As war drags on, aunt of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi focuses on plight of refugees

Aunt of boy who died fleeing Syria reflects on 10 years of war Tima Kurdi tells us about life after tragedy, and shares her hopes for Syria’s future.

TORONTO — Monday marks 10 years since the Syrian civil war began, and nearly six years since many around the world were shocked by the photo of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi’s body washed ashore in Turkey after his family’s boat capsized while trying to flee the violence.

While the photo of Kurdi sparked a wave of global concern about the plight of Syrian refugees, such attention can be fleeting, Alan’s aunt Tima Kurdi told CTV’s Your Morning.

“People forget because they watch the news, they look for the refugee situation, how they live. They feel sorry of course for them. But we almost feel like ‘Okay, we turn our backs and go on with our life, because it’s not our reality. They are over there we are over here’,” she said Monday.

Today, the number of refugees created by the conflict totals more than 5 million, many of whom live in camps located in countries in the region. Tima and her brother Abdullah – whose wife and other son also perished during their escape – launched the Kurdi Foundation in 2016 to raise funds for children in the refugee camps.

She described the conditions in the camps as ‘unacceptable’ and said it’s important that world leaders put politics aside and work to help the refugees.

“When actually you are on the ground it is so completely different from what the image we see,” she said. “For me, I concentrate mostly on those children because they are so innocent they don't know any other different life.”