Help The Syrians

Help the Syrians in Istanbul is a small organisation I set up in august 2013.  I mentioned it a little bit in my About Anastasia section. I was in Turkey for a couple of months, visiting friends and taking a lot of time out for myself. I wasn't doing too great mentally, I was suffering with bad depression and my Fibromyalgia was really shit. See the link there ? Mental health and Fibro don't go well.

I had been in turkey for a month when I headed to Istanbul to meet up with my friend Verity. We were heading out on our first night back in our favorite city and I noticed all these people. Different people. People I had never seen before. Turns out they were Syrian Refugees who had fled the war in Syria and were now living on the streets of Istanbul. Kids and all. 

I soon forgot about it and went out and had a great night. Feeling sorry for myself in the morning with a hangover and an empty purse, ( I hadn't actually spend a great amount, its cheap there) I decided I needed to do something about these people I had seen the night before.

Myself and Verity headed out to a very cheap area behind the grand bazaar and bought everything we thought would be needed. A few hours later we were struggling to carry bags full of shoes, vests, shorts, t shirts, wet wipes, tooth brushes, tooth paste, bread, cheese, fruit and milk. We were in Eminunu where we had seen the refugees the night before. They were still there, they were everywhere. The children would reach out with their grubby little hands and snatch the bag as quickly as they could, they'd find the bread and eat it as fast as they could, in fear of it being taken away again. The parents shyly looked through the bags of goodies then thanked us, and blessed up in Arabic. 

Read about our first and second days :

My 1st day

My 2nd day

We spent a few hours up until sunset handing things out. Lots of ladies put in requests for milk and nappies as well as more shoes. It seemed these people needed help, and they just were not getting it. We returned to Verity's house and set up the Facebook page, Help The Syrians in Istanbul and things just went on from there. 

We posted a status. We told the truth. Everyone that knows me knows I don't hold back when trying to portray other peoples struggles and get them help.

Within a few hours we had people emailing us saying they wanted to donate money so we could buy supplies to hand out. My next few weeks in Istanbul were spread out between seeing my friends, exploring my favorite places, resting, and helping the Syrians. The majority was helping the Syrians. I have always been a lover of children, and helping people, so sitting on the grass, struggling with language barriers, was no issue for me. I was so happy to hand out things they wanted, to play with the children and babies, to clean them with wet wipes and to feed them. 

I had to fly home. My health was also deteriorating.  I had been complaining to verity that I was feeling out of breath and was struggling to breath. Verity just laughed and said its because I had gained weight and I was a little bit fat and basically told me I was fine. I came home and spent time campaigning for help for the Syrians, raising money to help them and raising awareness. Not many people back home knew what was going on, they didn't realize children and babies were living on the streets, fighting for food every day and were at risk of being sold into the sex trade. 

I was still struggling to breath and gaining weight. I eventually went to the doctors where they checked my oxygen levels. They were dangerously low so I was sent to hospital. After many tests, lots of doctors using me as their university research and so on, I was told there was some swelling on the left side of my heart, and my already leaky valve had got slightly worse, but I was fine. Id be fine. ( I had open heart surgery as baby)

I put a shout out on Facebook for volunteers wanting to go back to Istanbul with me to help me take clothes, medical care, nappies, toys etc for the Syrians. Loads of people came forward and said they wanted to go with me. I organised a live music and burlesque show to raise money, when it came to the crunch, and the people who were meant to be coming to turkey needed to help at the event, they all dropped out. 

I had a few friends and my lovely mum help me put on a successful event.

My mum decided she would come with me to Turkey. We booked our flights and started getting everything ready to take. We were taking 15 suitcases full of clothes toys and nappies. Nappies are really expensive in turkey so it was cheaper to buy them here. Through the Facebook page we had a team of lovely people in Istanbul willing to help us. Some were Syrians who had fled Syria and made a life for themselves in Istanbul and some were ex pats. 

A week before we were due to fly, my health took a turn for the worst. I was admitted to hospital. I was really out of breath and was swelling up. I was admitted to the cardiac unit and had more tests. Various echos, blood tests, scans and so on. After being in hospital for two or three days I was told I was in heart failure.  I literally thought I was dying. That very day I was in Bournemouth Echo about the wonderful work I was doing for the Syrians. The article wrote how I was due to fly to Istanbul in 5 days with 15 suitcases. All that was going through my mind was that I wouldn't be able to go. I didn't think of myself, all I was thinking was all these people wouldn't get my help. 

I explained everything to the doctors and they gave me the all clear to fly. 5 days later, with 15 suitcases, we flew to Turkey.

I'll leave the rest for you to read about in the blogs.

Packing the car, flying and meeting D.

Beyazit, Day 1