We are two ordinary Essex mums who, like thousands of people across the country, were horrified by the pictures of three-year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi's tiny corpse lying face down on a Turkish beach. 

We realised it is only through an accident of birth that little Aylan is not one of our children. So we decided we simply had to do something. 

We want to help the thousands of refugees fleeing terror in the Middle East. We are convinced that the unfolding horror is this generation's Second World War and we want to feel as proud of our actions today as our parents were of the stance Britain took standing up to the Nazis in 1939.

And when our children grow up and ask what we did when faced with possibly the biggest humanitarian disaster of the century, we want to be able to tell them we did everything we could.

We are not an organised charity, no one is being paid a salary. Everyone involved is using their precious spare time and resources to help families in desperate need.

So join us and together we can do our generation proud.