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عربي

Zainab: an orphan of war
25/03/2009

Eight-year-old Zainab lost her father two years ago when he was killed during sectarian violence.

Zainab lives with her mother, her elder sister Tabarak, who is twelve, her elder brother Ali, who is ten, and younger brother Mohammed, who is three. Both Zainab and Mohammed are sponsored by IR donors.

Zainab suffers with severe diabetes and has to take insulin shots twice a day. The shots cost her mother around $50 a month which puts a huge financial strain on the family.

The family live in a poor district of Baghdad known to be one of the most dangerous in the whole of Iraq. Their house is old and dilapidated and one of the rooms was totally demolished after a random missile struck the building. Thankfully the family was sleeping in another room at the time the missile struck.

Zainab’s health began to seriously deteriorate after a missile hit a number of nearby houses. The shock of the blast left Zainab unconscious and she was in hospital for a week.

“I have no pension or other income except the sponsorship of my little children that I receive from Islamic Relief. I cannot afford the costs of my daughter’s medicines anymore. Sometimes my neighbours and friends collect money to pay for these amounts,”

Zainab’s mother told IR.Zainab and her brother are two out of an estimated five million orphans living in Iraq