How to help Syrian children: 3-year-old's death ignites desire to aid refugees, How to help Syrian children – the help phrase has ramped up in search engines this week after the story and photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body, washed up onto the shoreline of a Mediterranean beach, sent shock waves around the world. The young boy died along with his 5-year-old brother and the boy’s mother; the family was attempting to flee Syria.
Today.com, which carried the heartbreaking photo, reported on Sept. 3: “There are no words, just horror. The harrowing photos of a little boy who drowned during his family's desperate quest to flee war and poverty in the Middle East have caught the world's attention like no others. They also have many people asking how they can help others trying to leave Syria.”
The only survivor, father Abdullah Kurdi, spoke of the death of his family, telling the world of his heroic attempt to salvage the small rubber boat and refugees on board after the boat’s captain abandoned them in the churning, high seas. In a desperate attempt to find a new life, Abdullah lost all that was cherished in his heart.
“We went into the sea, and then the captain saw that the waves were so high, so he steered the boat and we were hit immediately,” Kurdi recounted in translated Arabic. “He panicked and dove into the sea and fled. I took over and started steering. The waves were so high and the boat flipped. I took my wife and my kids in my arms…and I realized they were all dead.”
The photos of young Aylan’s washed up body, face down in the sand – wearing a soaked red shirt, cropped jeans and tiny velcro sneakers – quickly went viral. One photo shows pictures of a Turkish policeman looking down on his body; another shows the officer picking up and cradling Aylan.
NBC News described the scene this way: “At first glance, it looks like a baby doll — maybe left behind by a pint-sized tourist in this popular beach resort. The grim reality, however, is that the tiny figure captured in images released Wednesday is of a drowned child whose body washed up on the beach in Bodrum, Turkey.”
Two boats, packed with refugees and attempting to cross the eastern Mediterranean Sea this week capsized and sank in stormy weather. Halfway there, the ramshackle, rubber vessels crumbled under brutal weather and went down off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. At least a dozen perished.
The pictures of Aylan ricocheted through social media and landed in headlines throughout international front pages. The toddler’s tragic death is emblematic of what happens on a daily basis – the despairing and dangerous struggle of Middle Eastern refugees trying to reach Europe.
Abdullah, in tears after collapsing outside a morgue in the city of Mugla, said Thursday: “The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this,” Abdullah said. “We want the world's attention on us, so that they can prevent the same from happening to others. Let this be the last.”
According to UN Refugee Agency, over 300,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year alone. A total of 4 million Syrian refugees have fled their homeland and settled in parts of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Many are living in poverty, awaiting entry into the European Union.
Today.com, which carried the heartbreaking photo, reported on Sept. 3: “There are no words, just horror. The harrowing photos of a little boy who drowned during his family's desperate quest to flee war and poverty in the Middle East have caught the world's attention like no others. They also have many people asking how they can help others trying to leave Syria.”
The only survivor, father Abdullah Kurdi, spoke of the death of his family, telling the world of his heroic attempt to salvage the small rubber boat and refugees on board after the boat’s captain abandoned them in the churning, high seas. In a desperate attempt to find a new life, Abdullah lost all that was cherished in his heart.
“We went into the sea, and then the captain saw that the waves were so high, so he steered the boat and we were hit immediately,” Kurdi recounted in translated Arabic. “He panicked and dove into the sea and fled. I took over and started steering. The waves were so high and the boat flipped. I took my wife and my kids in my arms…and I realized they were all dead.”
The photos of young Aylan’s washed up body, face down in the sand – wearing a soaked red shirt, cropped jeans and tiny velcro sneakers – quickly went viral. One photo shows pictures of a Turkish policeman looking down on his body; another shows the officer picking up and cradling Aylan.
NBC News described the scene this way: “At first glance, it looks like a baby doll — maybe left behind by a pint-sized tourist in this popular beach resort. The grim reality, however, is that the tiny figure captured in images released Wednesday is of a drowned child whose body washed up on the beach in Bodrum, Turkey.”
Two boats, packed with refugees and attempting to cross the eastern Mediterranean Sea this week capsized and sank in stormy weather. Halfway there, the ramshackle, rubber vessels crumbled under brutal weather and went down off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. At least a dozen perished.
The pictures of Aylan ricocheted through social media and landed in headlines throughout international front pages. The toddler’s tragic death is emblematic of what happens on a daily basis – the despairing and dangerous struggle of Middle Eastern refugees trying to reach Europe.
Abdullah, in tears after collapsing outside a morgue in the city of Mugla, said Thursday: “The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this,” Abdullah said. “We want the world's attention on us, so that they can prevent the same from happening to others. Let this be the last.”
According to UN Refugee Agency, over 300,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year alone. A total of 4 million Syrian refugees have fled their homeland and settled in parts of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Many are living in poverty, awaiting entry into the European Union.
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