Swimming to safety - by Brielle

In Syria there was a young girl named Yusra Mardini. When she was young, she was too scared to get into the pool while other kids swam, playing in the pool, she walks to the deep end of the pool and looks at the water. Her dad trained her and her sister to swim like a pro. At times she was winning competitions. When Yusra swam, she felt like she is in a different world. 

When Yusra was 13 Syrians wanted the government to have Democracy but the President of Syria didn't want. Then it became a CIVIL WAR. People were dying. Yusra and her neighbours have machine guns. Yusra's swimming training center was destroyed. She  has no place to swim anymore. Yusra's family was scared and lived in fear. 

At the age of 14, Yusra found a way to escape. It was too dangerous to escape the city. But it was also dangerous staying in the city. Yusra begged her parents to escape. But they said no because it was to dangerous. Especially for her little sister. They had to wait for the war to be over. Then the bombing reached their neighbour hood and their house was destroyed. 

Two of Yusra's cousins planned a long and dangerous trip to Europe and asked to take Yusra and her older sister with them.  So Yusra and her sister went with their cousins. She left with some clothes, a phone and cash to pay the smugglers so that she could go through any countries, because Syrians are not allowed to be in other countries. 

First they flew to one of the cities in Lebanon, then to one of the cities in Turkey.  After that, they began one of the dangerous leg of their journey. Yusra and her sister hid with the group in the woods next to the beach to check if the sea is calm and to avoid the Turkish guard. The smugglers led them into a small boat and pushed them out to sea. But as soon as they left, the Turkish guard caught them and forced them back to shore.