Abdullah al-Kurdi holds a picture of his two sons who drowned in the Aegean Sea in Turkey six years ago, in Erbil, Iraq, Oct 2, 2021. (KHALIL DAWOOD / XINHUA)

BAGHDAD - "After my children drowned, I decided to work in the humanitarian field to help all the children in need, so that the tragedy would not happen again," said Abdullah al-Kurdi, a Syrian-Kurdish refugee and the father of the child Alan whose picture shocked the world with his body lying on his face on a Turkish beach several years ago.

One summer night in 2015, al-Kurdi's life was changed forever when he, his wife, and two children, Ghalib and Alan, boarded a small smugglers' boat that sent out migrants and refugees at a village near the Turkish resort of Bodrum in the Aegean Sea.

After about four minutes of sailing, a high wave hit and capsized the boat, drowning several people, including al-Kurdi family members.

Abdullah al-Kurdi and his family were forced to flee their home when the civil war erupted across Syria and the extremist Islamic State militants committed crimes against civilians

Later, a picture depicted a dark-haired toddler, wearing a red T-shirt and blue shorts, washing up on a beach and lying face down in the surf of the Aegean Sea. The picture had gone viral across the world and became a reminder of the danger that children and families are facing for seeking a safe and better life due to conflicts in their countries.

Abdullah al-Kurdi and his family were forced to flee their home when the civil war erupted across Syria and the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants committed crimes against civilians.

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About 20 days after he buried his wife and two children in his hometown Kobane in northern Syria, al-Kurdi received a phone call from Nechirvan Barzani, regional president of Iraq's Kurdistan, who offered him a house and a salary to live in Erbil, capital of Kurdistan.

At his home in Erbil, al-Kurdi is living with his new wife, and they have a child, named Alan, the same name as his son who drowned in the Aegean Sea.

He used to spend some time staring at pictures of his late children and wife, as well as a painting by a Kurdish artist of his son Alan lying on the beach.

Al-Kurdi always remembers what happened to him in the middle of the sea when his boat sank, and how he had been asking for help for hours without an answer.

Al-Kurdi blames himself for his family's tragedy. "If I knew that would happen, I wouldn't have emigrated," al-Kurdi told Xinhua with tears in his eyes, but another thought came across his mind. "If we had stayed in Syria, we would have died. I wanted to ensure a better future for my children."

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The grief of losing loved ones inspired him to establish Alan and Ghalib Kurdi Foundation, also known as Kurdi Foundation, in Erbil with the help of his sister Tima who lives in Canada.

The foundation's mission is to provide aid to children living in refugee camps with the hope that other families would not suffer the same tragedy by choosing a perilous journey across the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

Abdullah al-Kurdi holds clothes he plans to distribute to school students in the refugee camps, in Erbil, Iraq, Oct 2, 2021. (KHALIL DAWOOD / XINHUA)

Al-Kurdi dedicated one of his house rooms to manage the foundation, and he collected a lot of children clothes, school bags, and other things in another room for students at the schools of the displaced camps in Iraq's Kurdistan.

"I plan to spend the rest of my life helping the children, because I don't want to see a child in need, and if there is, I would do everything to help him even if I have to plead with others to help," al-Kurdi said with pain and sadness.

"Every year on Sep 2, my family members' death anniversary, I distribute school clothes, bags, and uniforms to students at primary schools," al-Kurdi said.

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Al-Kurdi attributed what happened to his country and Syrian people to foreign and Western intervention, as they provided various armed groups with weapons that fueled years of bloodshed that devastated the country.

"Where did the weapon come from? Weapons came to Syria through the West. The Western and foreign intervention that we saw in Syria is the reason for the deterioration of the situation," al-Kurdi said.

"I blame everyone who supplies terrorists with weapons. I don't understand politics, but what I do understand is whoever helps supply terrorists with weapons to kill people is responsible for the tragedy of our people," al-Kurdi added.

It has been over six years since al-Kurdi lost all family members. His tragedy became an example of the suffering of displaced Syrians and refugees whose country was destroyed by the civil war and foreign interventions, which transformed Syria from a peaceful country whose people live in harmony into a battlefield.