A Circassian girl from Syria Zaina Alcherkas swam across the La Manche channel. She started from the British side of the channel and after 11 hours and 36 minutes of swimming came to the French side. She swam 34 miles.
Zaina called this operation "swimming for hope". She said "I can not stop the war in Syria but I can swim. She had not seen her family for several years and today after passing the channel she met her father.
In Syria, a large Circassian community, around 150,000. Since the outbreak of the war, ten thousands of them have moved to other countries. Some of them, several thousand have also managed to reach their historic homeland in the Caucasus.
