Yusra Mardini's Story

Here I am again for another Summer Learning Journey post for Day 5 Week 1 Activity 2 year 6-8. What I found very interesting while doing this post that Yusra was only 14 or 15 when she went on the journey to get to Berlin. But the thing I really like about Yusra Mardini was that even though there were a few problems on the voyage she kept going, she didn't want to die in the water ( especially if she was a good swimmer!) Here is my post about Yusra Mardini!

Yusra Mardini’s Story

She once had a happy life and a good home, a good city and a good country.
But now, now thats all gone. One single day changed all that. 

Yusra Mardini’s had a good family, Mum, Dad, a little sister and an older sister
named Sarah in Syria. When she was younger she was scared of the water
so when all her friends jumped in
she would look at the deep end, and she could
scarcely see the bottom! So when she tried to
float on her feet, she fell head first.
That’s when she realised she loved it, so her Dad and her older sister,
Sarah trained her to become a professional swimmer.
When she dived into the pool all her problems disappeared,
it was like a whole different world! She was winning heaps
of competitions all while her country was happy.

But when Yusra was thirteen there was war in her country between the
Syria Government and the Protesters who wanted the
country to be a democracy but the President didn’t want that.
So anyone who spoke their minds where shot,
more Syrian Protesters were shot, more and more
people died and it turned into a civil war.
Big protest groups tried to fight the government to get control of cities.
More people died but they were just ordinary people minding
their own business and that’s what worried Yusra and her family.
But for the first year they were safe in their home in the capital of Syria,
the suburbs of Damascus.

Soon the fighting came to the outskirts of Damascus and them
and their neighbours could hear explosions and machine guns far away.
But after a few months the fighting reached the middle of Damascus.
One day when Yusra and her Dad were walking to the gym for swimming training,
they spotted big holes in the roof and Yusra’s beloved pool had rubble in it.
Yusra had to stop training because her swimming place had been bombed and
she had nowhere to swim anymore. 

 After that only a few of the neighbourhoods where safe
and Yusra’s life was getting torn apart.
The war had reached her city and every hour of the
day machine gun bullets pounded through the streets,
and huge tanks rolled through the neighbourhood.
Her family where all so scared of what could happen to them.

When Yusra was only fourteen she knew they had to leave it
was going to be dangerous but it was even more dangerous staying in their home.
when Yusra begged her parents to make the trip to Europe
their first response was a no. It was too dangerous
for all five of them to go and Yusra’s little sister was only a toddler.

Sadly, the bombings reached their neighbourhood and their house was destroyed.
No one got hurt because no one was home but everything
they had and all their belongings were lost.
Her mother finally let in and Yusra ended up going with
her cousins that were making a trip to Europe but luckily Sarah was going too.
But when the day came that she had to leave her Dad,
Mum and little sister it changed her life.
Would she ever see them again? 

The only things she bought with her was a cellphone, some clothes and money
to pay people to help them. In most of the countries
Syrian Refugees where welcome so those people were going
to help them cross the borders. The plan was
to go to Berlin, Germany where other Syrian
Refugees have gone and to find a nice community there and
Yusra hoped she could swim again.

They finally started their journey to Berlin, Germany. Yusra
was going with her cousins, older sister and another group of
Syrian refugees. First they flew to Beirut, Lebanon then they went to Istanbul,
Turkey. They were all worried that they would get caught by the police
who would send them back to Syria but they never did. From Istanbul they
made their way south to a coast closest

to the Mediterranean sea and it was really close to an island
in Greece called Lesbos too.That's where they would meet up with guys
who would help them get a boat and
get off land without anyone seeing.
This would be the most dangerous part of their journey, by sea. 

They hid in the trees by the beach waiting for the
right moment to make a move and then it came.
They ran to the boat loaded all twenty people in and
they where off with their little motor but not for long.
The Turkish Coastguard spotted them and told them
to come back to shore. Yusra now knew that it was going to be harder than
she thought.

They tried again but this time it was at night when the
darkness loomed over the sea and when the coast was
clear the ran to the little boat.

Once everyone was in they pushed off to sea and
started the motor.
But after about twenty minutes the motor sounded
as if it were working too hard and then as the minutes
went by it slowed and slowed to a stop.
THE MOTOR WAS BROKEN!

As the water started washing into the boat
the people tried to fix the motor.
After all, the boat was only a little dingy and
was supposed to only hold six people but it
had twenty in it today. None of the Refugees
wanted to die because only four of them knew how
to swim, so they threw everything they had out of the boat but that didn’t
make a difference. As the water was
ankle deep Yusra looked at Sarah
and they knew what to do. 

The two sisters and two other people from the
boat jumped out into the freezing water and Yusra
grabbed the rope at the front and started to swim
with one hand and her legs. Pushing and dragging
for an hour now they were starting
to get tired but they could see the island in the distance
so nobody gave up hope. 

But Yusra’s muscles where starting to get numb from all
the work they have been doing. So when she
thought she could do no more she looked up
into the boat and spotted a little boy perhaps six around
the same age as her little sister.
She thought they were going to die out her but she managed
a smile and tried to make him laugh because even if they did
die out here they might as well go down laughing!

When they were just about to give up hope Yusra looked at
the island and it seemed like they were actually getting closer!
So they kept on going until… they hit land, they finally made it to land!
Yusra, Sarah and the other two refugees that were swimming did
all of that for three and a half hours! 

So as soon as they got to land they just laid there trying to regain strength.
Those four amazing people had saved the lives of themselves
and sixteen other people! But no their journey
wasn’t finished yet they still had to get
to Berlin, Germany and they were in Greece!
They travelled north from country to country, crossing borders
to get to their final destination. But they had one problem on their way there. 

After a month long trip through nine different countries,
Yusra was in Berlin. Her life was far from
perfect now, she had to sleep on the
ground in a refugee camp but she had heard of a swimming club.
Even though she had not swum in two years she still tried
out for one of the swimming teams and even though she
wasn't really in shape the coach knew that she would be
a good swimmer. So Yusra got into the routine of getting up at 6.00am in
the morning to go and swim before school and as soon as
her classes were out she would go down to the swimming
pool for more practise. Her times where getting
faster and people started to notice. In 2016 she got into
The Refugee Olympic swimming team with
ten other refugees ( she apparently still didn’t have an official
country even though she lives in Berlin now!)

When doing 100m Butterfly she was the only one in her heat
from the swimming team and she WON!
Now her parents and little sister live in Berlin with her. She
didn’t care what country she swam for she just wanted to make
refugees around the world proud!

By Sophie