147 – Azim Khamisa – Lost His Son To Gun Violence & Through TKF.org Has Reached Millions About Forgiveness & Teaching Non-Violence

Transcript:

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Azim Khamisa: Tonia was actually granted parole and now he’s active, uh, helping the foundation, um, making sure that other kids don’t follow in his form of footpaths.

So it’s a story about forgiveness. I always thank the good Lord and my mom, I had the eyes to transcend something that was so negative and she was forgiving. I could have gone the other way, David man. Yeah, I could have taken the position. You can. My one and only son, he should be hung from the highest floor.

And I think people would have supported him. In fact, a lot of my friends said, I hope this kid’s fry in hell. I know it went there because how would that improve society? How would that make a better world?

Tom Couch: That’s our guests this week, Azim COMESA. Azim a successful international businessman was born in camp.

Some time ago, uh, Azim’s world was turned upside down when his 20 year old son to tariq was murdered by a 14 year old gang member. Azim now basis is life on forgiveness and helping others to avoid similar violent tragedies. In fact, Azim has befriended his son’s killer and his grandfather. It’s an incredible story about a truly special.

And it’s all on this special fathers network, dad to dad podcast say hello to David Hirsch. Hi,

David Hirsch: and thanks for listening to the dad to dad podcast, fathers, mentoring, fathers of children with special needs presented by the special father’s network.

Tom Couch: Special father’s network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs.

Through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children connect with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for dads to support dads, to find out more, go to 21st century dads.org. And if

David Hirsch: your dad looking for help or would like to offer help, we’d be honored to have you join our closed Facebook.

Please go to facebook.com groups and search dad

Tom Couch: to death. And now let’s hear this incredible story of Azim COMESA, as told to David Hirsch.

Azim Khamisa: I’m thrilled to be talking today with Hazeem Kamisha

David Hirsch: of loyal California. Who’s a father of two grandfather of three. A successful international investment banker and founder of the trig COMESA foundation established in memory of his son, Tariq, who was killed in a senseless crime by a 14 year old gamer.

For the record you and I met in Ontario, California at a rotary world peace conference, and I was mesmerized by your presentation and your

Azim Khamisa: story

David Hirsch: Azeem. Thank you for taking the time to do a podcast interview for this special, the father’s

Azim Khamisa: network. You’re welcome, David. Good to see you again. You and your former wife are

David Hirsch: the proud grandparents of three and parents have two children, daughter and son Tariq, who at age 2025 years ago was shot and killed by a 14 year old gang member.

Let’s start with some background. Where did you grow up? Tell me something about your family.

Azim Khamisa: I was born in Kenya, although my roots are Eastern. My grandfather immigrated to Kenya under the breasts that I’m on. Most of the world, the sun never sets on the British empire and they needed some middle management.

So my dad was born in Kenya. I was born in Kenya. My daughter, uh, was born in Kenya. We emigrated to the U S through Canada. Um, when she was two years old and my wife was pregnant with Tariq. So Tariq actually was born in Canada and then I didn’t stay there a long time. Moved, uh, into the U S in about a year after immigrating to Canada, I was 25 years old, so that the U S more opportunity I decided to make the U S my home.

Uh, and then over the next two years was able to get, uh, my siblings and my parents, uh, Kenya, do they not get states as well? Curiosity,

David Hirsch: with all that traveling around, you’d mentioned, your grandfather, I think was from India, moved to Kenya. Your dad was born in Kenya. You were born in Kenya. Your oldest daughter was born in Kenya.

You immigrated to the U S through Canada. I’m sort of curious now, what is it that your dad did for that?

Azim Khamisa: Well, actually, um, my dad, uh, I started working in the automobile industry and then started his own company with two partners. Or rainbow garage. And, uh, we were the franchisees for pleasure, which is French car.

And Nan’s a province, which was one of the provinces in Kenya after finishing high school and Kenya. I spent six years as a student in India. Lot of the educational system was very British. And if you were able to afford it, uh, you went to England. So my educational background was in math and finance and, and, uh, when I was 20 years old, I got my, uh, academic Scholastic result was I had the first place in 18,000 students.

And the exam of the association of certified and corporate accountants kind of like a CPA, but then my father had a, not a heart attack, but one of the vowels in his heart didn’t function correctly. So I had to drop out, I couldn’t go do my finals. I did the intermediate and took over the business 20, 21 years old, doubled the profits in a couple of years, ended a couple of subsidiaries and.

EDM mean happened in Uganda. If you remember him. And of course he threw out everybody that was not indigenous. And a lot of my, uh, wife’s family lived in Uganda. Most of my mom’s family lived in Europe. We’re made refugees overnight. So then fortunately Kenya, we were not thrown out, but the writing was all over the walls.

Most, every country around Kenya and Uganda was going hell in a hand basket. So we made the decision that we had to leave Kenya. And of course I was chosen because, uh, I was educated in the Western world, but before I left, I had to sell the business. I moved out. My dad stayed back and helped the new owners.

My wife in Canada and the United States, uh, has been very much, uh, doing deals and finding out somebody is going to give me a better price. And what would this? Uh, 45 years, I was 25 when I came to, uh, the north America. And. You know, I’ve done over 75 transactions and, uh, 79, 78 and interest rates were 21%.

I don’t know if you remember those days, David. I know financial services when I was able to, you know, partly, I mean, I had a lot of money invested get most of the money back to my investors. Um, but I lost my personal growth because I was paying lawyers and bankers to keep the projects. I didn’t start with a little money.

I had like 30 grand to my name when I came, parlayed it into 2 million and then I lost all of that. Uh, and then I became an intermediary prior to that. I was more like a general partner, so, and then I basically built back. Um, my, um, financial wealth and sustainability as an intermediary doing the same things, but not being, uh, not being the general partner at risk.

I moved to a beautiful part of, uh, the United States to LA Jolla in 1980. I moved from Seattle, went through a divorce, uh, at that time. Um, uh, both of my kids grew up in Seattle with her mom and August. I stayed in their lives. Okay.

David Hirsch: Well, thanks for the brief fly by from a occupational standpoint. And just one other question about your dad.

Um, I’m sort of curious to know, how would you characterize your relationship with your dad?

Azim Khamisa: I learned a lot from him in my early days. And then we had a little bit of a hiccup. Of course, when I left Kenya, I had built a business up and giving up my education and, and they were still at the businesses that we had there.

And our agreement was whatever I did in Canada. And the U S he would be a equal partner. And that would continue to be an equal partner with him in Kenya, which I never ever was given the money. And I know when I left, although we sold the main business, we still had two or three other businesses that were making money.

Of course, I gave him the share of my profits in Canada. So that was not a good time. Because I felt that my dad stole from me. I stayed angry for, to be honest for two and a half years, because I felt I give so much when my family got them all out, I told them, gave up half my education and didn’t feel I deserved.

But then in my, um, this is before Tariq and you know, my always meditated a lot. My practice was an hour a day, um, when Tariq was alive and then it’s two hours a day today, my mom was a very big influence on my spiritual life. So I grew up, uh, with equal emphasis on my career and my spiritual life. And. One of my meditation.

I got the download. Do you want money to own you or do you want to own money? And obviously I decided I don’t want money to own me. I want to own money. And my issue with my dad was about money. So I forgave him and we made, uh, the men’s and, uh, we had a very good life here. Had, um, health issues at seven bypasses.

Uh, two days before target died was a very difficult week in my life. I have a Gloucester relationship on Monday being, uh, my father go through almost 11 and a half hour surgery, seven bypasses and charting died on Saturdays. And you want to have, those can throw you into a loop, but all three in a week was pretty heavy.

But, uh, he was supportive and, um, we thought targeting doctor gave him a new lease on life. So we had a good relationship. I am, or years later I spoke in Naropa university in Boulder at a, uh, a conference where siblings were fighting over inheritance. And they thought that my story would be good for them to hear.

And I shared the story about my dad and the money and this one guy that. Was talking about estate planning. I was done walk me to my car. And so that was a big thing that you were able to forgive your father after having given so much to your family. But did you realize that having forgiven your dad may later helped you forgive the young man who killed your son?

I hadn’t connected those two issues. I gave him a hug and thanked him. I said, you know, The Lord works in mysterious ways. We just got to that point, tardy was alive and aspiring student and all of that. So that thought never crossed my mind, but he connected the dots for me. Yeah, it’s pretty powerful. It’s

David Hirsch: like foreshadowing.

Well, let’s switch gears and talk about, uh, your situation. Uh, and as a reminder, the podcast is primarily directed at dads, raising children with special needs, which I think the segue is that often times when a parent gets a diagnosis, that their child has a special need either at the time of birth, or sometime later that there’s a loss.

And the loss of the life that they had envisioned they might have with their son or daughter. And every one of us processes lost in a different way. So what are the circumstances that led to Rick’s death?

Azim Khamisa: He was a good boy. He was a student. Uh, he loved the arts and you as a great writer and a great photographer.

I love cultures. Love travel. Art. And, um, his goal was someday to work for national geographic. He loved that magazine. Uh, he was a good, uh, kind, uh, generous, great sense of humor, engaged to a beautiful girl, Jennifer and, uh, worked as a pizza delivery man on Fridays and Saturdays. And, uh, he was Louis to a bogus address by a youth.

He worked for a local Italian restaurant. They delivered in this neighborhood all the time. So middle-class neighborhood. And of course it was his stern. They give the right apartment building address, but the wrong apartment number. And of course he knocked on many doors, found out nobody orders the pizza.

As he came back to the car, put a pizza in the trunk of his car, climb into the driver’s side seat as, as his, about to back his car from the driveway. It was a, in my, for a youth gang members. Two of them were 14 year old and the leader of the gang was an 18 year old who handed a nine millimeter handgun to a 14 year old.

And gave the order bus. Tim bones, bones was a nickname of the 14 year old, uh, gang initiation. Uh, um, and you fired one round, which came through the driver’s side window and turn my son’s body under the left shoulder blade. And the bullet actually traveled to the upper part of his chest and exited from his, uh, right arm.

But there’s a coroner explained to me, he says all that. I remember him saying that the bullet followed a perfect path and I thought to myself a perfect path. I thought that was an interesting choice of words, but he was quick to tell him, he said, Mr. Camisa, I’m not trying to be insensitive. Uh, we don’t see a path like this very often.

And what it means in my lingo is it destroyed all the vital organs in your son’s body. And target died a couple of minutes later, uh, and drowning in his own blood or her lousy pizza. At the age of 20. So needless to say that brought my life to a crashing halt. I don’t know. David was more complex for a parent.

You are a parent of five then to lose a child. You know, if I was there, I wouldn’t have put my body between him and the bullet as dads, we do that, you know, that’s such a big part of our lives. And I went through all the emotions. Hopelessness despair mean I worked very much in international finance and travel the world and speak Africanism languages.

And, and then I remember just to get out of bed to go on my willpower and I don’t know what all of this energy had gone. I was suicidal at one point and really did not know how to move forward without my son. You know, they give you a lot of this pills and I’m very averse to taking pills and I’m aware I to go to Gary, I have to close a deal the truly two weeks after targeting died.

And then I was in the middle of this transaction. And of course I couldn’t sleep. I think I took three pills. At one point, I thought I could take all of them and call it a day. Um, but somehow my meditation, my spiritual foundation helped me through it and close the deal and then came back, uh, to the U S and then I essentially decided to drop out of international finance and went through a grieving process.

As a lot of your dads, as you mentioned, go through it. And, uh, there’s a good, uh, uh, adage in the Turkish religion that practices a Sufi Genesis of Sufi is, um, is in Turkey. Uh, he will consist as grieved and find a medicine for it. The grieving actually is medicine. And there’s a healthy rate to agree right now, of course, the unhealthy way to grieve.

And I teach in one of my books that a healthy way to agree is to journal. Spend time with nature, meditate, pray, read something inspiring. I, um, spend some time with family and close friends, but did not have a social life. During that time. I wrote my first book from murder to forgiveness, which was three years after Tariq died.

Uh, in my Sufi tradition, we have a 40 day grieving period. When I was guided by my, a spiritual advisor, that the reason we agree for the 40 days, because your son’s spirit lives in close proximity or family and loved ones. But after the 40 days, it moves to a new consciousness and preparation of his forward journey.

And there’s this, I think a similar, uh, ritual and Jewish rate called sitting Shiva, where they also grieve, I believe for 11 days. Um, so I was told that, uh, during the 40 days I had, you’re not supposed to much like the Jewish ritual. You don’t, you don’t clean people, bring food and help you clean or support you in any way you want.

And I love the support. Community. And then at the 40 day prayers, uh, uh, I was counseled by my spiritual advisor. Then this ends. Grieving period, although that it wasn’t enough, but the tradition says that he said, instead of grieving, I recommend you do a good, compassionate deeds in your son’s name. It goes good.

Compassionate deeds done in the name of the departed, our spiritual currency. And we’re provide him high octane fuel in the next world. And this thing kept playing in my head, like a broken record, that a good compassionate deeds in the name of the departed, our spiritual currency. And we’ll provide high Oakton fuel in this next world.

And obviously I wanted to do something for my son, which is when I got to the vision in April to start the target COMESA foundation. And not be the enemy of the kid who killed my son, because I saw that there were victims at both ends of the gun that, uh, the enemy was not the 14 year old, rather the societal forces that force many young men.

And women to fall through the crack and then choose lives of crime and gangs and drugs and alcohol and, and weapons at 14. How did we create a society which children killed children. And I still think about Sandy hook 24, craters five and six years old, or gone down an automatic machine gun fire. In the richest nation in the world.

How did we get here? So what was playing in my head is that, um, the real culprit was the societal forces. The peer pressure that at 14, they shouldn’t be playing with guns. They should be playing with toys. And, uh, that I must do something. Make sure other young people in my community, uh, don’t end up dead.

Like my son Tariq or end up in prison, like Tony who took his life. And, uh, I started the target Kenisa with the mandate of stopping kids from killing kids, by breaking the cycle of youth violence. And we essentially had three goals first was to save lives of children because as you know, we lose so many on a daily basis, probably one every hour and a half to two second mandate was to Impala the right choices.

So kids don’t fall through the crack. And then she was lines of crime and gangs and drugs and alcohol. And third to teach the principles of nonviolence, of accountability, of empathy, of compassion, forgiveness, and offer a commitment to become peacemakers. And peacebuilders because we’re not going to wake up one day and find the world is at peace.

We all have to proactively work at it. Because I was never about revenge or retribution. I was always about looking at Tony as a victim, wanted the most softest, uh, uh, sentence for him. I believe though,

David Hirsch: that wasn’t Tony, the youngest or one of the youngest individuals as a minor to be tried as an adult.

Wasn’t that whatever interesting

Azim Khamisa: twist to the story. Now that is correct. You know, the rule was you had to be 16, uh, and all were to be tried as an adult. They dropped their days from 16 to 14 on January 1st, 1995. And this tragedy happened three weeks later. So you’re right. He was the first sport unit or a lot of media around it.

Of course they reversed that. Now as of January, first of this year to 16, which is more humane because, you know, incarcerating a 14 year old for life. I mean, how humane is that? Fortunately, we supported Tonia, forgave him and invited his grandfather to join. And after my first meeting, I asked the district attorney to introduce me to his grandfather and guardian, and we met soon after.

And then at my second meeting, then grandfather was there and spoke very passionately about his commitment to the mandate of the foundation. And here we are, 25 years later, we are celebrating our 25th anniversary. We’ve created a safe school model. Uh, which has four different programs for kids. And we are successfully keeping kids away from crime and gangs and drugs and alcohol, cutting suspensions, teaching this important soft values of nonviolence.

And it’s been a big part of my ministry and the grandfather and Tony now is. And his parole hearing was in November of last year. And of course I was at advocating for his parole as was my daughter, who is the executive director of the tonic COMESA foundation. Incidentally her, uh, degrees in sociology and our emphasis was juvenile delinquency.

And when she graduated Tariq was alive. So again, you see another way how the Lord works in mysterious ways. And, um, and we’re proud of her. Uh, she’s been a very good leader. So she was there with me. I advocating for parole and the commissioner said to both of us. And 25 years, he’s never had the victim’s father and sister advocate for the offender’s parole.

And so Tony was actually granted parole, and now he’s acting, uh, helping the foundation, um, making sure that other kids don’t follow in his form of footpaths. So it’s a story about forgiveness. And, um, I always thank the good Lord and my mom, I had the eyes to try and say something that was so negative and she was forgiving.

I could have gone the other way, David. I mean, you know, I could have taken the position. It can. Now when I knowingly son should be hung from the highest score. And I think people would have supported him. Maybe a lot of my friends said, I hope this kid’s frying the hell. I never went there because how would that improve society?

How would that make a better walk? Um, you know, forgiveness was the right choice for me because, uh, you know, I I’ve written five books. My first was from Moda to forgiveness, which the secret was forgiveness to fulfillment because I worked that I’ve done in the aftermath of my son giving over a thousand presentation or a million kids loved wide over a hundred thousand letters from kids.

Um, and then, uh, the trilogy ends in fulfillment to peace and Tony actually got the forward joy. So th th the, the Genesis is very dark and very tragic retarded murder. Having chose the path of giftedness and having done this work for 25 years, which has been really meaningful and rewarding. I am at peace more at peace.

And I was not that I don’t want Tariq back, obviously as a father, I want him back in a New York second, but obviously it’s not possible. So it was the right choice for me. And, uh, uh, and today a lot of my work, uh, is teaching forgiveness of people that have harmed you, but also for yourself, because at some level we’ve all harmed.

Uh, and become a peace activist. And, um, uh, and I continue, uh, I continue on this journey. Well, thank you

David Hirsch: for sharing that. A very touching and heartfelt story. One of the things that you mentioned and a concept of a victim being on both ends of the gun is remarkable perspective

Azim Khamisa: to have.

David Hirsch: At all, let alone in such a short period of time from the time that term killed.

And one of the blessings is I’ve heard you share it before is the fact that you got to know plus Felix, uh, Tony’s grandfather, his guardian. And I’m wondering if you could go a little deeper into the relationship that you’ve formed in the work that you do together.

Azim Khamisa: Yeah. I mean, a place is a good man is a very articulate, one of the most intelligent people I know as a master’s degree in urban development had a good home for his grandson.

You got his grandson at the age of eight, Tony was born to a 15 year old, which was pleasant daughter. And of course a child bringing up a child, um, parenting, as you know, is one of the toughest jobs on the planet. And, um, So places, a mother, uh, and he, uh, you know, helped in Tony’s, um, raising, raising Tony, but then, uh, Tony grew up in south central Los Angeles and at eight, uh, he’s very gang infested.

Yes. Cousins and nephews and uncles were involved with gangs and they decided to send Tony to place. So please go to MRA. And, uh, I had no clue that Tony was gang involved. Tony had a lot of anger because he didn’t have a relationship with his dad who was also 15, 16, and shunned him. Every time I met him, moved away.

That led to Louisiana and was not in Tony’s life. And when I reached out to Clair’s, uh, again, I get a lot of my downloads in my meditation, and even the download of seeing that there were victims at both ends of the. Didn’t come from my intellect or my loving heart. It was a download from my higher power because every Saint has suffered the dark night of the soul.

And I remember when I learned that Tariq had been shot and killed. I was in my kitchen. I lost strength in both of my legs. As I collapsed to the floor, hit my head against the refrigerator and the pain was so excruciating. And I had my first out-of-body experience. And I believe in God, I believe I went into the loving arms of God because the explosion was like a nuclear bomb that had gone off in my head.

I don’t remember how long I was gone, but

it seemed like a long time. And then when the explosion subsided, I came back to my body with that wisdom that there are victims at both ends of the gun because an hour and a half later, my best friend was with me. I live by myself and he said to me, whoever this kids aren’t that killed tonic. I hope they fry in hell.

I said all feel that way. I see the victims at both ends of the gun. And similarly the download I got after I started the foundation, I was wondering how place was dealing with his challenges. I mean, to have a grandson, like a son, because Tony calls him daddy kill somebody. That was a pretty tough thing to go through.

And somehow I always thought his journey. Well, it’s tougher than mine because Tony was reprimanded and sent to adult prison. And I know he worried about Tony because tardy, you can’t hurt him anymore. He’s dead. And how was he dealing with it? So I met two players, uh, in the public defender’s office and I told him I’m not here.

Really screaming, resentment, revenge, because our grandson killed my son. I only see we both lost it. Outside of this foundation, I kind of bring Tariq back and there’s nothing you can do to get Tony out of prison. And this is a big job to stop kids from killing kids. And one thing you and I can do is to make sure other parents don’t have to go through what you and I have done.

Right. I mean, we have to make sure other young ones don’t end up dead. Uh, like my son or ended up in prison like Tony. And that’s the mission of the foundation. The reason I’m here is to ask for your help, because I can’t do this by myself. It’s a big shop and it’d be losers to work together because it was your grandson that took the life of my son.

Will you help me? Of course, he was very quick to dig my hand or forgiveness. You know, he’s a Baptist from the south and he said, as soon as I found out, Tony killed your son. I went into the prayer cloth. Praying that I have an opportunity to meet you. So thank you for reaching out to me, want to express my condolences to you and your family for your loss.

Absolutely. I will help you. And he has been there by my side for 25 years. He’s as passionate David, as I am about the foundation is articulate. He knows the ropes is African-American or like anybody about that. I was born in Kenya. Let’s get this straight. I’m the African-American it’s a group now. Yeah.

Well, I

David Hirsch: also know that you, uh, think of yourselves as brothers, right? Connected by this terrible tragedy. And you actually gave a Ted

Azim Khamisa: talk together. Yes. Yes. Yeah, we have, we are very close. Uh, this main one, there’s nothing that’s men won’t do for me and vice versa. I mean, we have this bond and you can actually tell maybe the Ted talk is a good way to tell it, but when we show up in schools together, we introduce this man grandson killed this man.

So. And the kids, you know, it’s a spellbound and there’s no middle school. There’s no fidgeting going on and they’ve never seen this. You can feel the love is very palpable. The love that we have the love and the respect and the trust we have for each other as partners. You don’t have to say anything. We just have to just sit there and add that image.

And I think it would do what it needs to do, but it just happens. He’s a great speaker, tells his story very well and is very passionate about kids and knows the streets much better than I do. I’ve learned a lot about the plight of African Americans in our country and all of this. Like it cuts out. It reads the New York times cuts out all of these articles.

Um, and, uh, to recommend books for me to read and, uh, and I just really value, uh, our friendship. There are no words. There are no words that can express.

Tom Couch: The loss of a child and here’s plus Felix from the Ted talk. He and Azim charisma gave in 2017. And my

Azim Khamisa: understanding that my grandson was responsible for the murder of this human being, I went to the prayer closet, like I was taught by my old folks and begin to pray and meditate.

The one thing to Mr. Camisa and I have in common. And we didn’t know this besides being wonderful human beings is that we both met. It was very helpful for me because it offered me an opportunity to seek guidance and clarity about how I wanted to be a support of this man and his family in this loss.

And sure enough, my prayers were answered because I was invited to a meeting at this man’s house, met his mother, his father, his wife, his brother, met their family and had a chance to be in the presence of God. Spirit of people led by this man. Who in the spirit of forgiveness made way made an opportunity for me?

Yes. I think that, let me reference it by my book called the secrets of the Bulletproof spirit, how to bounce back from life’s hardest hits because published by random house in 2009, this is a self-help book, especially if you’re dealing with, uh, raising kids that have, uh, challenges. And the basic concept of the book is to look and understand that in life you’re going to get challenges.

Your intellect will not solve, but there are not problems. And let me underscore that no problems or challenges that you’re going to get you in your life, that your spirit cannot solve or heal, but you need that spiritual connection. That spiritual foundation. And, uh, I teach this work. I have coined the word soul EULAR, which is a play on the word.

We have billions of cells, but we are also have a soul. There are no problems that your soul cannot heal us. So I think I’m a good example of that. So the work that I do is at a very deep level, let’s be on cognitive and emotional that’s solely low level. And, uh, and this book will teach you how to become more spiritually resilient.

It’s a good book for people that are trying to bounce back from being in. I’ll give him the short end of the stick to bounce back from my heart. He’d go and get hard hits, but to understand that there is a meaning in this hard hits, there’s a spiritual bullion in this hand. And I look back at my own life that I was able to find purpose in my tragedy.

And, uh, it’s been an amazing journey. The Lord works in mysterious ways, you know? Yeah. We’re all, you’re a remarkable

David Hirsch: mentor. And we’re thrilled to have you as part of the special father’s network is just one of the dads who’s involved in making themselves available either through your words or the work that you do through the trig

Azim Khamisa: Kenesha foundation.

So is there anything else you’d like to say before I wrap up? No. I think that you covered, uh, the journey where you, well, let me just end with a quote that I normally end my talks. Which I think kind of captures, uh, where I am today and where I hope that, uh, other people in the world can, can get to that.

Sustained. Goodwill creates friendship, sustained friendship creates empathy, sustain empathy, creates compassion, sustain compassion, creates peace, but people ask me, how do you extend Goodwill to the child who killed your son? I said, you do that through forgiveness. Worked for me and my family, it worked for him and his family.

It can work for whoever’s listening and their family showing up. It can work for Israel and Palestine, north and South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria. It can work for the U S so let me leave you with a thought that peace is possible. How do I know that? Because I am at peace. Take your David for having me on your, on your phone.

Yeah. Well, thank you

David Hirsch: again. If somebody wants to learn more about the terrific COMESA ration, the safe schools model, or just to contact you,

Azim Khamisa: how would they go about doing that? Uh, we have a very robust website, uh, T K F uh, target COMESA foundation, T app.org. Um, and the safe school model is described there.

We’re not fully online, but we will be this time next year and we can offer it to any place in the world, really with internet. And then I also have my personal website, which is Azim comesa.com, where you can, uh, learn about, uh, my work and the peace activism. More of my books are there. The Ted talk is there.

I do a monthly newsletter. People can subscribe for. And, uh, they can contact me there. Uh, ezine my dot com. Those are both the good emails.

David Hirsch: Excellent. Ezine thank you for taking the time in many insights. As a reminder, as IEM is just one of the dads, who’s part of the special fathers network, a mentoring program for fathers raising a child with special needs.

If you’d like to be a mentor father, Are seeking advice from a mentor father with a similar situation to your own. Please go to 21st century. . Thank you for listening to the latest episode of the special father’s network data dad podcast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did, as you probably know.

The 21st century dads foundation is a 5 0 1 C3 not-for-profit organization, which

Azim Khamisa: means we need your

David Hirsch: help to keep our content free, to all concerned. Would you please

Azim Khamisa: consider making a tax deductible contribution? I would really

David Hirsch: appreciate your support

Azim Khamisa: as AME. Thanks. Welcome David. Good to see you again.

Tom Couch: And thank you you for listening to the dad to dad podcast presented by the special fathers network. The special father’s network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs through our personalized matching process. New fathers with special needs children connect with mentor fathers in a similar situation.

It’s a great way for fathers to support fathers go to 21st century dads died. And

David Hirsch: if you’re a dad looking for help or we’d like to offer help, we would be honored to have you join our closed Facebook group. Please go to facebook.com groups and search dad to dad also, please be sure to register for the special father’s network.

Bi-week biweekly zoom calls held on the first and third Tuesdays. Lastly, we’re always looking to share interesting stories if you’d like to share your story or no, but compelling story, please send an email toDavid@twentyfirstcenturydads.org.

Tom Couch: The dad to dad podcast was produced by couch audio for the special father’s network.

Thanks again to horizon therapeutics who believe that science and compassion must work together to transform lives. That’s why they work tirelessly to research, develop and bring forward medicines for people living with rare and rheumatic diseases. Discover more about horizon therapeutics at horizontherapeutics.com.