Arab girl's healing starts in San Jose with a new eye to replace one destroyed in war

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By Lisa M. Krieger


11-12-2009
Trapped in the Middle East's brutal eye-for-an-eye conflict, Mariam Al Shafei was robbed of hers by a hot piece of flying shrapnel. She was only 14, a mere schoolgirl, and had never hurt anyone.

Mariam's long process of healing started Thursday afternoon. San Jose prosthetic expert Raymond Rendon built her a new eye — large and brown, like her own — and gently placed it in the empty socket.

She peered into the mirror, then tossed back her head and let out a full-throated laugh. Then she looked again, closer.

The sculpted acrylic eye was cold. It hurt a little. She wiped a tissue to catch a tear.

"It looks beautiful," said friend and translator Rima Qaru of San Francisco.

Flown here by the charity Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Mariam's medical care is donated by volunteers like Rendon and San Francisco ophthalmologist Dr. Stuart Seiff, who will do minor surgery. Other volunteers, such as Mariam's Arabic translator and the host family in Redwood City, provide food, clothing, housing and entertainment.

At least 10 other Arab children have come to the Bay Area through PCRF, a nonpolitical, nonprofit organization that was established in 1991 to identify and treat every child in need of specialized surgery.

Mariam, now 15, was hit Jan. 4, while eating breakfast in her Gaza home. It happened during an Israeli response to earlier rocket fire by Hamas.

"It was in the morning," she said, through the translator. "I was in the kitchen. There were two tanks. A neighbor's house was hit, and so many people were injured. A child died, 4 years old."

"I was going to their house, then ours was hit," she continued. "We called for help, for an ambulance, but nobody responded. Ambulances were not allowed. Then a neighbor got a big pickup truck and took me to the hospital."

Palestinian doctors removed some of the shrapnel and tried to fix her eyelid, slit in half.

But they couldn't replace her eye.

So Mariam, a pretty girl with light toffee-colored skin and straight white teeth, was left with an empty socket.

Mariam lives in Beit Lahia, a northern Gaza city near the 1949 Armistice Line with Israel and controlled by the Islamist party Hamas since elections in 2005. On the edge of the Mediterranean, it is known for its fresh, sweet water, berries and many fig and citrus trees.

But its location makes it the scene of intense battles between Israel and Hamas.

Her father, Hassan, 45, was working in the family's strawberry field four years ago, when he was killed, along with six other civilians, by an Israelis tank shell.

"He fell in the orchard where he was working," she said of her father. Tearfully she added, "He was very kind.''

Their farm destroyed, the family of 12 "depends on the good will of people," she said.

There are shrapnel scars on her forehead.

Her hijab covers a scalp injury, where hair won't grow.

There's a lump on her eyelid, and a few lashes are missing.

She wants to be a dentist when she grows up. So she needed to get better, which was helped with the special medical trip to the U.S.

She arrived in a single set of clothes, on a long flight from Cairo, wearing shoes that are too small.

She was quiet during the first days of her arrival. She carries scars unseen, awakening at night, crying. Low-flying airplanes upset her.

But happy adventures — like blowing bubbles, shopping for new clothes, going to see the film "Twilight," — are helping her relax. She marvels at how few American children are missing arms or legs.

Rendon took a mold of her eye socket and then built a new one to fit, painting it for a perfect match — a process worth more than $3,000. "She has a great attitude," he said.

In awe of American medical care, Mariam was so disappointed to discover that doctors could not restore her vision, she cried for an hour. "She thought we had miracles," Quru said.

"I am happy here and love everything here," Mariam said. She's staying until late January. "I feel safe here."

But she yearns to go home and support her nation — with her new eye.

"I wish and hope I could live in Gaza in peace and dignity, as it is my country," she wrote in a poem. "I am Palestinian and I won't leave Palestine no matter what happens."

"If there are explosions every day and fire and destruction every day and even if we are burnt by fire," she wrote. "I will still be a Palestinian and I love peace."

lkrieger@mercurynews.com

Palestinian Children's relief fund

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund is a nonpolitical, nonprofit organization that was established in 1991 by concerned Americans to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths. It has since expanded to help suffering Arab children from other Middle Eastern nations like Iraq.
The main objective of the PCRF is to identify and treat every child in need of specialized surgery not available to them at home. It also sends teams of doctors to provide medical tests and screenings. PCRF was one of the first organizations working in Palestine to be given a license by the U.S. Treasury Department after post-election restrictions were put in place for all U.S. charities there.
More than 800 children have undergone surgery or treatment outside the Middle East through the PCRF. Thousands have received tests, evaluations and screenings. "They have a proven track record of providing lifesaving, nonpolitical aid in an area where children are suffering," according to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
For more information, go to http://www.pcrf.net/

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