Over €26,000 collected in fundraiser for family of refugee boy who drowned

A fundraising campaign launched to assist the family of a young boy who drowned last week neared 26,500 euros by 3:30 p.m. on Monday. Abdyrahman Ahirov, 6, was splashing around at the shore of a lake at De Lithse Ham on June 14 while his parents were at the beach.

When his family realized they could not see him on the hot afternoon, they called authorities. The spirited boy with black hair and brown eyes was unable to swim, police said. His body was found by emergency services the following day.

He and his family were living in a shelter in Oss, Noord-Brabant. The boy and his family had fled from Turkmenistan to Ukraine, and then they were displaced because of the war following Russia’s invasion there. The boy and his family then sought asylum in the Netherlands, bringing them to Oss, where the child was also studying the Dutch language.

The fundraiser was set up by Oss resident Mark Martens, according to the campaign website. It was organized with the family’s permission and put online on Friday. With the money, they hoped to give Ashirov a proper memorial.

He stepped up to arrange the campaign out of a sense of empathy as both a parent and a regular visitor at the lake. “Our son is 5.5 years old and that is why the message about the missing person touched us so much. And that that family has now lost their 6-year-old child is an immense and incomprehensible suffering. I wanted to do something for them and that is why I set up this campaign,” Martens told Brabants Dagblad.

“Thank you for the massive financial support for the affected family,” the campaign organizers said in an update after donations approached 25,000 euros on Sunday. “The affected family of Abdyrahman Ashirov would like to thank everyone for all the support and donations.”