From Damascus to London: Food, Dignity, and Giving Back with Imad Alarnab

Imad Alarnab had a restaurant empire in Damascus. In six days, the Syrian war took it all. He fled with nothing, cooked for 400 refugees on church steps in Calais, and watched pregnant women make impossible journeys across borders. He never stopped cooking. This episode is about what it means to witness the vulnerability of mothers in crisis, and how one man's grief for his homeland became generosity toward the world, raising £450,000 for charity before he'd even opened a restaurant.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the hosts or producers.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In 2011, I never ever thought that I will be a refugee one day. And I did. So July 2015 I had to leave from Syria. Between Turkey and Greece, the port's supposed to be for nine people. We were 54 in it. We had one pregnant lady. She was on her eighth month. She was screaming. She was so in pain. The journey took around three and a half hours. And we thought for a minute that she's gonna deliver in the pot. I never ever heard of her again. It was so scary. Woman is not half of our society, it's the whole of it.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Born in Two Podcast. I'm Israat Shakid, CEO of Every Pregnancy, and I'm so happy you're here. This podcast is about something that impacts every one of us, yet is rarely talked about enough: the health of moms. Each week we bring you stories of courage, resilience, facts, and stories of hope from around the world about what it is like to be a mom, help a mom, or support a mom. Today's guest is so special. He's someone who's rebuilt his life from the ground up. Aymad al-Arnab was once a successful restaurateur in Damascus, running restaurants, juice bars, and cafes across the city. It took just six days at the height of the Syrian crisis for all of that to be destroyed. In twenty fifteen, he left Surya to find a safer future for his family, planning to bring them later. He made his way to Calais, where he spent 64 days sleeping on the steps of a church. And during the day, he would cook for fellow refugees up to 400 people at a time, using whatever ingredients he could find. When he finally reached London, he started again from nothing. And through pop-ups, community kitchens, and sheer will and determination, he turned cooking into a lifeline, raising funds for hospitals, for displaced families, and for mothers and newborns surviving conflict. And here's the part that stays with me. He says his mother was his only influence, which honestly is exactly the heart of this show, exactly the heart of every pregnancy, how one woman's life can ripple outward and save lives far beyond her own family. Ahmad, you are a dear friend of ours here at Every Pregnancy and Ambassador for Change. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you so much. Joining us all the way from London. How are you doing, Aymad?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Isra. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Aymad, you know, your story is so inspirational. And for everyone who's going to be listening to this podcast, they're going to want to know oh, is this Ahmad, Ahmad's Syrian kitchen on Instagram? The guy who, masha'Allah, has seen Prince Charles and has catered for the Queen and has amazing celebrities who are big fans of who he is and the work that you do and your delicious food. But tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you want listeners to know about you first.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

My name is Ahmad Arnab. I'm a Syrian British chef. I used to be a refugee in the UK before I get my citizenship. And I'm a father of three beautiful daughters and proudly a son of a beautiful mother who passed away 50 days after leaving me, leaving Syria. She will always be with me. I will always seek her approvals. A husband of beautiful wife as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

You are all of those things, and uh may Allah you know have your mom rest in peace. That is so tragic that she wasn't able to witness all the incredible things that you are doing now. But I can tell you, Imad, if there means anything, is that I'm sure she would be so incredibly proud of what you built. And honestly, watching you with your family and the way that you interact and honestly talk about moms and supporting every pregnancy is a beautiful testament to how you were raised and the and the feeling and the culture that you were raised in. So, you know, you say that you're a refugee from Suria, Damascus, and the height of the revolution, right, that we all know started in 2011. What was it like for you, Ahmad, to leave and be uprooted from your own home to start a new life in a foreign city with truly nothing with you?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Actually, when I uh first of all, I started my life as a fashion designer. Like uh What? I don't know if I knew that. That's amazing. Actually, all of my family works in fashion designing and textiles. My father, my 14 uncles, all of them all of them. Uh even in I have 98 cousins, so all of them works in textiles and fashion designing. I'm the only person in the whole family decided, you know what, I'm not gonna do this. And it was because of the influence of my mother. Uh she used to be the greatest cook ever. And I owe her everything, by the way. She's the one who teaches me English, and she's the one who teaches me how to cook. Like if she designed my own future, you know, like so I had one of the uh for a minute in in Damascus, I felt like I have my own empire. Um, three restaurants, five juice bars, four coffee shops, and um as you say, in 2011, my biggest problem was um where we're gonna spend our summer vacation. We never I never ever thought any of what happened in Syria could ever happen to me. You know, like I feel yeah, I felt so protective, like nothing like this would ever happen to me. My first restaurant was Castello in Hamidiyya Market. The other two restaurants, uh Panino al-Hatim in Say de Zenap. Two of them used to open a hundred days, uh 24-700 days a yeah a year. We used to be very popular in in Say de Zenap. And um yeah, we had an amazing life. So to become for all of this to be destroyed in six days was um completely shock. And but at that time you don't really have enough time to to to process all of what's happening, you just need to think about your priorities, and this is where my wife and daughters, the safe of my parents. So we were keep shifting from one place to another until I couldn't take it anymore in 2015, and this is where I've decided you know what, I'm gonna leave Syria. My mother, as I told you, she's the the the strongest person in the family. She was supposed to take care of my family while I'm away. Um but yeah, unfortunately she passed away 50 days later. Um yeah, and and I couldn't go back because you know I'm I was skipping the regime. Um and um I wasn't hero or anything like I just spoke up like nothing serious, you know. Like I'm I didn't do something major, I just spoke up, and that's it. This is all my crime. And so July 2015, I had to leave from Syria, and as a Syrian passport holder, I couldn't really do much. So I went to Lebanon and then from Lebanon to Turkey. Lucky me at that time, I as a Syrian I didn't really need a visa and to Turkey until a week later. So yeah, it was a perfect timing. Um from Turkey to Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, and then the UK.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

That is such a long journey. Yeah. And you know, obviously you didn't know where you were gonna truly end up, right? Like a lot of it is just so much uncertainty and anxiety about that. Yeah. How did you cope with that, Ahmad? Like, how did you tell yourself, I'll get through this and there will be a brighter future? Did you even tell yourself that? Or are you just taking it day by day?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

No, actually, during those big crises, you don't really have the luxury of grieving or uh or timing, or you know, like you you don't have all of this. You you only need to to act according to you you don't really know what's gonna happen next. And sometimes you don't really care what's gonna happen next. You're just gonna act, like um do something about it. Like um until I arrived to to to Azmir in Turkey, I didn't know about how I'm gonna cross the the betwe between between Turkey and and um and Greece. And then I found out this is how people doing it. It's about small dengue, a small port between the two countries, and it's you have to deal with the smuggler, and oh my god, it's it's against everything I believed in. Like I cannot deal with the smuggler, and then I had to, and then we had to hide like to hide in a carput between uh let's say Serbia and and um Austria through Hungary again dealing with with the smugglers, and it was for me, it was first this is not me. I don't break loss. Usually I'm I'm very um like reasonable person, you know. Like I think through I take my time, think about it. But on on that journey, I feel like it it wasn't really me. I was acting like a hero, but it wasn't really me. I I I was scared all the time, afraid all the time. For example, in in in Calais there was a huge camp called the Jungle and all the way to between between um between Izmir in Turkey and Calais, everyone keeps saying everyone keep talking to me about how scary is the jungle. So when I arrived there to Calais, I refused to go in. I stayed in in Calais for 64 days and I cooked for 400 people inside the jungle, but I never ever seen the jungle. I was so scared to go in. And even even when I went back to support the refugees in in Calais, I couldn't even go in. It was out of my lead. I was so scared to do it. And again, even in Syria, like when when people keep saying like, oh, but you went to to protest. Yes, at the very beginning, I didn't thought it would be that bloody protest. You know, like I didn't thought for in my worst dream, I didn't thought that there was will be a life politz um against the protester. You know what I mean? Like it it for me, it was something I I'm not a like a brave person, you know. You couldn't have ever imagined. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And you were put in a role that like is definitely you were saying not feeling natural for you, but I do think you're a hero in so many ways. And I think Imad, you bring up so many important points for our listeners. One is that when you are living under a regime and you feel like there's an opportunity for peaceful protest and a right to speak up and use your voice, which every human being should have that right to do, you did nothing wrong by exercising that right to express yourself, right? And there's millions of Syrians that did that there on the streets across the country, but also around the world. And, you know, we lived under a brutal regime. So many Syrians lived under one for over a decade and many, many lot much longer. But even let's just say in the crisis, the Syrian crisis that people refer to, that was 14 years of living under this for people. That's a very long time until there was liberation. Yeah. And so I'm so happy for our people. I'm happy for you. How does it feel that you know that Surya is liberated now? We just hit the one-year anniversary of our liberation. It's an incredible, credible feeling. But how does that feel, knowing that you were forced to flee and start all over again? What do you feel now, knowing that Sudia is liberated? And then if you wanted to, you can go back down to Surya anytime.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah, I did actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And uh tell me about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

And actually, it was yeah, I I thought it would be great, but I didn't thought that would be that great. You know, like it's it was better than you thought. Oh my god, it's amazing. I loved it. Like somehow I escaped Syria, you know, like I I I I was yeah, escaping like a criminal, and I went back now like a hero. You know, like it was a beautiful, amazing uh feeling. Everyone have like fall in love, everyone get married, everyone but to have your country back, it's the the feeling is it's out of the sport.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

I did feel yeah, it's a feeling of euphoria, I think. Something that is so unbelievably hard to explain to anybody who hasn't gone through that. And even for me, you know, grow being born and raised in the diaspora and having a lot of limitations of being back inside Syria, um, even from the diaspora lens, just thinking like my people are free. Yeah. That there is no fear of movement, no fear of of using your voice. And even after living of brutal decades of a regime that led to the biggest refugee crisis and led to your journey, it's um incredible to see stories like yours, Ahmad, because you know, I think oftentimes people look for the outlier, the exception. Yeah. But I want to remind people that so many refugees, so many immigrants, so many displaced people have the resilience and the skills and the strength to build that new life like you did. But people oftentimes, because of the media, because of narratives, because of politics, stop that from happening. Ahmed, on that journey, when you were you're through your refugee journey, truly your displacement journey, can you recall any moments and reflections around families that you saw, moms that you saw struggling on that journey, moms who are pregnant, moms who had newborns? Is there anything that comes to mind when you think about just what you also witnessed of other people?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

One of the things that I really, really wanted to be part of every pregnancy because of that journey. Uh not only because of that journey, to be honest. Like first of all, um so I'm I'm a son of like um my mother had the four of us. My oldest sister, she passed away a week later, she was born, and then there is me, there is my sister and my younger brother, and she my mother almost died with bringing my uh delivering my brother. She had to she was in labor for two days, and uh we all Caesarean, the four of us, and uh she lost a lot of blood and we almost lost her. Um actually they even let us inside to to say goodbye to our mum because we thought that she would never make it.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Uh remember that you remember that so vividly. How old were you?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Nine years old. Wow, yeah. My sister was eight and I was nine, so um yeah, and and it was really um yeah, I don't know how women do it, but anyway, and then and then I had my firstborn child, Dana, and I thought that I'm strong enough. I wanted to be in the delivery room with my wife to support her, and I do remember her there, and she was saying she was holding my hand, my wife, and she was saying, It's okay, Habibi, don't worry, we're gonna make it. She was calming down, she was calming you down. So, yeah, and then my mother grabbed me out and she said, You this is not yours, just step outside. It's you're not gonna yeah. I was crying so so hard, like you know, like a baby. Yeah, I again it's so difficult. And then we had so between Turkey and Greece, the boat's supposed to be for nine people. We were fifty-four in it.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

And um not only that actually, we were we uh from the 54, we were we had one pregnant lady, she was on her eighth month, and we thought for a minute the the the journey took around three and a half hours, and we thought for a minute that she's gonna deliver in the pot because she was screaming like I promise you at that moment I felt like we cannot hear anyone else but her. She was so in pain. I hope that she made it alright because after we arrived to Lesvos Metalini in in in um in Greece, she was uh she had a um like um we were very um trying to support her as much as we can, but you know there is always a barrier between a man with a foreign like with someone we you barely know, like we just met her on the port. Of course. But because of what happened with her, they told us because of all of the pressure from uh before the port, we were in in a back of Lori. We were 95 people in in back of Florie, and they said because of all of the pressure and because we stand there for four hours, this is where she got all of that pain. Hopefully she made it well. I never ever heard of her again, but uh it was oh my god, it was so scary. Actually, the other moment we were in uh the force uh between uh between um uh Serbia and and uh and Hungary we were hiding and um there was a pregnant lady she was next to us. Uh but finally when we made it to um she was on her ninth month. She was almost like in her last days. Lucky us, she didn't do it in in in in she didn't go into labor on ten years. Oh my god, that would be so scary. But uh we're still friends until now, uh actually, and she have her 10 years um uh daughter um now in in uh in Germany. And the um yeah, her name is Leila, the daughter. I mean she's an amazing girl, but all of us were very, very scared about this lady in in the in the force, yeah. What to do to support her, and but she made it, she's really well.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

She now is 10. Yes, you know, when you think about moms on this journey, you know, and I often think like I don't know how any mom really goes through this, especially like a pregnant mom or a pregnant woman or a new newborn mom. There's so many unknowns. And you know, you just describing your specific experience, Ahmed, and how hard it was for you, but also how hard it was for you to witness women and moms on this journey truly, because you can't imagine the amount of pain they're in, the conditions that they're going through. And so, even at every pregnancy, so many of our partners work in crisis settings, right? Or post-refuge or displacement settings, whether that be in Reza or in Sudan, or even in Surya, or even in Somalia, Pakistan, Nigeria, so many settings where moms who are displaced are often facing the most unbearable challenges and the hardest circumstances. And that goes from young girls and women in their adolescence with menstruation that goes into their pregnancies and making sure they have all the care they need that goes into their nutrition, that goes into delivery, and then the newborn. So like so many elements of this that are so critical. And so this is why you know, having you as a champion for every pregnancy is like you witness that journey for other moms and babies, but you also have such a strong connection to the moms and your family and the women in your family that you're perfect. Champion for us. But then that's what segues me into your current life and the life that you've built in London, which is by the way, so incredible to witness for me to see you. Like when I was there in Soho on Carnaby Street, is that right? Carnaby Street? Um, in at I'm at Syrian Kitchen, the vibes are perfect, the food is exquisite. And then transitioning to Aram too at Somerset House, the infamous Somerset House, for you to own a place there and have the first Syrian cafe in so many ways in this area and restaurant because you're cultivating a community. I just want to just like wow, how does that feel for you to know that you've set this up? Like that you have built this, and what does it do for the community that you're trying to cultivate? Because I know it's more than just food, which is in itself a language to communicate and build family, build community, and also advocate for charities because you've done an incredible job with that and raising funds for charity. But I also know there's a bigger thing here, a bigger impact on the community you're forming, on the fact that you are creating a space for people to come and feel seen, to feel loved, to feel valued. So I just want to reflect on all of that. What do you want to say to all of these different points?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Actually, yeah, um, to be honest, when when I first came to London, I I felt in love with the with the diverse of the community in London. And this is something like all of all of this time from Syria to London, I was somehow ready for a new city to be in love with. But everywhere I felt like I've been judge, you know, with backpack, Syrian Refugee. And till I arrived to St Pancras, um, and everyone is looks so different. I felt like I look like everyone else. So this is why I wanted to do something for this community to be to be part of it. To be I loved it so much. So I wanted to create something for this. This is why I feel like my food is not it's Syrian food, but it's not targeting Syrian people. It's target everyone. Like no matter what is your background is you would feel somehow related to this food. It's comfort food, it's it's simple food, it's mom food. You know, and um with all of the love to what everything you say, but also I'm very I'm very super proud of us as a Syrian. Honestly, just because I have a like a small tiny platform in Carnaby Street or in Somerset House or in line, somehow people know about my story and how how rebuild my life. But there is a lot more about it, not only us, there is many different Syrians, lawyers, doctors, engineers, uh actors, BAFTA winners, Oscars everywhere. I'm super proud of Syrian people in general. But mostly proud about yes, I'm super proud of Imad Syrian Kitchen, Aram. My cookery book, it's a beautiful uh book. Um but mostly I'm super proud of the relationship between me and my beautiful three daughters. They are uh they are the heroes. My oldest daughter, Dana, she came to the UK with um her second language is French, so she didn't speak English at all. Never ever. Wow. And four years later she got the best achievement, uh best young achievement of the year because she got straight marks in her A levels, uh Math and Compu and uh sorry, math and computer science.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Straight marks and amazing then now she's just graduated from Warwick University, she's doing her LS uh uh she's doing her master in LSE. The middle one, she's doing her um chemistry and computer science in Bristol. The youngest, Miriam, who's the smartest one, she's year 10. I'm super proud of them. They are my best friends, my advisors.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

I love that. I love that, I might and I love that uh God gave you three daughters because he knew that you like you are so nurturing to women in your life, obviously. And the fact that you've helped be able to, you and your wife to form them and like raise them and inspire them, I'm sure they find so much inspiration from you to be honest in your journey. And then, you know, we've seen a lot of children of refugees in particular, those that grew up in displacement or in a new home or in a foreign city, they actually work 10 times harder, if not more. Yeah, because they want to find home and they want to establish roots in this community that they never thought that they would be part of. So your daughters are incredible examples, and I'm so proud of also hearing the relationship you have with them and congratulations on raising them. Thank you and continuing to raise them in this way. And I met like I feel like what you're the relationship you have with your daughters and the relationship you have with the community is very much one and the same. I've seen you in action, prioritizing people at your restaurant. People come in, you stop, you say hello, even if you're busy, even if you're running out, you want to stop and give everyone that time. And I know you've had incredibly influential people come to your restaurant or get cater from you, not just because your food is good, by the way, which it is, but it's also, I think, because of the spirit that you bring, the love that you bring, the way that you communicate resilience through your food and your cuisine. And so for me, I I want to talk about, emphasize that other people who I think oftentimes have nothing and start from nothing again wouldn't necessarily prioritize giving back to charity and giving back to the community in the way that you have. Like truly, you've not only been building yourself back up, but you've been giving at the same time. You were doing pop-ups just for charity.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

A lot of people don't have that mentality, I met like truly. So, what does it mean to you to be representing charity work and to raise money? I think you've overraised over 450,000 pounds, which is like I think a lot more dollars. Right. The conversion. Um, what does that mean to you and why? Why did you decide to want to give back to charity? I want to hear a bit more about this whole journey.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Actually, it's it's all started from Damascus, to be honest. Somehow, somehow I felt like uh as a Syrian in Damascus, I felt like when I lost my businesses and I lost my house, I felt like as a Syrian we left behind somehow, and the whole world forgets about us until I arrived to um uh to Greece, and there at that time I found this beautiful old lady, she was waving to us, and when I looked at her face, she was more happy than me. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that we are safe. Can you imagine? Like she was she was so happy, and and it looks on her face that she was so happy that we are alive and safe, and she was screaming, You are safe now, don't worry, you are in Europe now. And and I asked about her afterwards, um, after we like dried out, and they told me that she's an old Norway lady, um and she was on her vacation and she seen the crisis of the refugee at that time, and she decided, you know what, I'm not gonna have a vacation, I'm gonna volunteer and support those people. And somehow I start believing human beings again, you know, like and it it's not only her to be honest. All of my journey, I found those beautiful examples about like, for example, the in in in Cali there was uh this beautiful lady, actually, we became like best friends now. She's wow yeah, we're gonna spend Christmas together. She's um her name is um Frederike. I'm visiting her. She used to to come every morning and put like leave us uh a pot of tea with the smiley face on it every single morning for 64 days. She never ever missed one one morning. Just before her tea. All of those people makes me feel like there is an angels in this world. I believed in humanity again and I believe in human being again. Um and I wanted to pay back somehow. Um by the way, working with charities, supporting charities, it doesn't really take anything from your business. It's adding to it, it's promoting to it. So don't be afraid to support charities if if you are a business owner or a business manager or whatever. Please support charities because I promise you, it doesn't really take anything from your business, it's add to it. We raised 450,000 pound for charities before we opened our restaurant, and now it's much, much more. Every table in our two restaurants, we pay for one pounds for charities. Um, and by the way, this is not even in our website or something. We do it because of our team wanted to do it because of Wait, am I just to be clear?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

So you saying that everyone who comes and dines in at any of your restaurants every table, every time, every table, so every like basically table people sitting and eating. Yes, we pay how many throughout the day, yeah. We pay you pay one pound to charity. That's incredible. And oh my god, it's probably millions of pounds at this point.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Actually, honestly, we believe it's let's consider it that way. If you give and you don't feel much better than the receiver, there is something wrong about this. You should feel much, much better as a giver than the receiver. And this is what makes you this is uh like I mean supporting charities makes me feel good about myself and about my community and about how how grateful we are about be able to be the giver and not the receiver. Because at some point I lost it all. And and and honestly, for someone who almost lost everything, believe me, it's it's very important to be on the other part and not be the receiver.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

I think that is such a powerful reflection. Um, and the fact that you think about that and you're intentional about that, that you're like, I'm in a blessed position, a privileged position to be the giver instead of the receiver. And that is so powerful, I imagine. The fact that you want to continue to give to those who are in need. And I know your charity work spans many regions, many countries. You've helped people locally in the UK, you've helped women and and moms and families across the world, and now you're part of the Every Pregnancy Coalition, which is over fifty organizations that are all working on the front lines of providing maternal newborn health uh programs. I bad you were just with us at our convening recently, where we brought all of the partners together. Heroes and you got to witness three days of ideating and co-architecting and meeting everybody and seeing truly the the work that every pregnancy does in its collaborative nature, the first of its kind to bring together honestly the Muslim organizations or faith-inspired organizations under the maternal newborn health uh framework. What are some reflections of the convening that you felt after you witnessed it all in person?

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Oh my god, they are heroes, by the way, all of them. Yeah. Honestly, and um honestly, it was very emotional to me. Like I I couldn't process it all. Yes, I learned a lot, and um uh but process it all was too hard emotional for me. But to be honest, seeing how how hard they work, it was it's give me hope. And I wanted to do more and keep talking about it more and more because it's it's a very important topic. It's it's very difficult to to to think about how how how much they do, how much they care, how much they are passionate about what they're doing, they are the the true heroes.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

That's amazing, and I know that when you shared your story, everybody felt so connected to you because it kind of goes to show, which is the whole purpose of building a movement like this, that no matter what your background is, you still have a role to play here because we all came from a mom. We all know multiple right moms in our lives, whether that be your own partner or your daughters or whoever it may be in the future, but you can be connected to this mission, and this is a mission that is universal and it should feel relatable to everybody. And I know you even connected with some of the doctors that were even working in Las Vos Greece at the time and serving with the refugee community. And I thought that was such a beautiful, beautiful, powerful moment when you talked about it at the convening. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Um yeah, actually, yeah, having all of the supports from from them there and having all of um uh those emotions from them, it it was incredible. It was like uh yeah, very emotional for me, it was to be honest. Yeah. So thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

I think it was emotional for all of us. We were all talking about how much we cried during this evening. Happy tears, yes, good tears. Of course, we're looking forward to having you be part of so many more convenings in the future. Immediately going to tell a message around supporting moms and babies' health, supporting charity, the connection between food and this mission, what would you want to tell people who are listening who have not engaged with a mission like this before, or don't necessarily maybe even understand how to give back to charity? What would your message to them be?

SPEAKER_00 37:17

To be honest, before like uh I thought that this is very, very obvious message, but people don't really understand me neither me neither. Like we don't really understand how big is the crisis and how much we can do to to uh like to support. Like we you can do to to to have a results, you can do it. Like it's it's not impossible to to support. It's sometimes you feel like you are desperate or you cannot support. But with every brilliancy, you can support. You know what I mean? Like it's it's not it's not impossible. You can do something to change um to to make changes, you know what I mean? Like it's it's it's not something like it's impossible for you to support. We it's solvable. It it is a solvable crisis. Yes. We just need your support. You have to support. Woman is not half of our society, it's the whole of it. Because because as you said before, everyone have a mother, everyone have a sister, have a daughter. So it this is us. Like we cannot say this is half of it. It's all of us. So you don't really need to convince anyone to support. It's obvious you need to support, you have to support.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

So I love this.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

I love it. You're the perfect ambassador. Thank you so much. How would why do I even convince you? Yeah. And I love that you said women is are not half of society, they are all of it. Of course. What a beautiful and powerful message. I imagine for those that are struggling in their journey, for those that maybe have a wrong narrative about refugees and immigrants and displaced people, you literally shatter those stereotypes. But what would be your message for the kindness in the building of the community that you're that you are actively building every single day in the UK and around the world? Because you're right, your message goes out to everybody, and it connected with me all the way in Washington, D.C. And I know it's connected with so many people. But what would you want to tell people who are struggling with that? And in the current world that we're living in today, there's so much polarization, there's so much vilifying, there's so much othering. Like, what is your message on that piece of all of this?

SPEAKER_00 39:39

One word hope. Yeah, there is always will be hope. I promise you, in 2010, in 2011, I never ever thought that I will be a refugee one day. Never ever in my life. And I did. And then in my best dreams ever, I never ever thought that we will have Damascus back. And look at us now. So look at us now. I got goosebumps. And honestly, there was there will always be hope for everyone around the world. Even even people in in Gaza, in Sudan. We never ever thought that we will have our country back. And now we do. So yeah, grab your hope because there is hope, and hopefully one day you will you will have your your day.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Absolutely. Beautifully said, Aymad. What a powerful message to end this on. Thank you, Aymad, for being an incredible advocate and a champion for us. How can people support your work? Where can they follow you online? What's coming up next? I want to hear all of it.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Yeah. Coming up next, it's a secret, it's still yet. So yeah. Okay, thank you. I will but please follow, follow Aram and Imad Sirin Kitchen. And most importantly, come and dine with us. We'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Absolutely. We're so excited because what started off as an Instagram DM connection has led to this beautiful relationship between me and Ahmad in every pregnancy, and really finding the most beautiful human beings. I truly mean that, Ahmed. Like you really are one of the most beautiful human beings. Thank you. I know to be part of this mission. I'm so honored to be on this journey with you. And we all are standing behind you, myself, the every pregnancy team, and I'm sure anyone who listens to this will be so inspired by your story. So thank you for your vulnerability. Thank you for your kindness. And thank you for reminding us that care doesn't start in hospitals. It starts with people like yourself who refuse to look away, who refuse to turn a blind eye, and who prove that even when everything collapses, solidarity, community, and hope can still save lives in a merch. To our listeners, if one man with one pot of food and an incredible, incredible culinary talent can feed 400 refugees and money more and support causes and support charity in so many ways, imagine what all of us can do. If you are moved by this episode, think about how you can transform your compassion into action. And listening to Ahmad's message of we must do everything we can to support moms and babies. This is not just a mission that we should be convinced about, it's a mission that should be ingrained in all of us. So please continue to support every pregnancy. Follow us at Every Pregnancy on social media. Visit everypregnancy.org to learn more and sign up for our updates and our newsletter and join us in making every pregnancy safe. Thank you so much, Ahmad, for being here. We are so honored to have you and sending you so much love and care always.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Thank you so much, Israel.