People donate hundreds of baby carriers to refugees carrying children to Europe in their arms

Crowdfunding campaigns such as Indiegogo are aiming to help refugees making the journey with small children

Many refugees are carrying children in their arms for miles as they make their journey to Europe (AFP/Getty Images)

People from around the world are donating baby carriers to help refugees carrying children in their arms for miles at a time as they make their journey into Europe.

Moved by images of Syrian refugees holding babies in their arms and the photograph of three-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up dead on a Turkish beach, Cristal Logothetis started a crowdfunding campaign for donations of used baby carriers and money to buy new ones.

Still going strong, Indiegogo, the campaign founded by the Californian mother-of-one, is focused on buying and delivering baby carriers, slings and wraps for parents arriving by boat in Greece.

Cristal Logothetis has set up a crowdfunding campaign to provide refugees with baby carriers (Cristal Logothetis/Facebook)

“I think we can all agree regardless of our beliefs that children don’t deserve the situation that they’re in,” Ms Logothetis told the BBC this week.

“After I saw the picture of this little boy depicted dead, face down in the sand, that really struck a chord.

”In all of the pictures, most of the footage, you were seeing parents holding babies in their arms.“

She said she did not think she could hold her own son for more than 10 minutes at a time and that it gave her the idea to send baby carriers to Greece.

”These refugees are walking hundreds of miles through inhospitable conditions not knowing what sort of future they face in the next country they reach. Providing a baby carrier is the bear minimum.“

The most recent round of the campaign’s fundraising has raised $34,000 in 22 days, according to its website, and will see a team of volunteers visit Kos, in Greece, next month with 1,400 carriers.

And, in December, new baby carriers – bought with money donated through the campaign – will be delivered by volunteers to Athens and the surrounding Greek islands.

Writing on her blog last week, in response to an article reportedly questioning how Ms Logothetis’s campaign is helping refugees, she said: “Baby carriers can lessen the disadvantages that a single parent might face if travelling with children and babies.”

She said she was perplexed that some people had argued that “Syrian women are different” and “baby wearing is not a lifestyle choice for them”.

“These women’s arms are no different than ours,” she added.