Dear Aylan,

You should be 4. You should be safe. You should be here. How the world will ever explain your death to the next generation I will never know. The only true explanation will bring a shame onto ours that will scar us in history along with the worst of humanity, and rightly so.

Aylan, you should be here. You should be excitedly preparing for a new year at nursery, watching your brothers and sisters go off to school. You should be laughing and giggling and playing.
Instead your cruelly short life came to an end in the arms of a soldier, on the beaches, in the eyes of the world. Aylan there are so many who cried, your beautiful little body broke the world’s heart.

A year on there is still no explanation, there is still no humane reason why you were forced to lose your life, the big men and women who run this world should have done more. Mummy and Daddy just wanted you to be safe, to have a home and all the other wonderful things children should have.

Aylan you should know, you’ve saved more lives than anyone else I’ve ever met.

Last year, to this day, when you lost your beautiful little life the world cried, and then something stirred. Hundreds, thousands of people around the world, designers, teachers, paramedics, vets. They couldn't sit by, and they came to help, and they've saved lives.

Aylan they’re still there. I know we will never be able to explain your death but if we can take anything positive from the 2nd of September 2015 it has to be that there are thousands of people who are doing everything they can to prevent more. People who want to help.

People who wept on trains, in their homes, on the street because they know there is no world in which you should have died.
The world is still a big and scary place, there are lots of little girls and boys still without homes and in the little boats, but we won't stop trying.

I’m so sorry you were cold and no one came to help, there are so many that wanted to. There are so many people who love you, people whom you never met, but they love you so much. We love you and we won’t stop trying, there is always space, here in our hearts, on our streets, in our schools.

I promise we will try, the ones of us who know, who understand you just want a place to play, to grow, to learn. We won’t stop trying. Sorry will never be enough but it’s all we have left. My little brother we are so sorry.

So many people are thinking of you today, people who never saw your soft and cheeky smile are thinking of you, hoping you are at peace. Our hearts are broken. All you ever knew was war I hope it’s peaceful where you lay now.

Fly high in your never-land Habibi.