(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Ayoub Khaddaj
BEIRUT, Sept 8 (KUNA) -- As Essam, a Syrian refugee, was waiting for his brother Mohammad to leave the operation theater, where doctors were treating a hearing impairment, he was next to do the same procedure. Haneen, their sister, underwent the same surgery and she was sitting next to her parents waiting for her brothers to finish.
The trio, from the Syrian city of Aleppo, were just an example of the tragic living and health conditions of the Syrian families plagued by the conflict in their country.
Mohammad, 11, Essam, eight, and 13-year-old Haneen Abdulmajeed all suffer from hearing impairment. They live with their family in a refugee camp in Jeyyeh, a coastal area south of Beirut.
The seven-member family travelled from Aleppo to Lebanon in 2013. Their father, Abdullateef Abdulmajeed, worked as a farmer to feed his family only to discover that three of his kids suffered from hearing impairment.
Abdullateef explained to workers of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), during a routine visit to the camp, the gravity of the hearing impairment problem and that he was unable to treat it.
UNHCR deals with emergency and live-threatening conditions, said Alan Ghagri, one of the workers.
However, the hearing impairment of the three Syrian children "fall within the humanitarian cases which are not life-threatening," he told KUNA, which prompted UNHCR to reach out to Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) to explore a possible solution.
Dana Snow, director of the health program at Makhzoomi institute, who oversaw the treatment of the three children, said UNHCR contacted KRCS and the latter paid for their treatment, including the operation.
Speaking to KUNA, Snow said Makhzoomi was assigned to follow up the treatment journey of the Syrian refugees.
It was a long and agonizing waiting period before Mohammad and Essam left the operation theater, feeling reborn with the gift of Allah successfully restored.
Abdullateef, who thanked Kuwait and KRCS for their help, said Mohammad and Essam suffered from complete hearing impairment and needed a cochlear implant, while Haneen needed to install a device to help her hear.
"I can't describe how happy I am. I can't pay the cost of an operation for one son, imagine three," he said.
Mohammad, Essam and Haneed feel they born again. They were enrolled in a special school to learn how to speak well and thus feel normal as the other kids.
Dr. Musaed Al-Enezi, head of KRCS's mission in Lebanon, said humanitarian cases were "a real agony for the refugee families who work hard to provide the basic needs." He told KUNA operations and treatment cost a hefty sum of money, and the parents could not afford them, hence KRCS contributed to help.
The family of Abdulmajeed require big assistance from humanitarian organizations, he noted.
KRCS has been offering assistance for the Syrian refugees since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, whether food, clothes and heaters, said Al-Enezi, who also noted that the society intervened to address critical cases.
KRCS, he said, offered aid to carry out surgeries to patients suffering from kidney problems, burns or in need of artificial limps. (end) ayb.bs
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