Amputee Saiful Islam, 7, a displaced Rohingya boy
living in the world's largest refugee camp at Kutupalong in Ukhia of
Cox's Bazar, nurtures a dream of growing up to be a physician.Saiful
suffered through severe trauma after losing his left leg due to bullet
injuries suffered in Myanmar.
Two
years ago, five-year-old Saiful along with his father went to a market
near their home in the north of the state of Rakhine in Myanmar. On
their way back, they came under gunfire. Saiful survived the attack,
sustaining bullet injuries to his leg. His father was killed.
A
traumatized Saiful along with his mother -Ayesha Begum, then aged 21,
and two younger sisters Hosne Ara and Minara Begum who were 5 and 4
respectively -- entered Bangladesh fleeing the persecution in Rakhine
state of Myanmar just eight days after he was shot.
Saiful's
run of bad luck continued as he was injured once again when a car hit
the same left leg around a year into his stay as a refugee in Cox's
Bazar. This time, it forced the amputation of the lower part of his
leg.Ayesha Begum said she entered Bangladesh with what was left of her
family - i.e. her children along with her parents and brothers.
She
was greatly relieved when she learned that under a program run by the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Saiful qualified for
prosthesis, an artificial device that replaces a missing body part,
intended to restore the normal functions of the missing body part. An
artificial limb, in other words.
Saiful,
a class-II student in one of the NGO-run schools in the camp is
grateful for being able to walk again. So much so that he now wants to
be a doctor when he grows up, since it is thanks to them that he can
walk again. Although not quite back to normal life yet, Saiful can now
even kick a football around again, slowly and carefully.
Since
getting her own leg replaced, Saiful's fellow amputee Jannat , a girl
who is also 7, accompanies him on walks along the winding, hilly roads
inside the Kutupalong camp, that according to UNHCR has grown to become
the largest refugee settlement in the world with more than 600,000
people living in an area of just 13 square kilometers.They testify to
the overriding primacy of life, of surviving, even when all else seems
lost, and hopes and dreams hardly seem to count for much.
Another
beneficiary of the ICRC program is Alam, who is much older than either
Saiful or Jannat, and in fact lost both legs from the knee downwards
after stepping on a landmine in 1991. But it was not until the crackdown
in 2017 that he fled here along with his family. In August 2017, he
entered Bangladesh after crawling for three days.
At
the camp, he managed to qualify for the ICRC program to get artificial
legs installed, and since then he has been able to even do his bit to
support his family.
Alam,
father of two sons and a daughter, now operates the sewing machine at a
tailoring shop in the camp, earning Tk 200-250 a day. His artificial
legs prove handy in winding the machine.
ICRC
spokesperson (Public Relation Officer) Rayhan Sultana Toma told UNB
that her organization has been working to provide artificial organs and
devices in different Rohingya camps and tents in Cox's Bazar for the
last one year.
They
came forward to arrange artificial legs for Saiful, Jannat and Alam so
that they can return to living normal lives again, or as close to normal
as feasible, anyway.
To
that end, the ICRC has till now arranged artificial legs and hands, or
other such devices, for 113 Rohingya amputees living in the camps in
Bangladesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment