A Scots-born humanitarian has launched an appeal to help refugee families at a migrant gateway island in the Mediterranean.
April Humble, 29, of Lilliesleaf in the Scottish Borders, is to travel to the island of Kos in Greece next week to help with a rescue effort set up by the residents there without any support from international authorities.
Currently working with an environmentalist group based in Berlin, Germany, she said she was compelled to help in the crisis because of the lack of action from the heads of most European states.
She set up the appeal to help pay for basic provisions for refugees who are living with families in Kos after fleeing war-torn Syria.
It comes after international outrage when three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother, Rehan, from Syria drowned after a desperate bid for a new life.
The family was attempting to reach Kos.
Ms Humble works with The Earth League, an alliance of high-level climate change experts looking to influence global action on the environment, also writes on border security and migration.
She said: "I have spent time in Turkey, Jordan, and Syria at the beginning of the revolution.
"In Syria, the birth place of agriculture, and the region where three of the worlds' major religions came from - Christianity, Islam and Judaism - is a rich, thriving and sophisticated place.
"They are a very warm and proud people, who have family, community, jobs and safety, until very recently.
"A complex civil war with many players has blown that apart."
She is paying her own way there and has also already collected more than £2,000 to help people in Kos with food and other essentials.
She said that "for those few that are economic migrants, I don’t see what is wrong with seeking a better life".
"There are millions of Brits living across Europe and the rest of world because they want a better life.
She added: "I hope efforts like me going to Kos are just plugging the gap.
"Currently, there are no aid or government organisations on Kos, so it is simply locals doing their best to help the several thousand destitute migrants there, 600 more arriving every day.
"I hope that soon, you will not need to have normal citizens like me flying to other countries just to hand out water and food to mothers and children from foreign lands, from money collected from donations."
http://gogetfunding.com/essential-supplies-for-refugees-in-kos/
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