Children we support
Elham
The girl is disfigured in the body and wounded in the soul. To treat her properly, we would have to take her out of Syria but it is impossible and for now we can only ensure that she can eat and heal her wounds. The situation is bleak, she lives in a refugee camp and even when she goes to school the children are afraid of her and do not play with her. Our commitment is to continue to be close to you.
Nour and her brothers
This little girl and her nine siblings live in the camp we support but, unfortunately, they were taken back to Syria by deception. They are alone and all we can do today is bring them financial support and try to bring them back to the camp where we have been taking care of them for several years.
Thalassemia children, Rahaf and Muhammed
They are two siblings suffering from thalassemia for whom we have been taking care of all the therapies that this disease entails for years.
Amina
The girl is affected by Cat Eyes Syndrome which is a disease that leads to more than one pathology, all quite severe. We supported her to be able to undergo the re-canalization operation and we continue to support her in her treatment path.
Abdullah and his brothers
Abdullah is a little boy we have known for several years and he took care of his five siblings on his own. Their situation is among the most fragile in the camp and the association provides for their financial support, as well as being a remote supported nucleus.
Little Nour
It is perhaps the most dramatic situation on the pitch. Nour practically lives alone and strays, cared for by a lady who does it as and when she can. The association provides for her, as well as being supported from a distance.
Rahed and his brothers
Rahed is a little boy we have known for several years and he took care of his four siblings on his own. Their situation is among the most fragile in the camp and the association provides for their financial support, as well as being a remote supported nucleus.
Children we have supported
There are stories and meetings that change the course of events, and can alter lives in an absolutely indelible way: it happened to us at SSCh, because the incipit of our history is closely linked to the smiling face of Mohammed.
Mohammed is the Syrian boy you can see smiling in this picture, when he was 11, now he is 15.
Having escaped from Syria at war with his large family (made up of parents, 2 younger brothers and 2 little sisters, plus another newborn little brother), he lives in Turkish territory, along the Turkish-Syrian border, in a tent, in a spontaneous refugee camp, so non-institutional (therefore excluded from aid by the Turkish government and the voluntary associations that work for refugees), located very far from inhabited centres.
When we met him, on the occasion of our first mission in October 2014, he was seriously ill: his illness, diagnosed by Federica, an Italian doctor who had come on that mission with Arianna Martini, although very serious, was treatable, but unfortunately his family could not provide for him. Federica at her own expense immediately procured the necessary medicines for him for the first month and in doing so saved his life, because without her intervention he was hopelessly destined to a very quick death.
As soon as we got back to Italy, we started fundraising so that in November 2014, during the second SSCh mission, Arianna and Agnese could bring him other medicines and prolong the treatment.
When we went back in February 2015, during our third mission, the disease had not been eradicated and his health was increasingly compromised. Without even thinking for a moment of giving up, thanks to the IOM (the International Organization on Migration) section in Turkey, we managed to have him checked at the nearest hospital.
All this was possible thanks to the many supporters who believed in us and above all in him, and to the extraordinary contribution of the Mahmud Committee.
Our project: a new life for Mohammed and his family
Following the medical tests, he was diagnosed with major kidney and liver problems, and he absolutely needs appropriate care and to live in a healthy environment. Distance is a major impediment to access essential care, and continuing to live in the tent, without having access to clean and drinkable water, in a disastrous and unthinkable situation from an hygienic-sanitary point of view, is an insurmountable problem for his serious state of health.
During the mission of August 2015, therefore, decent accommodation was found in a rented house, far from the refugee camp, and Mohammed, his parents and brothers and sisters, among whom in particular a little newborn brother, moved there immediately.
It is an absolute priority for him to live near a hospital in a real home: our project is precisely to guarantee him this opportunity to be treated, staying in dignified accommodation with his family, paying for the daily and extraordinary needs his illness requires.
All of this can be achieved with our usual transparency and honesty, thanks to the generosity and willingness of those who believe in us and in the battle for the life of Mohammed.
You can join us, and contribute here with what you can: any help will be useful and valuable!
Mohammed is just an eleven-year-old child. Despite his illness we have always seen him smiling, and this has represented for us a great incentive not to give up even in those moments when he seemed to be a goner. The war, the raison d’etat and the cynicism, which unfortunately force humanitarian workers to “select” the people to whom aid should be allocated, cannot eliminate his absolute right to have the opportunity to grow up and become a man. We did not feel we could abandon him to his destiny of suffering, and we will not do it to him or any of the children we know need food and care and hope.
She has type I diabetes and has been suffering from diabetes for 4 years. She now lives in the countryside north of Idleb, in a very poor family, who cannot buy the drugs to manage her disease.
They are children forgotten and abandoned by the rest of the world, who do not care about them and who turn their heads away.
We at Support and Sustain Children, since May 2018, have decided to become the “parents” at a distance of wonderful children, and take care of their livelihood.
All this is possible thanks to the precious and invaluable work of the Nour Committee.
Little J. was only 3 years old and lived in one of the Syrian cities most affected by the war. We supported him and his family, thanks to the Nour Committee, for a few months. His family, when they discovered that their child was ill, were in a desperate state. They never abandoned the hope of saving their child, but unfortunately a few days ago they told us that little J. died, due to a tumor that could have been treated. Because in war people die of this too: the lack of treatment of illnesses that, however serious, can be cured.
This is Lymar, she is 3 years old and lives in Hamouria, near Damascus.
She has cerebral ascites, has been operated several times and the last operation did not have a good outcome.
The war has killed her father and her mother works as she can, with small tailoring jobs, for her and her 2 older brothers.
We at Support and Sustain Children together with the Nour Committee helped little Lymar for her first operations.
Ziad is 13, lives in Douma and is paralysed.
He had gone to look for food for his family when he was hit by a bullet to the spine.
His family situation is tragic: his father was killed in Assad’s prisons, he has 4 younger brothers and sisters, and while he was out looking for food for his family, he was hit. The family is very poor, it was already before, and their poverty has intensified with the conflict. The trauma localised to the spine has paralysed him in the lower limbs, he has very extensive sores, larger than the size of a hand, in the area of the inner thigh, buttocks and back. His mother tries to do everything she can to help, accepts any work, even the most humble and dangerous jobs allowed for a woman. The family lives in Douma, a rural suburb of Damascus.