Roza’s road back to health
4'
The first few weeks of Roza’s life were not what her parents, had planned for her. Before she was two weeks old, her family was forced to flee for their lives, leaving their home and livelihood behind.
“There was fighting in the village nearby. My cousins called me. They were trying to protect the village, but we could hear the fighting, so we fled,” recounted Olan, Roza’s father.
“We had taken enough food with us, but when we realised our neighbours and friends didn’t have any, we shared our food with them,” continued Olan. “How can I have enough to eat and watch them starve?”
Soon their little girl began to lose weight. “Roza was very thin. We were all hungry. I kept thinking she was going to die and I would have to leave her there on the mountain.”
After seeking refuge on Sinjar mountain for 10 days, the family moved to Sharya camp in Duhok with more than 18,000 other people displaced from Sinjar. When the family first arrived in Sharya camp, their tent had no cement foundations and would flood every time it rained. They cooked in the tent, but Bijwa, Roza’s mother, was often afraid the tent would catch fire.
Roza continued to be dangerously small for her age. When Roza was one year old, Medair community health workers visited her family’s tent and found Roza suffering from severe malnutrition. They referred Roza to the new nutrition programme that was starting at the Medair clinic nearby. Roza was the first child with severe malnutrition admitted to Medair’s feeding programme in Sharya camp.
“On first arrival, Roza was not particularly well attached to her mother and quite developmentally delayed,” said Sarah, the Health Project Manager at the clinic.
Yet after five months of treatment, Roza became interactive, well attached to her mother, and started walking.
“Medair worked hard to make sure Roza got better,” said Bijwa. “Before, she was always lying down and we thought she was going to die. Now she is very active and happy. Whenever we come to the clinic they give us good quality medicines and food for Roza. Medair is doing their best to care for our people.”
Medair’s clinic opened in December 2014 to provide essential health services to the displaced families living in Sharya camp. In August 2015, Medair began a nutrition programme that includes weekly feeding and monitoring for children who are malnourished or at risk for becoming malnourished.
Please make a gift today to help more children like Roza recover from malnutrition in Iraq.
CHECK OUR LATEST STORIES
Featured StoriesStoriesSyriaHealth and Nutrition
A new life for a clinic in Syria
"The clinic is ready!" The news was music to Dr Eyad's,(the director of Tal Salhab clinic), ears. Medair had just completed the rehabilitation of Tal Salhab's only primary health centre, providing it with much-needed medical equipment – offering a lifeline to over...
StoriesSudanWater, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
The Sudan crisis: how Medair is stepping in
Sudan crisis: how Medair is stepping in Twelve months into the armed conflict in Sudan, it has become the largest displacement crisis in the world. To date, 8.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and the number is growing every day. Families have...
StoriesUkraineHealth and NutritionMental Health
The Need for mental health support in Ukraine
“I really enjoyed the organization of these trainings. I’ve already gained a lot of interesting knowledge, which, it seems, I was already familiar with, but had never thought about it deeply. Learning new things, I understand how I can apply them in my work to...
StoriesMadagascarWater, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
Medair’s innovative response to drought
In southern Madagascar, Medair aims to play a key role in improving access to water, sanitation, and hygiene for vulnerable communities affected by drought and 'kere' (famine). Normally, people living in remote villages in southern Madagascar need to walk 10 to 40...
StoriesUkraineShelter and Infrastructure
Surviving Adversity
“Sometime around 6 a.m., my nephew called me and said, ‘Are you still sleeping? THE conflict has started.’ I shouted at my children to turn on the television to watch the news. I never thought I would experience something like this at my age. It was a terrifying...
StoriesJordanHealth and Nutrition
Health Improvement Journey
"We lost everything, our home and farm, therefore I left everything behind me. I carry hope to have a better place for me and for my family," Fozeh said, her voice heavy with the weight of displacement but her spirit resilient with the promise of a brighter future....
StoriesMadagascarWater, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)Women & Children
Fetching water, a burden for women
In the struggle of finding clean water, women bear the heaviest load "In addition to my duties as a single mother, I have to fetch water three hours away every day," shares Farasoa, a 38-year-old divorcee raising seven children in the Fokontany of Ambory...
StoriesYemenHealth and Nutrition
From a shack to a health unit
Following nearly a decade of conflict in Yemen, the country has experienced a partial collapse of an already fragile public infrastructure, leaving approximately 66 percent of the population in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Yemen’s healthcare system has...