Voices of Inspiration – Three Changemakers on Resilience

Three award-winning authors––Jillian Haslam, Shugri Said Salh and Jesse Leon––will appear at the Carlsbad City Library for “Voices of Inspiration” in partnership with Adventures by the Book. These three changemakers, whose lives began in despair, will chronicle their extraordinary stories of resilience and survival through their respective memoirs A Voice Out of Poverty, The Last Nomad, and I’m Not Broken.

A Voice out of Poverty chronicles Jillian Haslam’s coming of age in the slums of Calcutta, marked by poverty, abuse, and the death of siblings from starvation. She miraculously rose to success in the corporate world, only to return to her roots to bring others with her. She is the recipient of the Mother Theresa International Memorial Award and founder of Remedia Trust, a global driver of action for the plight of women, children, and the elderly.

Shugri Said Salh was born in the desert of Somalia in 1974. She spent her early years living as a nomad, navigating harshness, drought, predators, and enemy clans, as chronicled in The Last Nomad. In 1992, she emigrated to North America after the civil war broke out in her home country. Shugri’s voice calmly teaches us about a stunning world most Americans are unfamiliar with, and the struggles of immigrating.

Born to indigenous working-class Mexican immigrants in San Diego in the 1970s, Jesse Leon’s childhood was violently ruptured. His memoir, I’m Not Broken, is the heartbreaking and remarkable story of the journey Jesse takes to win back his life, leading him to the steps of Harvard University.