Day 5 : Friday 20th December
Activity 2 : Swimming safety
The photo I have inserted above is of a very brave and heroic girl, who's swimming skills saved 16 people. Her name is Yusra, born in Syria she was living an ordinary life until she was 13. When Yusra was first encountered the water she was very scared and nervous, but more importantly she was excited. As time went on she not only overcame her fear of the water, but it basically became her new best-friend. She loved the water so much she would compete in swimming competitions, and with the help of her dad training her and her older sister she was "winning competitions left and right". Growing up Yusra did swimming constantly, until one day she discovered that the gym where she did her swimming was bombed. As time went on Yusra and her family kept seeing how bad and violent everything was getting in their country and at the age of 14 Yusra begged her mother to consider running away with her family, but fleeing with all 5 (Yusra, her mother, father, eldest and youngest sister) of them would be too dangerous her mother concluded. Then one day when no one was home, their neighbourhood was bombed and Yusra's home was unfortunately destroyed making them lose everything. That's when her mother came to her with a plan, she had discovered that her two nieces were going to make the long trip to Europe and suggested that Yusra and her sister follow along. Taking nothing more than a phone, clothes and money for smugglers on the day she left Yursra hugged her family goodbye and set off with her sister, cousins and a small group of others to Europe. The plan was to flee and find shelter in Berlin Germany, where Yusra hoped she could finally swim again. First they went to Beirut in Lebanon, then to Istanbul in Turkey. The growing and growing fear of getting caught by the police which if caught they might get sent back to Syria. From Istanbul they made their was south to where they met up with smuggles who agreed to help them in exchange for money, they were to help Yusra and everyone she was with get across the waters to the Greek Island known as Lesbos. Yusra and the others hid in the forest waiting for the right moment to leave the coast, but as they embarked on their first travels, they were stopped by the Turkish coast guards almost as soon as they set off. Returning back, they in the forest again and when night fell they started the motor and pushed everyone out to sea. little by little they got further and further away from the island until tragedy struck. out of no where the motor made a strange sound and then started to slow down, to the point where it just stopped. Then little by little the boat started to fill with water, as the water reached Yusar's ankles she knew she couldn't die there, even when shes such a strong and amazing swimmer. Yusar, her sister and 2 others jumped overboard and swam for over 3 hours, pushing and pulling the boat, and at one point even thinking they were not going to make it. Thats when they saw it, the coastline of the Lesbos Island getting closer and closer, to where they were able to get out of the boat and pull it to shore. From there they traveled north from country to country, crossing boarders however they could. After sneaking across the boarder to Hungary, they were captured by the Hungarian police and were taken to a refuge camp. Upon travelling to the camp the sisters looked at each other and burst out laughing, when the Hungarian police wanted to know why, they responded with more laughter. Yusra just thought to herself "We were going to die in the sea and you think we should be afraid of you?", once ariving to the camp the sisters made a run for it as soon as they saw an opening. After a month long trip, across nine different countries Yusra made it safely to Berlin. She slept on the ground for months after arriving to a refuge camp in Berlin, but she felt safe and wondered upon the rumour of a swimming club. Yusar decided to try out for the team, which was one of the best places for young swimmers to train. Yusar not having trained in 2 year was a bit rusty and unfit, but the coach could tell that there was something special about her. Yusar swam day in and day out, 6am she would wake up just to get in some swim time before school and once her classes were done, she went right back to the pools. Her coach had high hopes for her to swim in the Olympic in 2020, but Yusra surprised everyone when she was chosen to joing the first ever refuge Olympic team in 2016. Yusar was one of 10 refuges to be chosen for the team, she was placed in the 100 meter butterfly race and was the only team member in her preliminary heat, and SHE WON. Unfortunately she wasn't able to get a medal at the 2016 Olympics but fortunately she has her sights set for gold in 2020.
