When Young Children Fight Their First Battle

Their bodies were shivering and sweating copiously … the body temperature was running high … almost dead bodies were found crawling along for help. Pain was such an everlasting thing that settled in their emaciated bodies. Some of them even gave up, accepted the idea of illness and waited for their death.

In this village, he who suffers from these symptoms is left alone for death. People know well that this sufferer will soon face his fate by himself. Villagers are never selfish to save the sufferer’s life, but they do believe that it is impossible and out of their control to do so

People living in Hamd – Al-Nakhala sub district have a bizarre relationship with Malaria. They know its symptoms … they even try to attack its causes … but they accepted the predetermined outcome in favor of the disease.

RDP’s mobile medical team conducted a field visit to Al-Nakhala sub district, and surprisingly found out 5 to 7 severe Malaria cases in each visit they conduct. Also, a painful story was told by an inflicted patient who was silently suffering and fighting his battle alone for over three weeks.

After doing rapid malaria tests to confirm the infected cases, RDP had immediately distributed malaria drugs and provided all patients with the needed medical help to alleviate their suffering. In the following visitations, we were overwhelmed by the happiness of patients, yet we found other new patients that reached to approximately 20 cases. Thus, RDP’s mobile medical team treated them for 3 – 4 estimated visitations in 45 days.

A six-year old child was one of the crawlers who heard of the presence of a medical team… he was twisting on the ground, dragging his overheated body, and suddenly fell down in front of us trying to sit in the shade of the trees. Ali Hameed Saleh Al-Sanid, a six-year old child, who decided to confront the disease (Malaria) by himself, was treated well by our medical team. In the next visit, we found him healthy and better next to his father.

Unfortunately, in Hamd and other nearby villages, children by themselves are in a constant fighting battle with the so-called disease (Malaria). Either they win or their tiny bodies surrender and announce the end of it.