Proud to be TED Translators | Mahmoud Aghiorly

Mahmoud Aghiorly is a TED Translator who originally hails from Aleppo, Syria.
In this short documentary, get an intimate glimpse into not just Mahmoud’s work as a volunteer TED Translator, but also his family’s story of immigration to Australia — and the hope and redemption they’ve found there.

My name is Mahmoud Aghiorly

and I am a volunteer translator with TED.

I am from Syria,

and I am from a city called Aleppo,
located in the north.

This city is an ancient city, actually --

it's been there for 3,000 years.

But now, within four years,
everything just vanished.

Most of my places, memories
and buildings that I love

are destroyed.

They're just burned down,
or bombed, just ruined.

These places are not there right now.

We will tell Adam so many stories,

but actually, it's very difficult for us
that he can't live them.

And it touched me in my heart, actually,
as a woman and as a mother ...

that my baby will not have
the ability to visit ...

his father's place or his mother's place.

So, yeah.

Me and my brother are both civil engineers

and we were dreaming of having
an engineering consultant office there

but the location
of the proposed engineering office

was in a heated area,

so it was also mostly destroyed.

So I think even your imagined future

is destroyed or burned down.

I spent around five years in Kuwait,

then I emigrated
to Australia here by 2015.

We came here on November 2nd, last year.

Everything was dark,

and when the sun rose, it was a new life.

Everything seems beautiful,

everything is green, so many flowers.

Nour AlHaj Yehia: We want Adam to live
in a better world.

We want him to have a great life.

And I think that he was the main reason

why we took that emigration decision.

It was not an easy decision to take.

Moving to another country

that is totally different
than what we're used to

is not that easy.

We are so happy right now,

and we know that we did the right thing

for us, and for Adam as well.

Mahmoud Aghiorly: Starting from
February, till August,

I was searching every day
and sending around 10 or 12 CVs.

Actually, the main advice
was to change my name,

because "Mahmoud" sounds so traditional.

The second advice

was that they asked me
to hide my place of birth

and the origin of my certificate.

They told me, "Don't mention
anything about Syria."

I didn't choose the country
that I was born in.

I didn't choose my name.

So people are judging me
with things that I didn't choose.

I choose how I'm going to deal
with the problems.

And having a proper channel of new ideas

is something very essential
for people who are coming from war zones

and people who are coming
from a lost past.

TED will provide you with
the proper channel of so many ideas

from so many people around the world.

You can just directly relate to someone
faced with the same problem,

directly relate to someone
who just emigrated to another country,

you can directly relate to someone
starting a new family,

someone facing problems.

Mahmoud has a great power
of loving and giving.

And I think volunteering --

(Baby cries)

is a way of loving and giving.

Translating from a language
to another language

is a great power.