Two years ago, an echo of a huge explosion had eliminated all the sounds in Al-Ibda'a intermediate school for girls. The square and the paths of the school were covered with dust and smoke. These were the consequences of a mortar that landed in the square of the school among the classes. Zaman was an unlucky student at that moment. She was outside her class delivering the students' records to the headmistress. She was injured in this attack and laid down in the square covered with her blood. It was a very bad day in the life of this student when her laughs, joyful playing and childhood turned into crying, wailing, screaming and frozen horror in the eyes of her teachers and colleagues while they were shocked and looking at the square of their beloved school turned into a battlefield with a big black hole like a big opened jaw of a legendary monster trying to swallow them all after it seized all their smiles, rapture and laughs - this hole was made by this mortar.
It seems that this mortar was waiting for this beautiful girl in order to steal the beautiful smile from her lips; and due to the heavy blows of the explosion, the fragments of the mortar and pieces of the broken windows, Zaman, 14 years old, found herself lying down bleeding from her neck. She passed out without knowing what had happened.
Abdul Satar Jabar Hussein, Zaman's father, said that a mortar landed in the square of Al-Ibda'a intermediate school for girls on October 30, 2006, and Zaman was taken to Al-Nu'man hospital with severe injures to her neck and hands. The father continued by saying that the next day the hospital transferred her to the Neural Hospital and she had surgery under the supervision of the senior doctor Dr. Kadhum Al-Khuza'ee, and as a result of this surgery they had to cut her Spinal Cord. The father says that this surgery didn't improve her critical situation and she was unable to move her neck due to two holes in the third and fourth vertebrae (which are responsible for rotating the neck). Then she had further surgery of implanting bones in her left hand under the supervision of Dr. Ako who is senior doctor in Al-Kindi hospital. In this tragic situation Zaman is still unable to move her hand or neck.
Dr. Kadhum Al-Khuza'ee informed Zaman's family that treating Zaman inside Iraq is not possible due to the lack of medical facilities and experiences for such cases.
Zaman's father is in a difficult situation and he hopes that assistance from charities will help him in treating his beloved girl outside the country. He confirmed that he will not be able to afford this treatment because he is now jobless and his financial situation is very bad and the only source of income is his low retirement salary. The father said that the first surgery cost 600,000 ID (- $500) and the second surgery cost 500,000 ID (- $416) and he spent all his money on them with the help of some relatives and friends as he was unable to afford these amounts of money because of his low income.
Zaman's father emphasized that his beloved daughter has a great ambition - to finish her studies and despite her bad situation she insisted after one year of operations on studying and making the final exam. She succeeded and could pass the second grade of the intermediate school. Her situation now is dire and her life is a struggle because of the deformations in her neck and hand, and she has even abstained from eating many times due to her psychological situation.
She and her family are asking, what are they going to do? After they found all avenues are closed!!!!
