Empowering 80 people with disabilities in Iraq

2018 has been a year full of visits, learning, and serving our clients with all our hearts.  Some days are difficult but we press forward and are encouraged when we see improvement in a client's condition because it gives them and their family great joy and hope to stay on the path to greater rehabilitation and involvment in community life.  We have had several health professionals partner with us to serve clients including a new foreign staff member join our team long term.  We are looking forward to next year, continuing to serve 120+ families and we will be working to train them to care for each other and building community and support among families facing similar situations, and are currently preparing for a surgical team that will be coming in January to treat at least 10 of our clients which we look forward to reporting on!

A recent success story:

On our first visit with Rahma, who we knew had disability in her lower extremities, we found her unable to move, stand up, or perform any daily activities. Her father said that he has always been impacted whenever he sees a disable person. “God gave me two disabled persons in my family; my daughter and my mother” he said, as his is mother is also not able to walk or speak. A doctor taught us how to help her through physical therapy and we have followed her case and visited her twice a week. Initially we were doing the exercises for her as she had no ability to do the exercises by herself because her body was cramped and heavy. Rahma was completely depressed with no hope in life or even desire to improve. We added to the encouragement of her loving father and supportive mother to try to give her hope to move forward.

We taught the family how to do the exercises with Rahma and told them that the exercises should be done three times every day and identified long and short-term objectives which we shared with her mother and sister. We encouraged them and communicated the importance of their role in Rahma’s progress and we soon began to notice gradual physical and emotional improvement.

After a while her legs became strong and flexible enough for her to walk using a walker. Her mother was elated when she saw her daughter’s progress and was encouraged to start taking even better care of Rahma. Her mother told us that Rahma loves us so much and she can’t wait for the days when we go and visit her. “I don’t want you to leave and I feel sad when I don’t see you” Rahma said.

As her flexibility and strength improved enough, we taught her how to do the exercises by herself without any help. At first she complained that it was too difficult for her to do them on her own. However, we explained to her that doing them on her own would produce even more flexibility and strength. Rahma welcomed our encouragement to persevere and we coached her to use a rope to help pull her feet and legs during the exercises. After consistent attempts she was soon able to do the exercises on her own. Though it was difficult initially, with persistent effort and encouragement over the course of a month Rahma was able to walk one step which was fabulous! It was a joy to watch her reach this target. We knew it was important to focus on strengthening and stretching her legs and back so that she could walk more easily. The doctor recommended making two pillows filled with sand the help stretch her legs and gave us helpful exercises for her back. Her mother had the pillows made on her own and we were able to get to work right away, thanks to her mother’s care and persistence.

One day during a visit, she enthusiastically said, “I have a surprise for you guys!” The surprise was wonderful! She stood up on her own and took three steps without any support or help! Her parents exclaimed: “If you guys hadn’t come into our life and followed up on her her condition she would not have reached this point.” It brought us all great joy that we could work together to help this precious girl move from being laid flat on her bed, hopeless and disabled to walking, learning to read and write, and helping her mom wash the dishes! We will continue to visit and work with her and her family to see even greater progress.

Thank you for your partnership in changing lives like Rahma's!