THE POWER OF HUMAN DETERMINATION Some questions put to Mohammed Alsaleh regarding his powerful messaging
promise to myself: if I ever made it out alive and saw the sunlight again, I would go as far away as I could from that terrible place.
Mohammed Alsaleh was a medical student in Syria who, after three separate stays in prison, became a refugee and
Mohammed, your talk in Vancouver was very powerful
eventually ended up in Canada. He told his incredible story
and left people with all kinds of emotions. What would
to the IAPCO audience and gave them an invaluable lesson
you want people to think/feel after listening to you?
on hope and the power of determination. I want people to believe in the immense power that lies Your story sheds light on what could make a medical
within each and every one of us. When you realise that no
student a terrorist and finally a refugee. What were some
power on this earth can take away your hope, your
of those key moments in your story that you think changed
determination will have the potential to break down the
your life forever?
impossible into ‘I’m possible’.
Seven years ago I was taking an exam in my fourth-year of
Your message ‘Light always overcomes darkness’ really
medical school when Syrian state security forces marched into
struck a chord with many. What does this message mean
my classroom and arrested me. What is the act that made me
to you today?
a prisoner? Documentation and criticism of the atrocities committed by Syria’s dictator, President Bashar al-Assad,
The way I look at it: hope is the best fuel for determination.
and his criminal regime. I had been detained twice before
Life taught me this lesson the hard way. In my darkest hour,
for challenging Assad’s totalitarianism but this time was
hope was the only thing that kept me alive.
the worst. I spent the next 120 days in some of Syria’s worst detention centres. It’s in that underground torture dungeon that I made a 28
| The Annual Meeting 2020
