Hayden’s story

I met Haydeh in a carpark in Dunkirk. Sitting quietly by the lake in a red coat, she smiled in welcome as I asked to sit with her. She talked in Kurdish, her friend translated into Farsi and a fellow volunteer translated it for me; a vivid connection in three languages.

Although heavily pregnant, Haydeh spent 15 days walking from Turkey to Greece. With her husband and 20 others she spent 72 hours on a boat to Italy before it crashed near the beach. One person drowned. She cannot get this out her mind; it continues to distress her.

She then walked over the mountains into France, and has spent the last 10 days in Dunkirk. Although the stress at times has caused her to vomit blood, she smiles and says she is fine. All she wants is to live a peaceful and simple life and to deliver her baby boy, due in March, in a safe place.

She doesn’t feel safe in France.

Her message? ‘I don’t want any woman to have to go through what I have; but I left Kurdistan because I had to’.

Sadly there are many brave women like Haydeh who only want to get somewhere safe. To help them now go to https://goo.gl/PWrSS3