How you can help Syrian refugees

#SaveSyriasChildren

Last summer when we were on our family holiday in Sicily hundreds of refugees were rescued from a fishing boat in the Mediterranean. Many from the boat drowned. The survivors were taken to safety just along the coast from where we were staying. My husband and I talked about trying to find where they were, to see if we could help at all but we couldn’t leave our children on their own where we were staying and we weren’t sure about taking them with us. So we didn’t do anything, to my regret.

This summer we didn’t have to go to Sicily to hear about desperate families fleeing for their lives from war and persecution, piling into inadequate boats in a bid to reach the safety of Europe. The media is full of images and stories of the struggles and suffering of refugees in search of sanctuary.

One image has galvanised public opinion while our political leaders (apart from Germany’s Angela Merkel) seem incapable of stepping up to do the right thing in this humanitarian crisis. The photos of three-year old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on the sand will be seared into the memory of anyone who’s seen them. The Syrian refugee drowned with his mother and brother as they tried to reach Greece in a dinghy.

From the peace and safety of the UK it’s easy to feel powerless to help refugees like Aylan and his family. But, although it’s sadly too late to save Aylan, there are things that we can all do to help. I’m part of a blogger campaign raising funds for Save the Children to support their work with Syrian refugees. We’ve made this video with images of some of our children:

If you’d like to support Save the Children and their work to support Syrian refugees this is what you need to do:

TEXT 70008 and the word SYRIA to donate £5

Donate online here.

Save the Children’s terms and conditions are here.

If you’d like to help refugees in more ways, here are some articles with helpful information:

The Guardian: Refugee crisis: what can you do to help?

The Independent: Five practical ways you can help refugees trying to find safety in Europe

About Gretta Schifano

I'm a freelance journalist and blogger specialising in family travel with teenagers, trips when parents manage to travel without their kids, and 50+ travel. I also write about vegetarian travel, parenting teenagers, adoption, SEN, ADHD and anxiety. My work's been published by the Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet and others. I've lived and worked in Italy and Spain and am now based in rural south-east England with my husband, adoptive and birth kids and our dog. I previously worked as a social action radio producer for the BBC.

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