In search of light – The story of Halima
Imagine living in, what is known as, the world’s largest open-air prison and your home is no longer a place of refuge – it has become a place of nightmares. This is the story of Halima in Gaza. Her father passed away and Halima was severely abused by her uncle. This led to her to suffer with mental health issues. Islamic Relief began supporting Halima’s family with the orphan sponsorship programme and our social workers identified Halima as a child that urgently needed psycho-social support.
The family is living in very difficult economic circumstances. They don’t have a stable income after losing the sole provider of the family. They can hardly afford the rent for their house. They have no refrigerator, gas or furniture. The house lacks the minimum necessities of life. This added to Halima’s suffering and development.
Eman Jaber is a social worker at Islamic Relief Gaza and implements the Psychosocial Support for the orphans. Eman said that they have visited a number of orphans sponsored by Islamic Relief, to support them and provide them with help. A lot of parents have praised the efforts of Islamic Relief after noticing positive change in their children.
“Halima is one of the children who we have recognised needs psychological support because of the violence she has faced since her father’s death. We would like to be able to support her in changing her negative behaviour”, she said.
Since receiving assistance from the Islamic Relief Psychosocial Support project for children, Halima has made huge strides in overcoming her mental illness.
“Halima was shy when we visited her the first time and didn’t want to talk to us. However in our second visit, and after playing some activities, we’ve noticed a clear change in her character. We realise that Halima still needs some more psychosocial support”, Eman commented.
Islamic Relief believes in advocating for the most vulnerable people in our society and part of our assistance is to include psycho-social support to help families recover from the trauma they have suffered due to war and natural disasters.