Activity 2: Swimming to Safety [4 points]
Yusra Mardini is a teenage girl who was born in Syria, a war-torn country in the Middle East. She left Syria in 2015 to get away from the constant fighting and became a refugee. During her journey to reach safety in a new country, the engine on the boat she was travelling in broke down and Yusra, her sister and two others jumped out of the boat and swam to get help. Her heroic actions saved twenty people’s lives.
Yusra now lives in Germany. In 2016 she was named as part of the Refugee Olympic Team and she swam for this team in the last summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is now training for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
For this activity, listen to the podcast of Yusra Mardini, or read her story on her personal website.
On your blog, retell the story of this amazing young woman from Syria.
My Story Recap.
In 2015 Yusra and her family fled from Syria to find a better home in Europe. Yusra Mardini and her family where refuges. Yusra was a proffesional swimmer. On the way to Greece on a overcrowded dinghy (small boat), the dinghys engine stopped working so Yusra, her sister and two others jumped off and kept all the 20 people safe while they were swimming for three hours saving the 20 people's lives. They finnaly arrived to there destination.
A year later Yusra was recognised by the International Olympic Committee by her work. She then became a member of the first refuge olympic team.
Yusra competed in the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. She helped 65 million people wordwide. Since then Yusra has meet U.S president and Pope Francis.
The End
Hello Lukas!
ReplyDeleteI love reading Yusra's story and seeing other people summarising it. Did her story inspire you?
Kind regards,
Riiana
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKia ora Lukas
ReplyDeleteWell done for participating in this years' SLJ programme, "Changemakers: People who have changed the world" - thanks for your response to activity 2: Swimming to Safety.
That was a great recount of Yusra's incredibly brave story - how impressive is she?! I can't believe she swam for 3 1/2 hours! I can barely swim for half an hour let alone that long. Do you think you'd be able to do what Yusra did, if you were in a similar situation where people's lives were at risk? I'd definitely give it a good shot!
Looking forward to your next blog post.
Ngā mihi,
Jordan