LIFE LINE EZIDI - Life Jackets
Life Line Ezidi is no longer operational. Thank you to all our donors and supporters for your generosity and solidarity.
'They had survived the Islamic State's attempted genocide against their people, they had watched children die on Mount Sinjar for want to food and water and now they were possibly going to drown on the edge of Europe.'
'If we drown going to Europe we die once.
If we stay in the Middle East we die a thousand deaths.'
Knowing that many of the life jackets on sale in Izmir and Istanbul are fake, of poor quality or simply unsuitable for the open sea, I was terrified for my students' safety. In late November I began buying good quality SOLAS approved life jackets for my students and their families in the hope of increasing their chances of surviving the sea.
Since then, the operation under the name Life Line Ezidi, has expanded to helping refugees from camps across Turkey and Iraq. To date we have given over 600 good quality life jackets to refugees. Until there is the political will in Europe to stop this trade in human misery and to resettle vulnerable people directly from the camps, we must do everything we can to preserve human life.
My name is David Boulton, I'm 20 and I was the English teacher at the Sirnak Ezidi Refugee Camp in South East Turkey from June 2015 to November 2015.
In November my students and their families were leaving the camp en masse to go the sea in the hope of getting to Europe. I tried to impress on them how dangerous the crossing was but they were fully aware of the risks. As one Ezidi said to me, 'If we drown going to Europe, we die once. If we stay in the Middle East we die a thousand deaths.' Saying goodbye to my students and friends was terrible. I had nothing to give them and I did not know if these young people who I taught, eaten with, laughed with, would be alive in 48 hours. Worse they did not know if they would be alive in 48 hours. They had survived the Islamic State's attempted genocide against their people, they had watched children die on Mount Sinjar for want to food and water and now they were possibly going to drown on the edge of Europe.