Beyazit, DAY 1

On our first day in Istanbul we met Boy A with his Mum and Baby brother sitting just outside the tram stop in cemberlitas.

It was about 9 am. Myself and Mum approached the lady and asked her if she would still be there later so we could give her clothes for the two children. Through pigeon Turkish and Arabic we managed to persuade her to stay there for a few hours while we had our meeting and then we would go back to her.

After our meeting and lunch the lady was still there so I approached her with Y.     Y asked her if she had a home so we could buy her food like pasta, rice, beans, etc.

She said no she didn't have a home but she would show us where she sleeps with the children. Y and A carried her big suitcase and we walked towards fatih mosque.

While walking the little boy, lets call him boy a, held Y's hand and was chatting away with him like they were best friends. Soon enough we were round the back of Fatih mosque under a little bit of shelter surrounded by scaffolding. This is where she sleeps. It wasn't just her either, it was another lady along with nine over children. They all lived on this little patch of concrete amongst the building work. The living conditions were terrible, the area smelt of urine and was extremely dirty. They had about four blankets between them all.

A and Ya asked the ladies what they needed and jotted down all the sizes for the children and ladies and headed back to the hotel with my mum to collect a suitcase full of clothes for the children and the mums.

Myself, R, F , K, Z and S stayed with the family and played with the children.

The girls loved mine and R's bright colored nail varnishes and our warm hands and kept using our hands to warm up their faces. The children were real characters and loved playing with us.

Boy A was just a trooper. He lives on the street, has no home, and no where warm, yet he smiled the whole time and had us all laughing so much.

At one point he told me to use my scarf to cover my hair because he didn't like my hair and the girls told me if I grew my hair I would be much prettier. Dont you just kids honesty hey ?

We played simple games like Pat a Cake and round and round the garden and all the children loved playing the games and repeated them on me. Boy A showed me a few games of his own, it was a simple hand game which meant if I didnt move quick enough he was allowed to slap my hand, personally I think he just wanted to slap me :)

Boy A took a real shine to R and told her all sorts of stories. He has amazing hopes and dreams for his future which really made us both smile. He wants to be an actor when hes older, but not just any actor, hes going to be a famous Karate star and hes going to be in big movies. He was so excited about this dream of his and was so pleased to tell us he even went on to show us how good he was at Karate and what moves he had. As I said already, he was just so funny. When I handed all the children toys he accepted the toy car gratefully but then he said to me

 ' Hey, whats this ? Whats wrong with giving me a Ben 10 toy or a spider man toy ? I haven't always lived on the streets you know, I used to watch all the good cartoons back in Syria on TV'

Hearing him say that really made me laugh but it also made me very sad. He must of enjoyed his life so much before the war, watching cartoons like a normal little boy, and now what ? He lies down to sleep on cold concrete every night, no bed time stories, no tv, no warm cosy bed.

The baby boy above was 6 months old and was just starting to crawl. He loved cuddles from us all and never once whined about being passed from stranger to stranger.

All the children loved the attention they had from us and all wanted their photos taken and to have a cuddle.

Soon enough the rest of the team came back with 2 suitcases full of shoes and clothes for all ages along with food from the supermarket for the families to eat. We showed them the clothes and they were extremely grateful and couldn't thank us enough. Each person tried on the shoes to see what fits best, if they fitted, they kept them.

We bough hot toasted sandwiches from across the road for everyone so they could have a hot meal that night, who knows when the next hot meal would be.

We stayed with the family a while longer showing them all the clothes and playing with the children but darkness was soon approaching so we left them to get on with their night. At least now every child had a warm pair of winter shoes, a warm jumper and winter coat and they had all been fed.

I never saw this family again. I kept on looking for them so I could give them more clothes, more food, more nappies etc for the baby but despite looking every day I never saw them. When I was waiting with them that day the police kept on coming along giving them hassle telling them they had slept there four nights so now they must move. I have no idea where they moved to or what would of happend to them. They had no money.

I hope this family are safe and have found some kind of shelter and are able to protect themselves and their innocent children from this bad world we live in.