On Wednesday at work the refugee crisis became extremely close to me. Our work twitter account was asked to help with a request to contact the Greek Coast Guard. There were some Syrian refugees that had said they were in trouble at sea.
I saw the request six minutes after it was sent, 16 minutes after it was first posted. Let that sink in for a moment, people were in trouble and needed help. They had waited 16 minutes. You get impatient waiting a minute for the kettle to boil. Imagine how they felt, on a boat, no idea if someone is coming to help them, probably taking on water.
The person who asked on twitter on how to contact the Greek Coast Guard was being sent web addresses. None of them were for who they needed. I was in a unique situation, I was able to get the right number for their operations room, the one they needed. I was able to give this 21 minutes after they wanted the number.
Remember that, 21 minutes. Less time than it takes you to cook oven ready chips, but more than enough time for a boat to sink.
Did I help? Hopefully, and although my part was barely enough to count as helping, I did. What did you do yesterday?
But the story doesn’t finish there. In the evening I saw the heart breaking story and photos you will have seen, the three year old boy, dead on the beach.
There were 21 minutes before I got the number across, six minutes before I saw the message. Do you know how long it takes to drown? Less than a minute for a healthy strong person, usually about 20 seconds for a child.
Twenty one minutes is a long time. Not as long the minute and a half it took me to confirm that the boat I helped in a small way was 200 miles away from the dead three year old boy on the beach.
That was 90 seconds of pain and anguish at feeling I hadn’t acted quick enough. I never want you to feel that. Never.
Don’t feel the pain I felt, sign the petition, the link is below. Then when the next dead child washes up on a beach, and there will be more, at least you’ve acted in time doing the one thing you can do to help. It will probably be the most important thing you’ll do this year.
There’s more difference in the DNA between two Labradors than there is in the human race. These people in trouble are your cousins. Help your family, they need you.
The people in the boat I helped made it safely to shore, but their story could so easily have been very different but sadly familiar.
