(Photo: Steve Walz/Sheba Medical Center)
By Abigail Klein Leichman - October 27, 2019
A Kurdish refugee toddler — we’ll call him Ajwan, for security reasons – is the latest of 44 Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish children who’ve had emergency medical treatment at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center in 2019 alone.
Ajwan, three and a half, had lifesaving open-heart surgery that wasn’t available in Iraqi Kurdistan, where his family has been living for a few years due to the dangers the community faces in northern Syria.
“I was not afraid to come to Israel, even though I was warned I could lose my Syrian passport,” his mother told the local press. She’ll probably stay with Ajwan for about two weeks before he’s able to return home.
“The [Kurdish] parents we see are really beautiful people. It’s hard to express how nice and warm they are,” says Dr. David Mishali, head of International Congenital Heart Surgery at Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital.
Entry visas for Ajwan and his mother, as well as the others, were expedited by the Israeli Interior Ministry in coordination with Shevet Achim, a Christian Zionist organization based in Jerusalem.
Read More: Israel21c