While inexplicable numbers of children have been horribly seared in Syria, BCRF can only accommodate the most relentless burn cases to come to the United States for life-saving medical assistance. And of the severe, the file is overwhelming — at any given moment, more than 1700 burned children linger on the list. Subsequently, not a single day passes when BCRF chairwoman Susan Baaj isn’t flooded with new cases, desperate pleas, and requests.
“I used to watch all the videos and images of the bombs falling and hospitals decimated,” recounted my dear friend Susan, a Syrian American businesswoman and philanthropist in Southern California. “I just started to feel helpless, and I am a results person. I need to see results, and I wanted to see something happening here.”
Susan did not allow herself to marinate in pity for too long. She took concrete action. Susan set personal aside time to establish BCRF – establishing critical partnerships with the likes of Shriners Hospitals for Children and UCLA – transforming an issue of passion into a practical purpose. However, Susan said something to me in a planning meeting one summer afternoon that made me see my own far-flung work endeavors, however frustrating and fruitless they can sometimes feel, in a very different light.
“You might not change the world,” she said with calm conviction. “But you can change the world for one person.”
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Words that Never Leave You: “You might not change the world, but you can change the world for one person.”