A WIDOW WHOSE TEARS NEVER SEEM TO DRY

A widow and a mother of six handicapped children and an epileptic son has lost hope in life watching her children suffering with no help to provide her assistance for their survival. Umm Mahir, a Palestinian from Jordan arrived in Ajman...

a few years ago along with her husband who worked in a company in the Ajman Industrial Area. After her husband died, the company refused to take care of them and they were left without a regular income that could support the family and ensure their survival.

Naseem (22), Fullah (20), Marwa (18) , Gais (13), Radad (11) and Salma (3) are all suffering from paralysis due to osteoporosis that affected each one of them after two years of their birth. Mahir (25) is suffering from epilepsy. Marwa’s handicap is more serious as she is completely paralysed, while Naseem and Fullah can crawl around and react to others. Gais and Radad are slightly better and can go to school, but unfortunately they are not going to school due to lack of finance.

Umm Mahir whose tears never dry is struggling a great deal to run the house and take care of her seven challenged children. She lost all hope in life when she could not pay for electricity bills, rent and other household needs. She carries her children one by one and moves them from one place to another and gives them a bath. She refuses to use the washing machine which was given to her by a good samaritan because she preferred to use her hands to wash her children’s clothes to save electricity.

Nothing is available in their small house except a thin mattress on the floor. They all sleep on the floor except Marwa who sleeps in her wheelchair because she can’t be moved as her bones are slowly crumbling like biscuits. Her mother said Marwa needs a mobile medical bed so that she can be moved from one place to another without holding her brittle bones.

Umm Mahir said her children are suffering from chronic osteoporosis, kidney failure, and low haemoglobin. They need good nutrition and medical care that requires a lot of money that she can’t afford. She said she depends on the blessings of God who always solves her problem anytime she is in need for urgent aids.

“I watch my children dying and I’m helpless. However, I thank God for giving me the strength to take care of my children after the death of their father,” said Umm Mahir, weeping bitterly. She said that her two older children need sponsors as they have already passed the age that allows them to be under their parent’s sponsorship. “We have no money to issue for them passports or any document as all these procedures require fees. After four months, her residency visa will be expired and she does not know who will sponsor them since they were under her late husband’s company’s sponsorship.”