A journey into the unknown

Two Syrian sisters, Sarah and Yusra Mardini, saved the lives of other refugees by pushing their boat to Greek shores when they were escaping from war. (USMessageBoard)

By Korea.net Honorary Reporters Salwa Elzeny and Esraa Elzeny

Korea.net has launched a new collaborative project with its honorary reporters around the world. Each honorary reporter will write a story on the same topic, but from each of their own home cities or countries. The stories will then be shared with our community of Korea.net readers.

For the first subject in the series, Korea.net asked our honorary reporters to send in a touching story from their home communities. Here's our 14th story on this subject, from Egypt, by way of Syria. 

The ambition and power of two Syrian sisters, Sarah and Yusra Mardini, is responsible for having helped to save the lives of 20 people, including their own, after jumping off their sinking dinghy into the Aegean Sea and pushing their boat to the Greek shores to arrive finally in Germany. 

After the conflict began in Syria, Mardini's family fled in search of a promising future for their daughters and to ensure that they would be able to continue with their professional swimming training.

"Everything was good," said 20-year-old Sarah. "That was before the war."

Yusra, the 17-year-old, represented her country, Syria, at the world championships for short distance swimming in Turkey in 2012. However, the war pushed the two sisters away from swimming.

On Aug. 12, 2015, four and a half years after the civil war began, Mardini and her eldest sister, Sarah, left Syria with their father's two cousins and some other refugees. They left Damascus and joined other Syrians who had lost any hope of seeing an end in sight to the conflict in their country. They traveled to Lebanon and then to Turkey, where they paid money to smugglers to get them to Greece.

The two Syrian sisters traveled by boat for 25 days, eventually arriving in Germany. For much of the time, they had to hang off the side of the boat, swimming alongside. (Rocketnews)

In their first attempt, the Turkish coast guard was able to thwart the refugees. The second attempt, on board a rubber boat carrying 20 people, most of whom didn't know how to swim, might have been successful but then water began to get inside the boat. 

Sarah, Yusra and three others who were able to swim jumped into the water in order that the boat remained afloat and above water.

Yusra and Sarah Mardini are on stage during the Bambi Awards 2016 show at the Stage Theater on Nov. 17, 2016, in Berlin. (Zimbio Entertainment)

The swimmers stuck to the side of the boat with ropes for about three hours until they arrived at the shore of the Greek island of Lesbos. The sisters then headed along the long road to Austria and finally to Germany.

After their arrival in Berlin, a local charity entered them in a swim club near the refugee camp, named Wasserfreunde Spanddau 04.

In addition to the ambition of Yusra, the older sister, Sarah, is still struggling to bring the rest of the family to Germany. "It seems to me that I have balanced my life," said Sarah. "We can't do anything good in our life if we don't have swimming."

Sven Spannekrebs, their coach, said the sisters are making amazing progress, though he's realistic about their prospects as professional athletes. "They can swim at the highest level for the Arab world, but there's a difference with Europe because of the training conditions," he said.

Yusra, who specializes in the butterfly stroke, is aiming high. "Maybe when I learn German I will start school. I want to be a pilot," she said. 

Yusra Mardini swam for the Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. (The Associated Press)

The Refugee Olympic Team competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro Aug. from 5 to 21, 2016, as independent Olympic participants. In March 2016, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach declared that the IOC would choose five to 10 refugees to compete in the Rio Olympics, in the context of the "worldwide refugee crisis," of which the European migrant crisis is a prominent part.

The athletes competed under the Olympic Flag. Initially, they were labeled the "Team of Refugee Olympic Athletes," with the IOC country code ROA. However, this was updated to the "Refugee Olympic Team" with the country code ROT.

Yusra was selected as one of the initial three athletes identified as potential competitors for Rio. The patience and insistence required to achieve this dream will make the impossible possible. Finally, as Yusra said, "You are stronger than you think."

wisdom117@korea.kr