Friday, December 03, 2010
IRAQ’s Miraculous Orphan Story قصة اليتيمة غفران
قصة اليتيمة غفران مشعان علي
We are grateful to Israa Al-Qaysi, Sundus Saleh and Auf Al-Rawi from Life for Relief & Development and to Nuha Ali from Al-Ethar Center for their wonderful work to help these needy families.
But this year, we were unable to launch another fundraising project. Instead, Wafaa’ donated a very modest amount for eight orphans in Baghdad, who received school supplies through Life for Relief and Development. One of the orphans, a four-year old girl Ghufran, was unique in that her story was miraculous. In fact Wafaa’ called it a ‘prophets story’
In 2006, Ghufran’s mother and father as they sat to eat a meal, US forces attacked their area. The first missile fell on the father and killed him; the second hit the mother, but did not kill her. Instead she lost her sight and wounded her head and abdomen. At that time, the mother was six-month pregnant. Her cousin immediately took her to Madinatul Tib Hospital. For more than two months, the mother was in a comma, and then woke up shortly before the doctor’s procedure to deliver the baby! At first, doctors did not believe that the baby would survive, but when found alive, the specialist operated on the mother who gave birth to a baby girl. The blind mother inquired from her cousin about the baby’s features and whether her ears were normal or not. The baby was healthy. Her mother named her Ghufran, breastfed her once and then died fifteen days later.
4-year old Ghufran
The doctor inquired whether the mother’s cousin was able to buy her baby formula and feed her instead of her mother’s milk. She agreed, took the baby home and began taking care of her. The doctor made such a recommendation because the mother was very sick. Her cousin, the caregiver, assigned her sister to look after the sick mother at the hospital until she passed away two weeks later.
Four years later (in October 2010), Wafaa’ Al-Natheema phone interviewed Ghufran’s guardian and recorded Ghufran’s voice as she counted the numerals. The interview can be made available upon request by writing to the Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS) at the following addresses:
The story of Ghufran’s parents and beautiful Ghufran herself deserves not only worldwide media attention, but a movie (fiction and/or documentary) to be made narrating its details.
We welcome your support in the forms of suggestions, projects and/or donations to help Ghufran and her guardians.
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* Retired professor of political science and a member of INEAS's board of directors.
