Bring Nana Nettleton's Australian Orphans Home
Donation protected
I am Karen
My name is Karen Nettleton the grandmother of Zaynab 17, Hoda 16 and Humzeh who is now 8. They are in picture below. I am the great grandmother of Ayesha and Fatima.
A Five Year Journey
For the past five years with the help of my lawyer Robert Van Aalst who provides his services pro bono, I have been attempting to repatriate my grandchildren from Syria safely home to Australia.
I had five grand children - only three survived the war in Syria
The children have lost both parents and their two of their brothers. Zaynab has two toddlers and a baby on the way.
I am an Australian Nanna
I was born and bred on the North Coast of New South Wales and my ancestors go back to convict times in the eighteen hundreds.
My first contact with people of an Islamic background was when my late daughter married Khaled Sharrouf who became an infamous terrorist. I briefly set out below my journey to repatriate the children.
Past funding
With Robert's assistance, I raised funds from generous benefactors and other loving and concerned donors. I also used my savings, those funds and borrowed funds solely for the benefit of the children.
When I set out on this journey little did I know how long, exhausting, exhilarating, depressing and expensive this journey would be.
I have worked throughout my mid to late teens teenage and until recently.
I have given up work to apply myself full time saving my little orphan children.
All past funds were used for the benefit of the children including payment of brave people who are assisting in Syria and Iraq.
Future funds
Like the past funds, these future funds will also be used solely for the benefit of the children for food, clothes, medical services and medicines, counselling services educational and their living and travel expenses both overseas and in Australia when they return home with me. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The projected expenses are be well beyond my means because there are now three grand children, two great grandchildren and soon a baby when Zaynab gives birth to her third child.
How the funds will get to the children
All funds will be managed by Robert and I and we will apply them to the children's expenses and essential needs that I summarized above.
My campaign is a humanitarian cause for my surviving grand and great grandchildren.
They have suffered the loss of family, deprivation, and been exposed to the most horrific things. To this day, even in the camp, there are people and children dying on a daily basis. Yet when they met me on my first visit, their love and affection was if time had been wound back five years . They did not ask to be drawn into a cult or to be held as virtual captives for five years.
A short history of my journey
In 2014 my only daughter Tara went on holiday to Turkey with my five grandchildren whose ages ranged from 4 to 13. Unknown to me, Tara’s husband met them and took them to the ISIS capital in Syria, Raqqa.
Zaynab, Hoda and Humzeh in happier days
About 5 months after their arrival Tara told me she was coming home but needed a trustworthy person to help because she would not be permitted to leave.
Before putting her plan into effect Tara assisted several Yazidi women held captive to escape by giving them food, clothes, money, a phone and arranged an escape vehicle. The girls now live in Germany and last year one contacted me to tell me how Tara saved her, and the others’ lives and to thank me.
In about September 2015 Tara, then 31, died from stomach complications in Mosul Iraq. I was devastated.
Zaynab, my eldest granddaughter, gave birth to my great granddaughter Ayesha (Tara’s Arabic name) on 25 November 2015.
My first attempt to repatriate the children was in March 2016 when I traveled to Turkey with my lawyer Robert Van Aalst.
A bad selfie of Robert and me in Sydney
I believed the children were in Raqqa. Unknown to me they were near Mosul in Iraq. I had to abandon a rescue effort because my team could not get to Mosul.
In 2017 my grandsons Mohamad Abdullah 13 and Zarqawi 12 were killed in a drone strike. After that Zaynab gave birth to Fatimah, my great granddaughter, which gave some relief to my grief.
Through Google maps and images, I continued trying to locate the children by following the Euphrates River from North to South as ISIS retreated toward Baghouz, Syria, where I finally located them. I returned to Turkey in late 2018 but again was unsuccessful in repatriating them and returned to Sydney in early 2019.
In March 2019 the children were taken from Baghouz to the al-Hawl camp under Kurdish control, which houses over 70,000 refugees. I flew to Erbil and reunited with them in the camp.
Now I am attempting to convince the government to help me repatriate them home.
ABC Four Corners aired Monday 15 April 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_LPuUEkSQM
Despite using my savings and borrowing money, I need further funds for the final stretch of this long journey to save my orphaned grandchildren and great grandchildren. These are our Australian orphans, I welcome any financial assistance you can give.
My name is Karen Nettleton the grandmother of Zaynab 17, Hoda 16 and Humzeh who is now 8. They are in picture below. I am the great grandmother of Ayesha and Fatima.
A Five Year Journey
For the past five years with the help of my lawyer Robert Van Aalst who provides his services pro bono, I have been attempting to repatriate my grandchildren from Syria safely home to Australia.
I had five grand children - only three survived the war in Syria
The children have lost both parents and their two of their brothers. Zaynab has two toddlers and a baby on the way.
I am an Australian Nanna
I was born and bred on the North Coast of New South Wales and my ancestors go back to convict times in the eighteen hundreds.
My first contact with people of an Islamic background was when my late daughter married Khaled Sharrouf who became an infamous terrorist. I briefly set out below my journey to repatriate the children.
Past funding
With Robert's assistance, I raised funds from generous benefactors and other loving and concerned donors. I also used my savings, those funds and borrowed funds solely for the benefit of the children.
When I set out on this journey little did I know how long, exhausting, exhilarating, depressing and expensive this journey would be.
I have worked throughout my mid to late teens teenage and until recently.
I have given up work to apply myself full time saving my little orphan children.
All past funds were used for the benefit of the children including payment of brave people who are assisting in Syria and Iraq.
Future funds
Like the past funds, these future funds will also be used solely for the benefit of the children for food, clothes, medical services and medicines, counselling services educational and their living and travel expenses both overseas and in Australia when they return home with me. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The projected expenses are be well beyond my means because there are now three grand children, two great grandchildren and soon a baby when Zaynab gives birth to her third child.
How the funds will get to the children
All funds will be managed by Robert and I and we will apply them to the children's expenses and essential needs that I summarized above.
My campaign is a humanitarian cause for my surviving grand and great grandchildren.
They have suffered the loss of family, deprivation, and been exposed to the most horrific things. To this day, even in the camp, there are people and children dying on a daily basis. Yet when they met me on my first visit, their love and affection was if time had been wound back five years . They did not ask to be drawn into a cult or to be held as virtual captives for five years.
A short history of my journey
In 2014 my only daughter Tara went on holiday to Turkey with my five grandchildren whose ages ranged from 4 to 13. Unknown to me, Tara’s husband met them and took them to the ISIS capital in Syria, Raqqa.
Zaynab, Hoda and Humzeh in happier days
About 5 months after their arrival Tara told me she was coming home but needed a trustworthy person to help because she would not be permitted to leave.
Before putting her plan into effect Tara assisted several Yazidi women held captive to escape by giving them food, clothes, money, a phone and arranged an escape vehicle. The girls now live in Germany and last year one contacted me to tell me how Tara saved her, and the others’ lives and to thank me.
In about September 2015 Tara, then 31, died from stomach complications in Mosul Iraq. I was devastated.
Zaynab, my eldest granddaughter, gave birth to my great granddaughter Ayesha (Tara’s Arabic name) on 25 November 2015.
My first attempt to repatriate the children was in March 2016 when I traveled to Turkey with my lawyer Robert Van Aalst.
A bad selfie of Robert and me in Sydney
I believed the children were in Raqqa. Unknown to me they were near Mosul in Iraq. I had to abandon a rescue effort because my team could not get to Mosul.
In 2017 my grandsons Mohamad Abdullah 13 and Zarqawi 12 were killed in a drone strike. After that Zaynab gave birth to Fatimah, my great granddaughter, which gave some relief to my grief.
Through Google maps and images, I continued trying to locate the children by following the Euphrates River from North to South as ISIS retreated toward Baghouz, Syria, where I finally located them. I returned to Turkey in late 2018 but again was unsuccessful in repatriating them and returned to Sydney in early 2019.
In March 2019 the children were taken from Baghouz to the al-Hawl camp under Kurdish control, which houses over 70,000 refugees. I flew to Erbil and reunited with them in the camp.
Now I am attempting to convince the government to help me repatriate them home.
ABC Four Corners aired Monday 15 April 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_LPuUEkSQM
Despite using my savings and borrowing money, I need further funds for the final stretch of this long journey to save my orphaned grandchildren and great grandchildren. These are our Australian orphans, I welcome any financial assistance you can give.
Organizer
Robert Van Aalst
Organizer
Bellevue Hill, NSW