Ehsan’s Journey and RYLA

If a man’s character is shaped by his life experiences, then we learned how Ehsan became one of the most well-crafted humans in the world.

Born to hard-working parents who provided inspiring role models, his family escaped war-torn Kuwait and spent months in a tent city as refugees. Without running water or electricity, the group survived on air-dropped meals and bland cabbage soups. After finally finding their way to Los Angeles, the family’s situation did not improve much.

Frustrated and idealistic, the young Ehsan took matter into his own hand and hand wrote a letter to the mayor of Los Angeles, complaining about the inadequate support for arriving refugees. Shockingly, the mayor not only replied to his letter, but he invited media attention to the plight of the family. Ehsan in-turn became mayor for a day.

Emboldened by this experience, Ehsan studied to become a civil rights attorney. During law school, he traveled to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and created a mobile legal center to empower the victims of this massive natural disaster. His effort caught the attention of the White House, and he became the civil rights consultant for Barak Obama.

From a refugee who hid under the flooring of a bus escaping Kuwait to White House consultant, Ehsan taught us the power of resilience and his tenacity.

Later that evening, we hosted a club social at Luna Bistro, where we met Isabella’s family and introduced her family to Rotary. Coincidentally, Les and Isabella’s father used to work at Kaiser Permanente together.