the rights it's still a beautiful song 1855 we're back in the 1800s 1855 John Hunt comes to America he settles in Aberdeen, Maryland just a little bit north of Baltimore, Maryland he gets a job, he gets married he has kids, he buys a house he does all those things John Hunt spent the rest of his life in Aberdeen, Maryland John Hunt died in Aberdeen, Maryland and John Hunt is buried in Aberdeen, Maryland as I tell you the story and play for you the song that goes with it please keep in mind that when John Hunt came here in 1855 he was 13 years old 13 years old let's think about that for just a minute and let's think about our 13 year old child or our 13 year old grandchild or our 13 year old niece or nephew the 13 year old kid who lives down the street leaving home going to a country where he didn't know anybody didn't know a soul but he knew at 13 that he had to get out of Ireland he had no idea at all what he was going to do when he got to America but he had to get here first and he did he came here and he made a life for himself in America there were thousands and thousands of them he was just one he never went back and saw his family again nor they him back in Ireland John Hunt's father a man named Brian could either read or write every year he would go next door because the village schoolmaster was over there and he would sit down on the village schoolmaster and he would dictate to him all of the comings and goings of the family over the past year who got married, who had kids and what a house, who died all the things that we do and recently today with a text message anywhere in the world they did once a year with the annual letter kind of like the old Christmas letter thing that they used to do and every letter to John included a request for him to come home and see his family again and he never did jump ahead to about 1972 and a man named Peter Jones is cleaning a house in Aberdeen, Maryland and in that house he finds a stack of old papers with the letters that had been written to John Hunt for 100 years earlier they even just tied together and stuck in a corner someplace he took those papers and he laid them out I believe it's 22 in the series he laid them all out, such as they were and he figured out how they fit together chronologically and he turned them into something that we know today as the ballot of Kill, Kill, Ireland the story of the Hunt family Kill, Kelly Ireland 1860 my dear and loving son John your good friend the school master Pat McNamara so good to write these words down your brothers have all gone to find work in England the house is so empty and sad the crop of potatoes is sorely infected a third to a half of them bad your sister Bridget and Patrick Godano are going to be married in June your mother says not to work on the railroad be sure and come on home soon Kill, Kelly Ireland 1870 my dear and loving son John hello to you, Mrs to your four children may they grow healthy and strong our Michael has got in a wee bit of trouble I don't think that he'll ever learn because of the dampness there's no turf to speak of we have nothing to burn Bridget is happy and aimed at child for her you know she's got six of her own you say you found work you don't say what kind where are you coming home Kill, Kelly Ireland 1880 Michael and John my sons I'm sorry to give you the very sad news your mother has passed on we buried her down at the church your brothers and Bridget were there you don't have to worry she died very quickly remember her and your friends it's so good to hear that Michael's returning with money he's sure to buy land the crop has been poor and the people are strong at any price that they can kill, Kelly Ireland 18 and 19 my dear and loving son John I suppose that I must be close on to 80 30 years you've been gone because of all of the money you sent me I'm still living out on my own Michael has built himself a fine house Bridget's daughters are grown thank you for sending your family picture their lovely young women and men why don't you think about coming to visit a joy to see you again Kill, Kelly Ireland 1892 my dear brother John I'm sorry I didn't write sooner to tell you that father is gone he was living with Bridget she said he was cheerful healthy right up to the end you should have seen him playing with the grandchildren of Pat Mattlemare on your friend we buried him alongside of brother down at the kill Kelly churchyard he was a strong and feisty old man considering his life was so hard it's funny the way he kept talking about you he called for you at the end why don't you think about coming to visit we'd all like to see you again that one is special that one is special and special to me it is a song that over the decades playing it telling a story it's attached itself to me and it's one that it's one that I play every day whenever I happen to be I tell that story and play that song and it's that important but it's attached itself to me in many ways and one of which I will share with you now about 17 ish years ago I had the opportunity to see the letters to see the original letters from there I had the opportunity to transcribe the original letters it was a wee bit of a challenge because the paper was 100 years old and it was folded and faded and smudged and all of those things you can imagine what the paper was like but I got most of it I got most of it there were a couple places where I had to guess a word there were a couple places where I left a blank space but I got most of it I think it's 22 and I tell you that but you know this there's some cards up there with my picture on them and on the back of the cards but one of the things that's there is my website address if you go to my website there's a page on the website to Kill Care Like Ireland and on that page you will find the transcriptions of the first and last letter so you can go there and read the first and last letter and get an idea of what it was really like because the song is obviously a synopsis of a lot of things but you'll get an idea and if you read the letters on the website and it fires up your interest and your curiosity there is a little internet button thing on the page that you can push it it should pop up an email window all addressed to me and all you have to do is fill it in and tell me that you met me here in Waterbury tonight and my gift to you, my thanks for coming I will send you a PDF file with all 22 letters and then you can read all of the letters and you can just kind of dig your way through the whole family history because if you google kill kelly letters you will find me I have them, I make them available to everybody there's not too many people that have seen the letters because of that I hear from people all over the world who hear the story, hear the song google kill kelly letters so I have sent the letters over the years I have sent the PDF file pretty much to every corner of the world I have sent the country, they should be keeping the list I have sent it out more times than I can even imagine and I would be happy to include all of you on that list but I will share one with you 8 years ago I got an email from a gentleman who lived just outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey between Atlantic City and the Delaware border it was kind of like a piece of New Jersey it was kind of tucked in down there and that's where he lived and he google killed kelly letters wow, of course I did so do you remember the part of the song about the brother Michael, Michael ran off and he came back and got in trouble and he put the house and Michael had a pretty prominent role in the song this gentleman is Michael Hunt's great-great-grandson the Hunt family knew the song, they knew the story they did not know that the letter still existed in any form so I was able to give them the letters and he shared them with his family the story that I told you in the beginning about John Hunt much of that came to me from him as we corresponded back and forth he filled me in on the history of John and how John came to be here so it's a very very special story and please, if you have any interest at all, please take advantage of it I played it as I told you I played it every day for decades now and I never tire of it and I played it in rooms full of Irish grandmothers and you could imagine I play it and I look up and I can see the room filling with emotion and that's a good thing but when I play it in front of Irish grandmothers it's like over the top and then I have to make it a little sadder when I see that for them but I will share something with you that I have learned over the years playing this song about Irish grandmothers and Irish grandmother can hide an entire box of Kleenex on her person I start playing the song and somewhere around the second verse I'll look up and we're we're down here and we're up this sleeve we're up that sleeve and passing it back and forth and from the front it often looks like it's snowing now Kleenex going back and forth it's a hoop so thank you thank you for being here tonight back to the harp I promise you that I would it has been an honor and a privilege and a joy for me to come and share the evening with you tonight thank you for I know that you have choices and I'm glad that you were here there are still some CDs in the world and some of them are over there anything that you would be so kind to purchase and take home I don't have to it works for all of us I'm going to play you two more the first one my favorite Christmas tune to play it on the harp I even try when I'm playing for myself in the dark I even play this one all year in July I'll play it just because I like to play it and I will finish this off tonight with the song that gets played last in the Scottish sessions all over the world when Scottish musicians get together we always play the same song last I have absolutely no idea why what we do and in America it just gets played at the end of the year based on a Robert Burns poem so thank you bless you, thank you for being here tonight


Good morning and good afternoon. My name is Mona Yucubian. I'm the Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Center at the US Institute of Peace. It's my pleasure to welcome all of you to this very important webinar marking the one year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquakes that hit Turkey and Northwest Syria. One year ago today, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Southeastern Turkey, Northwestern Syria. Some 59,000 people were killed. At least 6,000 people were killed in Syria. It affected one of the most vulnerable parts of Syria, Idlib, government, where some 4.5 million people, many of them displaced multiple times were living. The earthquake had the effect of exacerbating an already extremely dire situation on the ground in Syria. Today, we are joined by an esteemed panel who will help us understand both the immediate impacts of the earthquake, where Syria is one year from since the earthquake and what we can expect going forward as the country continues to contend with many, many challenges. I'm happy to welcome Dr. Mufad Dabhamadeh, who is the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, or SAMS, based in Chicago. Dr. Hamadeh is a practicing physician. He's board certified in medical oncology and hematology. Dr. Mufad Dabhamadeh arrived in Turkey less than one week after the earthquake to assist with relief efforts. Dr. Bashir Tejaldin joins us from Idlib in Northwest Syria. He is SAMS country director for Turkey and Syria. He's a medical doctor with a master's degree in internal medicine, and he's been working on the humanitarian response in Syria since 2012. Alex Mahoney is the division chief for the Middle East and Levant with U.S. AIDS Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. He helped lead BHA's response to the Turkey-Syria earthquake from Washington, D.C. as BHA's associate response director. Alex has been involved deeply with USAID humanitarian response in Syria since 2011. What we'll do, I'm gonna engage our guests in discussion for about a half an hour or so, and then I'd like to bring in questions from all of you tuning in online. Please note you can ask your questions in the chat box that appears on the event page. So with that, Dr. Mufaddal, I'd like to start with you. Maybe first say a word or two about SAMS for those who may not be familiar with SAMS, and then maybe talk about your own direct personal experience having traveled to Turkey just after the earthquakes. Thank you very much. I appreciate this opportunity. SAMS has been working in Syria since the war started in Syria over 12 years ago. Initially, SAMS was established in 1998 as basically a medical society organization that has roots in Syria and tried to help the Syrian people in education, mainly. It was more like a social club, but then after the war started, SAMS transformed itself into building a network of healthcare providers inside Syria during the most difficult days and times of war. So we helped build field hospitals or supported the staff that are helping the victims of war. We helped establish essential needs clinics and field hospitals. We even built underground hospitals to protect them during the days of war. We built cave hospitals. So we have a vast experience in going through all those stages of the war, supporting our staff, supporting the doctors, supporting hospitals, building clinics. So our staff are very well used to war, destruction, collapse of buildings, used to receiving very sick and critical conditions of war. So the earthquake came and it was basically an exaggerated experience for them and they've never seen anything on that scale that big before. In addition, the earthquake itself was the scariest thing they ever experienced as many, many people told me. It was much worse than the barrel bombs they faced, more worse than the chemical weapons attack that they were subjected to.  So a lot of destruction happened in a very vulnerable area, as you have said before. Basically, these are an area that is underserved in terms of healthcare infrastructure. But our experienced staff and dedicated staff worked day and night over the soon, 24 hours after the earthquake and the days after and they've done a remarkable job of saving as many lives as they could. Obviously for us here living in the US, the leadership of SENS was extremely concerned knowing how much of a dire need they need, how much health they need. So we established a warehouse immediately and received tons of donations from a lot of people. And then our team, our president then traveled to Syria the next day and he met with the local leaders there, mainly the White Helmets and the Syrian forum and they formed a kind of a union to work together and to try to help solve the problems. That was very effective immediately after the earthquake. So we had to, you know, we were able to provide some help and needed equipments, but that was a trickle of the need that they needed at the point, at that point. The one thing that's notable is the first international aid arriving to Syria was over seven or eight days after the earthquake. Very sad because the Syrian people were practically left alone. They were left to their own devices. Luckily with the help of the White Helmets who had a great experience in recovering after collapsed buildings and their, the help of the community providing all they needed in terms of heavy lift equipments and that separate helped save many lives. One thing that I happened that after I talked to the White Helmets said, we were done removing people from underneath the rebels much sooner than the Turks. For one reason is we don't follow safety standards. We go in, we expose our lives to danger, we are ready to sacrifice our lives to get the people out. So they were, you know, and that's how they used to do it for over the last few years anyway. So we had a great, you know, the infrastructure we built even though the whole experience exposed many, many gaps in it, but it was strong enough to be able to withhold a few days and help save many lives as they can. We arrived there, obviously we got to the hospital. We met some of the victims that were there and I can't forget the few moments that was extremely emotional for us. You know, the one thing that surprised me more than anything else is how numb people were. You know, I'm looking at the victims and seeing the people, the children who lost everything, lost their parents and my tears in my eyes and everybody else is very numb. And I experienced that before when I went to Syria after major events, after bombardments and it was sad to realize that those people in Syria got used to tragedies. It's not new to them, it's a normal life for them as if death, destruction and loss is their normal life and it's been that way unfortunately for the last 12 years. Moving forward, I think the earthquake had a lot of good and good, you know, good effects and you know, silver lining we can say that is on one hand, we've seen a lot of help from the international community from especially the American community here, the donations for them and we were able now to establish medical missions going to Syria every month since the earthquake and I just was on the 12th mission, medical missions and they had opened up the borders and we've seen some of the gaps in there that we were able to fill now and we can talk about it a lot. So we have enough money, we have enough support now to build a brand new hospital and brand new cancer center, a brand new radiation oncology center and we have a drain now to build a Sam city that after we bought like a over 12 acre land and we're starting the construction process now. So there are new things that are coming up, new teaching opportunities and new training opportunities that are opening up for now and we're working on it. Unfortunately, I visited Jim Daerys, the one, the area that was hit the most since the earthquake. The rebels gone and but no constructions started the tents that were erected there. The refugees are still there and their condition hasn't changed much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Mufandar. You've unpacked quite a lot that I want us to dive into more deeply. We're gonna turn back to certainly where things are today and also how organizations like Sam's are thinking about engaging on these many challenges going forward. I would though like to talk, to turn to Dr. Bashir at this point and Dr. Bashir, you are joining us from Idlib. Where were you when the earthquake hit? I think from someone that experienced it directly, I think it would be helpful for our audience to understand the enormity of that earthquake and then understand from your perspective there on the ground, how you were able to mobilize. I think Dr. Mufandar raised a very important point that it took seven, eight days before any sort of international assistance made its way into Syria. And so I think it would be useful for us to understand from your perspective there on the ground what that situation looked like and how you were able to mobilize and also work with the White Helmets. Dr. Mufandar has mentioned the White Helmets, Syria's first responders who operate in opposition-held parts of Syria and do enormous work saving people from barrel bombs and other things. They of course as first responders then turned to earthquake rescue, search and rescue. So please fill us in on how it was from your perspective. Hi, good morning everyone. I usually am based in Gaza and I was in Gaza when the earthquake happened. Usually as any normal day was preparing, was sleeping, preparing to wake up and say goodbye to my children and kids going to their schools and I start my work going to the office. But unfortunately that early morning it was cold weather and it was alarming to a snowstorm in the city and southern of Turkey as well. Unnormal, we woke up about one and a half hours earlier than we were supposed to wake but everything around us was shaking. Unconsciously, me and my wife moved directly to the kids' rooms and making sure that they are okay, taking them and taking them out of the house. At the street we found hundreds of people, our neighbors just in the cold weather in different uniforms and just staring at them and trying to recognize what's happening. A lot of children were in the cold weather. So directly as well as we were in the cold weather as well as soon as we are in the street start to communicate with my colleagues I'm working with a team of about 200 staff responsible to also supervise and support more than 2,000 staff in the health facilities in Syria where we are implementing our program. So also making sure we have communication with everyone but really at that first 30 minutes or one hour we start to receive a lot of tragedies. I'll summarize it with one story where one of the hospitals manager one of the biggest hospitals manager in Idlib in northern Syria was trying to, I communicated him asking what the needs they are, what the cases they are receiving. He was at that time in Idlib at the hospital while his family, his wife and three children including one newborn kids around one month age were based in Al-Takya.  So please make sure you are communicating with my family we have a lot of cases, hundreds of cases at the ER department we need to respond. So please it's your responsibility just make sure that my family are okay. So at that time you can manage that balance between the doctor who is trying to help people who have been affected by the earthquake in Syria while his family are living in Turkey and they are also one of the most affected cities and communities. Unfortunately at the next day the rescue teams could find his two daughters while he lost his wife and his newborn kid. And then he continued his work. And this is the situation of all the health care providers including physicians, nurses, medwives in northwest Syria. On the other hand, on the other part of the borders at the first two nights we spent the nights in the open settings in temporary shelters and cars. So we have almost about 85 staff members here in Gazanthab office and they need to respond to the crisis. So they were trying to communicate with the partners, donors with the field around the time to make sure that they are providing the support while their families are in need for them. Today after one year actually also I woke up early to come from Gazanthab to Syria. Also I woke up at 4am and after a few minutes I just checked my laptop and started to receive hundreds of notifications of friends and colleagues who are recalling and remembering their beloved persons and their colleagues who have been lost last year. Still a big trauma to the people, especially in Syria. I went to Genderis this morning to participate in an event that has been organized by the White Helmets and they also presented a video about their response in the first hours. Beside me there was one of my friends who started to cry as soon as he watched the video because himself, he was helping in the risk-free teams and he lost 17 members of his family. Unfortunately like Dr. Mufattal mentioned, Dr. Mufattal was in Syria last month and today still a lot of construction work needs to be done. Genderis as one of the most affected communities in northwest Syria still have a lot of distracted buildings and on my way from Genderis to Idlib which is about two hours driving. There are a lot and tens of thousands of informal shelters and tents on both sides of the roads. Although the consortium and union we worked on along with White Helmets and Syrian forum directly after the earthquake, we provided some infrastructure, construction rights, the main roads to facilitate access. We with our partners started to rehabilitate the affected schools or some of them trying to improve the health infrastructure but really still maybe hundreds of thousands or millions of people and children don't have access to education, don't have access to healthcare services and during the last year although there are a lot of support done but it's really very minimal compared to the needs especially when we know that before the earthquake there was the cholera outbreak, before that there was the COVID outbreak and after the earthquake itself the escalation took place in the area on October last year resulted in additional hundred and twenty thousand displaced people. Also the acute shortage and decreasing of the humanitarian funding to northwest Syria including the big cut of the WFP program and that will start to treat the food security. So unfortunately after one year still a lot of work is needed and really the needs are increasing day after day now we are reaching the highest number of people in Syria mainly in northwest Syria. So it's again an open call for all of us to increase our participation to those people. Thank you Dr. Bashir I wonder if you could just in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake could you speak a little bit more about the role of the White Helmets because I think folks should understand that these first responders really played a heroic role in the absence of any sort of international assistance at least again in that first week or so. What was your sense of what role the White Helmets played in terms of search and rescue efforts? Actually the White Helmets teams I can as I told many of them today when I met with them you are doing exactly what the midwives and obstetricians is doing you are taking the new lives but not from the womb of a woman but you are taking those slides from under the the ribbons. They have very limited resources they didn't receive the support of those heavy equipment usually used in such disasters but they really used their willingness to help the people using their hands their simple tools just to save whatever they can save and they at least in the first five days they worked around the clock they didn't stop any minute they are just like the the doctor I spoke about him who lost his wife and his to his new new born kid they are the same they lost their family members but they also continue to risk doing lives and provide the support taking the injured people from under the ribbons and referring them to the his facilities to be treated so without without their contribution the healthcare worker could not also provide or continue the life saving services so this is in brief their initial work at the very critical phase and then in the second phase they start to open the main roads so the other sector could go and provide the services and assist them to the population in the collective centers or in the settlements camps or informal settlements and their first phase was to removing the variables so they played and still are providing a lot of important work thank you Dr. Beshear um Alex if I could turn to you maybe you could provide some insight from your perspective at USAID sitting in the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance in terms of what were the challenges that USAID was faced with in the immediate aftermath of the of the earthquake particularly again trying to get assistance into into northwest Syria what what were the unique challenges that you all found yourselves confronted with in that situation sure good morning first let me just say thanks Mona to you to USIP and Sam's for hosting this this event I think it's really important that people continue to to recognize that that Syria remains a major humanitarian crisis and it it needs our continued attention um I'll talk about the challenges but I first want to I want to talk about how we responded to this immediately after the earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria we mobilize a dart that's a disaster assistance response team which is a team of specialists that are that are trained to respond to disasters around the world and that included a large urban search and rescue component so our response focused from day one on both Turkey and Syria the dart comprised more than 200 staff at the peak and that included incorporating an existing team that we have for Syria that that operates out of Turkey and Jordan to to help respond to the ongoing crisis in Syria the assistance we provided for both countries totaled more than 242 million dollars and that was for food health shelter water sanitation and other life-saving support with that support for example the UN World Food Program has reached 2.7 million people with hot meals and food rations as well as with multi-purpose cash assistance we brought in in the days after the earthquake 10 flights with nearly 1.8 million pounds of relief supplies for both Turkey and Syria for onward distribution through the international organization for migration and we also partnered with our Department of Defense to transport nearly 600 thousand pounds for newly displaced people again both in Turkey and Syria in Syria we our partners distributed critical medical supplies and provided mental health and psychosocial support speaking specifically for Syria we provided more than 170 million dollars to both UN organizations and non-governmental organizations working in the in the northwest part of Syria which was hardest hit by the quake so the world food program for example reached 2.2 million people with emergency food assistance and I should also mention that that our support immediately following the earthquake included funding to the white helmets to help them with their heroic work they they are an ongoing partner of USAID and and right in the aftermath of the earthquake we gave them an additional awards to help to help their rapid response in terms of challenges I would say the the top shot well there were two one is common in in any earthquake which is that the people who are who are there to respond are are often also directly affected by the quake so you heard already from from our SAMS colleagues about about staff whose families suffered suffered losses and many of our partners experienced the same I had to I had to sign many condolence letters for for for partner staff who died as a result of the earthquake this also affected the Turkey aside and importantly it affected staff and infrastructure at the border crossings so so that was one factor in in aid access but I would say the biggest factor and this remains an ongoing issue it's just the the tenuous nature of of access into into northwestern Syria so so about a week after the earthquake the the regime granted access to two additional crossings in addition to Bab al-Hawa which was already which was already open to UN agencies they added Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Rai which was welcomed but but a week after and and recently they they reauthorized Bab al-Hawa for for another six months but what we really need to see is is ongoing access and and that didn't exist the White Helmets did amazing work in the days and hours after the earthquake one of the characteristics of search and rescue operations is you must begin to work within immediately because because people cannot survive long buried under rubble so they were able to do that but really there there should have been more organizations and and it was just very very difficult for for you know search and rescue requires hundreds of teams of hundreds of people and heavy equipment and and getting that in was was extremely difficult yeah I think thank you Alex thank you for both the descriptions of what you all were able to do but also these challenges and I'd like to sort of come back to you a little bit on that because it was notable the disparity between the ability for international teams to quickly get into Turkey versus the difficulties of of accessing Syria and it sort of for me raised the question of is there not do we need a doctrine of you know the responsibility to rescue where when there's a catastrophic event like a 7.8 magnitude earthquake there needs to be a way to address whatever the risk issues are of engaging in a cross-border sort of assistance mechanism so that people in need in those precious early hours after something like an earthquake which really means the difference between life and death are able to access you know the search and rescue teams are able to access people much more quickly I don't know if there's any thinking going on within USAID on should there be another such disaster in another conflict zone how to address these kinds of almost legal restrictions that impede the access of aid immediately following a natural disaster is there any thinking going on at aid about that so this is something that we think about and work on all the time I think what makes Syria unique is the issues around access to areas that the regime does not control and until until last until July of 2023 there have been a UN Security Council resolution for at least one of those crossings one of the things that we have advocated for is that we we need to see those crossings formalized again through through a security council resolution right now access remains tenuous because it's dependent on the the Syrian government continuing to to agree to to permit aid to come through so I think that's the most critical aspect of it in in most countries there there is an understanding with with governments that that when when something catastrophic like an earthquake happens you need to get bureaucratic obstacles out of the way and and you know allow allow teams to come in and and allow them to do their work so it's rare that we see challenges like we like we did in Syria with with just days and days needed for for for substantial aid to get in so I would advocate revisiting those those resolutions most importantly but ultimately there also needs to be a enduring political solution to the conflict in in Syria the you know this comes in the context of a humanitarian crisis that has lasted over over 10 years and has left people incredibly vulnerable which also contributed to the difficulties in responding to the earthquake thank you Alex Dr Mufaddel I'd like to turn back to you you've been making several trips back and forth to Syria and I want to understand you know how Sam's is prioritizing what are the where where does the greatest need lie and in particular I think I would highlight I think as Alex has also alluded we're seeing actually humanitarian need increase in Syria the numbers of people who require humanitarian aid has actually increased in 2023 we have issues as Dr Bashir mentioned of schools being destroyed by the earthquake and adding to the number of Syrian children who are out of school because they're on schools to go to there's just enormous need and not to mention as I think you noted the the reconstruction from the earthquake sounds like has has moved at best quite slowly so when Sam's is looking at this kind of wide range of challenges how do you think about how to prioritize where and how to engage understanding that you are primarily a health providing organization but how do you think about it in the context of the much broader need that is evident in Syria yeah thank you it's a million dollar question but before I start answering this I want to take this opportunity to thank USAID for all the support they have given us over the years and the extra 2.2 million dollars I guess out of the earthquake their support has been essential in maintaining our function on work in Syria and North West Syria over the years going back to the question that when I was asked once what do the people in Syria need the most at this point and my answer was hope I think the problem is with Syria is the problem the uncertainty right now the uncertainty that has been going on for years we enjoyed a relatively a relative count for last two years and many changes happened over the with that relative calm in last two years so if we can be assured of the future then people can start thinking about building their future the most heartening thing is when you ask a child in Syria what you want to be when you grow up and he says nothing because they have no future is so this is the the most important thing for the people now is to believe in a future and and you know from the health wise health care wise and health infrastructure is you know I think one thing that is missing and I think the need of the most right now is psychosocial support psychological support to many people I mean the Syrian people are probably the most resilient people that have ever seen and I want this in my life I have never seen more resilient people than Syrian people but you keep on relying on their resiliency you know if it doesn't work anymore it has to there has to be some more psychological support children children is the biggest disaster for Syria over the last 10 years I call the this generation of children is the last generation the last school the last their friends the last their families the last communities the last their their their support they lost everything we see many children working now and they lost that they left school because they can't find enough to eat for schools health children mental health for children children with disability is a big thing that we're going to try to work on many children with disability whether mental physical and psychological and you know a lot of those that we're starting working on for healthcare wise we need the healthcare infrastructure the hospitals we have now we're supporting they're doing a tremendous job we're building new hospitals renovating new hospitals that's not enough it's time for us to build quality healthcare services quality constructions and that's why we're working on training doctors on we have fellowship programs we have residency programs we you know and whole entire idlib there's on the north west there's only one psychiatrist there are no pediatric oncologists treating cancer patients so we are training pediatric oncologists we're sending them to Jordan to train at King Hussein cancer center we graduated two new hematologists on colleges so they can treat cancer center there are certain diseases are not covered by aid but they're not covered by grants we have to dig into private funds in order to cover the cancer is a big thing and that was a very vulnerable thing when the borders were turkey with clothes people lives were endangered and cancer patients found no way to get cancer now because of expanding our cancer program our oncology program we're getting some grants for medical oncology for kid care for drugs we'll be able to provide more people with within care they need at home they don't have to travel to Turkey to that so that exposed many things and immediately after the after the aftermath dialysis kids were missing we didn't have enough dialysis because we didn't have enough dialysis machines with crushed ones injuries many patients on terino failures and that was biggest problem initially after the so now with the with the support we had after the earthquake Sands decided that we're going to build now a new infrastructure so we're embarking on a new hospital now actually about the land we're building a 450 bed hospital it's going to be the state of art and it's going to have to be american standards it's not going to be field hospital centers anymore we that's the people of syria and the doctors in syria deserve better so we're going to build a cancer center also and we are building teaching institution that trains doctor to lift us level of health care services to the level that is standard worldwide and we're getting a lot of support the doctors in syria are excited excited about it we're getting help from the community moving forward i think you know we need to invest in our own communities there two examples that i learned recently about how we can do that especially in light of declining aid to syria as one is we just opened up a new clinic at new small high schools and then a cat scan saved of the cat scan in a small village in syria called serene the whole community was so excited about it the land grew king to us and said i don't want any more money i will give you the land for free i will do everything and the whole community celebrated the this new machine and they expressed their wills to do everything they can to help us expand and bring in more health care services to syria so we're really need to change the mentality from the receiving to the giving to to partnering with the community just like happened after the earthquake when all the contractors all they have the private heavy equipment system came to us came to the white house and here's our machines they're under your your your control you can under your service do anything you want to help people i think that's you know providing hopes stability training people to be able to be dependent and and to win them off of aid it's an extraordinary effort and i i want to explore that a little bit more deeply but you mentioned something that actually connects a bit to one of the questions that's being asked which is you talk about building that you know syria northwest syria is in dire need of health care infrastructure and building hospitals and you said building them to american standards and the question that's in the chat that i want to sort of pose to you but also maybe to alex is apparently in in parts of turkey those buildings that were earthquake compliant fared much better those those buildings that were built to code in other words actually did much better in the earthquake than when there were uh you know shortcuts taken i assume dr muffaddell given particularly now this history and this is a this is a tectonic an area of of significant tectonic activity that buildings that you all would would would build in syria would would also comply with um earthquake standards is that something that you consider now as you move absolutely absolutely our new design is earthquake resistant it's environmentally friendly solar energy it's all going to be incorporated together in that new building okay and alex do you have any thoughts on that from from though your perspective at aid did you all see a difference in how different structures fared in various parts of turkey depending on whether or not they were compliant with building codes yes and and we see that in earthquakes around the world earthquakes are sometimes described as a man-made disaster because it's the it's the structures that that fall and and kill people and and building codes are absolutely critical to to reducing to reducing deaths and injuries so so so yes that that is incredibly important i think if you if you look at syria and look at the history of the you know the last decade plus uh since the since the crisis began uh including you know barrel bombs and and and all kinds of just just widespread destruction even buildings that were relatively sound have been made more vulnerable so so um you know i think syria again is a in a very difficult place uh in in terms of in terms of the soundness and safety of buildings it is a critical issue for survivability in earthquakes yeah no you point to a very important issue which is of course before the earthquake hit many of these buildings in northwest syria were already compromised by virtue of having uh been subject to bombardment and fighting and so forth um uh dr basher i'm going to turn to you again and see if i can have you talk a little bit more about the psychosocial needs on the ground um what you are seeing inside syria uh and even frankly among your own staff as you noted who have suffered enormous loss as a result of the earthquake how are you contending with the challenge of uh addressing trauma particularly with children and are there innovative ways that you're looking to integrate psychosocial services into the care that you provide it's actually the mental health and psychosocial support is uh is of high need since more than a decade during the syrian crisis but after the earthquake the population mainly in northwest syria experienced uh new modality of uh of the psychosocial uh shocks and uh people experienced many and many shocks but after the earthquake it was really very uh unique because also the the staff themselves have been affected directly so the service providers has to be uh uh uh who has to respond to the crisis have been heavily affected by losing a lot of uh relatives uh and that was obvious uh from uh for us because after the few months of the earthquake we did some uh surveys there is a high burnout uh rates among the uh service providers uh and even within the beneficiaries we are facing new uh or higher level of btsd post-traumatic uh uh stress disorder uh more uh uh uh mental health disorders uh we need more needs and uh more disorders mainly with the children at the at the same time we have uh huge lack and huge shortage of the service provider mainly for the mental health and psychosocial support like Dr. Fadal mentioned in ad-lib only there is one psychiatrist is uh uh for more than five million population which is uh usually under a standard but also for the psychologists and psychosocial workers usually this sector in in the health system in syria is ignored and was not very grown even before the crisis so the needs was uh and still very uh big and uh huge what we did as a first uh respond for example insams we have different uh offices in the region so different the teams from different offices stepped in and provide the support and those peer support to the uh service provider that also helped a lot in uh relieving the stress to the uh provider and providing support in addition to other initiatives uh personally for me i found the most uh uh intervention that helped me to relieve some stress is that flexibility provided from uh the leadership of the organization so go and use all the resources you can don't even even look after so i have this flexibility that gives me more hope but at the community level uh because we have a shortage of staff we already started around the earthquake some community programs that one of them is the uh sita program partnership with uh uh some universities the johns hopkins university it's uh this approach is just to train uh the local woman at the community to provide the psychosocial support to their peers women's and children which is very uh a unique program very useful program and we expanded after the earthquake uh again also on the other hand because we have a lack of uh of the staff although we expand and integrated the uh the psychosocial support in all our activities including uh outpatient inpatient primary health care and secondary health care uh specific uh uh for them uh patients with non-communicable diseases and chronic cases like the cancer and the cardiac diseases we are integrating the social support services but on the long uh uh run also we uh we initiated uh long term uh educational program targeting uh many uh branches of the mhpss including uh uh psychiatric nursing clinical psychologists and psychosocial worker so we are also working on the long term in uh uh education and training program so we can also uh provide the community at large with the uh uh the human capacity to to to expand those programs and meet some of the needs but uh necessary uh one of the very big problems in northeastern Syria is the mental health psychosocial supports uh strengths uh uh and also we have uh high rates of uh drugs addiction we have uh high rate of uh uh suicide uh as well which is also uh uh increased after the earthquake relatively but the the uh root cause uh also is uh my opinion and many others opinion is uh what Dr. Mufaddal mentioned the lack of hope yeah well I want to before turning to Dr. Mufaddal because I'd like to give you Dr. Mufaddal the last word I I do want to turn briefly to you Alex you've been covering Syria since the start of the conflict the conflict will enter its 14th year next month and we're seeing significant issues with diminishing humanitarian aid budgets donor fatigue competing needs both in the region and around the globe the WFP for example is slated to phase out I think I understand a significant amount of its funding for Syria in 2024 from your vantage point at USA how do you view how to address these significant challenges in Syria going forward in an age of of diminishing assistance budgets thanks Mona that is a that is a good question and a and a tough one uh one of the things that we are facing I think the world is facing is just a an era of growing humanitarian need we we've seen multiple new crises spring up in the last few years um growing numbers of people in need and and declining budget so so that is the overall context um that that is driving some of the reductions that you you referred to in Syria um for us what we are continuing to do first of all we we remain committed I want to emphasize that to to responding to the crisis in Syria but I think we all need to think about how to how to change how we respond and we need to think about about bringing new donors to the table um to to address the the growing needs in Syria and worldwide so so advocacy around the world with other governments other donors is something that that my bureau is very intensely engaged in and trying to try to message the the critical needs that continue to exist in in Syria that's one of the reasons I'm I'm here today and and why this this um this is so important that we have this discussion so so that is one part of it and then the other part of it is there are there are different ways to to provide humanitarian assistance um there are ways that that we can be more effective and more efficient uh in terms of costs um so so we just need to all think about that and and work together more closely than ever to to to be as efficient as possible I think increasing the the size of the donor pool is is the most important um thing that we can strive for so I think with that with our remaining few minutes Dr. Mufaddal I'd like to turn to you because you lead a Syrian-American diaspora organization that is playing a critical role on the ground in northwest Syria and I think in many ways you are addressing precisely the kinds of gaps although they're enormous uh that that Alex has pointed to in your just few minutes of concluding uh comments could you let us sort of understand you've given us already some different very creative ideas that Sam's is is thinking of how do you see the future in Syria and the role how do we move forward it is a very tough question but listen I don't want to diminish the need of aid to Syria although and and a meeting that is focused on aid to Syria but the Syrian people are very creative hardworking and very smart given the opportunities they don't need aid they can they can thrive they can do a lot of good things a biggest example of the Syrian population Syrian the people is the Syrian-American community here uh this is a great community what Sam's have provided to the Syrian people and what was able to do over the last 12 years I don't know of any other organization in the world or in the Syrian history that was able to do what Sam's have done to the Syrian people we treated 22 million people over the last 15 years we saved thousands and thousands of lives and that we're just an example of what Syrian people can do if they were given the opportunity to thrive I think of all we need to do is try and find a solution give them a chance to live and of course we keep on keeping pouring aid and all that stuff and things but if we were able to provide the people of Syria with hope and a chance to work get rid of corruption and the things that ties them down I think Syria will not only thrive but it will be a beacon in the area that will provide aid to everybody else and I truly believe in that but until we get there we still need to support the essential needs of men and Syrian people and help them build their own institutions help them develop their own their own ways to help each other to help them to help you know the Syrian population be independent and be able to develop their own institutions and or and their own their own ways of doing things so they can be able to be eventually independent and I think this can happen but it will require hope stability and believe in the future Dr. Mufandal I want to thank you for helping us end this on a hopeful note because I think I would certainly agree with you that is really critical for the Syrian people going forward I want to thank you Dr. Mufandal Dr. Bashir I want to thank you and Alex Mahoney as well for this excellent discussion Syria does not really get the attention it needs I think in this day given all of the other issues in the region and around the globe so I thank all of you for your time and your tremendous insights and helping to eliminate where Syria is one day one year after the February 6 earthquake thank you very much and thank you to our audience for participating in this very important discussion I wish everyone a pleasant rest of your day thank you thank you


The tigers roared, the lions looked forward, and the man in back yelled. Paynot's lemonade, popcorn, cracker jack a prize, and each and every pack. Oh, the monkey got away, grabbed a man by his toupee. The old folks smiled, the kids went wild, and the man in back yelled. Paynot's lemonade, popcorn, cracker jack a prize, and each and every pack. Paynot's lemonade, popcorn, cracker jack a prize, and each and every pack.  There's lots of fun down the way midway. Hooray! Hurry, hurry, step this way. All right, young fellas, if you feel strong, pick up the hammer, hit the goal. Everybody tries it, give it a whirl. You might win candy for your girl. Hey there, Mr. Antwine at this time. All right, sunny three tries for dying. Oh gee, oh gosh, I'm glad I ate my spinach. He missed it. Enough spinach. He did it. I win, I win. Paynot's lemonade, popcorn, cracker jack a prize, and each and every pack. It made a shaky in the knees to see the man on a fine trapeze. Two little monkeys hand-in-hand dance to the music of a little clown band. I'll guess you wait, within a pound. If I fail, you win a prize, a cupid all with poof-a-wise. It's twenty pounds, according to my touch. Why, no, two twenty. Paynot's lemonade, popcorn, cracker jack a prize, and each and every pack. When the circus came to town, when the circus. It's no, Mr. Blue. Never seen it before is, it's a tiny land. It's hard to find. Just now, animal land is threatened. It's rainy season. Logs are needed to stop the rising river. There's work for everybody. Rainy season always means flood. You see, without careful planning for safety, there would soon be no animal land. In case the dikes break, food is stored at the top of the highest hill. Toast that carrot, roll that beet. If there's a flood, at least we'll eat. Drop the food here, pile it up high. Hurry, hurry. Without it, we'll die. Key the porcupine has an apple to bring. Side down, lobby the rabbit, lays in a lettuce supply. Everybody's bringing food up the hill. Come on, there's something wrong with the hill. Can't lose this lettuce. I know. There. I'll bet that hammer doesn't bring a thing. I'm ready for the flood, but why should I tell them? I suppose I'll have to bring some grain, or they'll all say I don't care. Well, I don't care about the rest of them. Better not be too generous with my reputation. Anything I bring will be a surprise. Let's see. How much shall I give? Pretty big one. I'd better make it two, though. Three.  Meanwhile, at the waterfront, Ferdy the Frog stands guard, ready to warn the rest. Rivers rising again. Better look closer. Porky the porcupine strengthens a weak place. Looks right now. To the dikes. Come on, everybody, save the dikes. Everybody pitches in. Animals tear down their houses. Anything to stop the river. Not a moment to lose. Never stops. The dike is pushed further, further. More homes torn down. If they survive, they can rebuild. Robbie the Rabbit sees something else they can use. What's coming off here? Why, my roof's coming off. First my grain, now my roof. But we need it. The river. Go away. Do you think wood like this grows on trees? Meanwhile, the rain-fed river keeps getting higher and higher. But work goes on to the last minute. They try everything. Top of the dikes. More look. The dike crumbles. The river's breaking through. Flood. Ferdy warns the rest to run to the hill. Everybody runs. Last one up the hill, Robbie the Rabbit. They're the ones who'll drown. Serve them right, too. This'll show them. Look what Hamo's doing. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of pop. I'm the one who'll come out on top. I'll sail and sail the world around. As to the others, why, let them drown. Maybe I'll become a pine-shiver me timbers, but I'm smart. Captain Hamo. Hey, who's rocking the boat? Getting rough. Say, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. As the grain, Hamo was too selfish to share with the others. The sun. The sun. The river retreats. Land. The animals will rebuild Animal Land. Except for Hamo, everybody was saved. Because they all worked together, shared what they had. Here comes Robbie the Rabbit. This makes me mud. And, as we said, Animal Land's not so far, just tiny. Perhaps one day, you'll- Chimpanzees, we don't like to appear in movies, interferes with our everyday living. But when we was asked to put on a little show to help you human beings learn something about us, why, we just had to do it. No, sir, we couldn't say no. Them four-footed animals, they're called ponies. They ain't so bright. Otherwise, they wouldn't be letting them chimps ride them. And my fellow chimps feel a little bit ashamed of them. They're just plain beasts, they are. It takes a certain animal-like intelligence to be able to do this more brawn than brain, so to speak. Which is all modern education seems to consist of anyway. Of course, in my time, things was different. You see, the cowboy influence, inspired by them western movies, is quite the rage today. I can assure you that the chimp in his native habitat is a much more civilized critter. It's a good thing that chimp can eat standing up. You know, at times, performing here at the zoo circus, it can be a dangerous profession. As we chimps say, it's a heck of a way to make a living. They prefer the peace and quiet of the jungle. That young chimp can't seem to make up his mind. He don't know whether he wants to be a cowboy or a fireman, in spite of myself. Three chimps on a horse, hence the title. It's now four, I mean five chimps on a horse, or the tale of a horse's tale. Hope you folks don't mind if I smoke. Persistent, little fireman, isn't he? Reminds me a bit of myself when I was younger. Full of him and vitality I was. Now, who said the cavalry was dead? The chimps still keep the tradition alive, you see, even if there ain't enough ponies to go around. In a way, of course, this is an intelligence test for them, because they figured out how 11 chimps can ride on 10 ponies and still come out even. I could have solved it by arithmetic, but nobody asked me. A horse is being old fashioned, the chimps take the wheels. Obvious, so I call them. Who's going to come to a bed in, bust my breeches. Maybe that was designed for people that are too tired to walk in the sleep. Ride a bicycle when you have one wheel and no bicycle. A human wheelbarrow. Oh, excuse me, I mean a chimpanzee wheelbarrow. Eight feet taller than she. You almost made it, too.  Of course, it makes for kind of a stilted life. I ain't so sure I approve. Nothing like keeping your feet on the ground, as my friend Charlie the centipede always says. If not very long. But don't you folks worry not. He's just as safe as he'd be back home on the top branch of a tree. If there's nothing, nothing strong in that bottle, he might get eaten higher than he is. If he was afraid he might break the bottle. If he was afraid he might break the bottle.  Only they wasn't thrown far enough. Chimp enough rope and he'll smoke it. Kennedy, thy name is Chimp. Beesup once said, music has charms to soothe the savage beasts. It'll be interesting to see if it works on humans. This is the monkey version of the donkey serenade. Swing on a tree or swing to music? Us chimps are right at home. Quite a figure on the dance floor myself.