The world was rocked last week by the image of a Turkish officer carrying the body of a refugee. The person being moved was a three-year-old boy who drowned during his family’s attempt to flee their country.
Not long ago, little Aylan was a happy, mischievous toddler; now, he is an angel.
While many children have survived the dangerous journey towards safety, they are now in groups of scared and angry refugees, at risk of being injured in riots and not knowing what the future holds for them. Will they have shelter? What about food? Will they have to return to the bombings and murders?
These children may not be yours, but would you want people to stand idly by while your baby suffered?
It’s hard for us to know how to help and many are doing whatever little they can in the hope it will make a difference. Members of the Irish Parenting Bloggers Network are publishing a stream of blog posts in an attempt to inspire action. You’ll find some of the posts below.
In meantime, there are other ways you can help:
- Sign the petition to ask the Irish Government to help.
- Donate whatever you can to charities helping the refugees, such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, Amnesty International, or Trocaire.
- Alternatively, you can take part in the Irish Parenting Bloggers’ virtual coffee (or tea!) morning. You can find details on the Facebook Event page.
To support the Irish Parenting Bloggers' virtual tea morning this Friday, we're asking mums to tweet a picture of themselves drinking a cuppa using @mummypages and #readfeelact. MummyPages will pledge €5 to the Ireland Calais Refugee Solidarity Campaign for every mum who posts one of these pictures on Twitter with the above tags.
Share these posts with the hashtag #ReadFeelAct and do whatever you can to help.
- Dilemmas of Desperate Parents
- A Human Crisis
- Thoughts & Prayers
- Why I Won't Stop Crying
- Take my hand
- The Boy on the Beach
- Migrants are people like us, and their kids
- Decisions
- One Small Boy
- One little brown-eyed, brown-haired boy
- A Child Like Any Other
- Don't Close Your Eyes
- The Harrowing Picture Of A Humanitanian Crisis
