Mike Haines

The Kidnapping and Murder of David Haines - 13.09.2014

As a humanitarian aid worker, David Haines had spent much of his life helping victims of conflict from the Former Yugoslavia to South Sudan, and most recently in Syria. A former aircraft engineer in the Royal Air Force, David had entered humanitarian work in 1999 - whilst assisting refugees and internally displaced persons in the Syrian Province of Idlib, close to the Turkish Border, in March 2013 he was kidnapped by Islamist Insurgents along with another aid worker.

The tortuous months that followed proved immensely difficult for his family back home and his brother, Mike Haines, was assigned as the point of contact between the family and authorities, including the Foreign Office. Over a year following his abduction, a video showing David’s barbaric execution was released online by ISIS, confirming his death. Since David’s murder, his brother Mike established the organisation Global Acts of Unity in order to campaign for, and start a conversation about, unity, tolerance, and understanding, and delivers talks often to schools and community venues. You can read more on Mike’s work, and Global Acts of Unity, by navigating to their website by clicking on the logo below.