The journey of little Hamza from Gaza, “This is how we saved him”

Being two years old, a rare disease, glycogen storage disease type 1B, living in a tent under the bombs with enough food for 3 maybe 6 more days. It happens if your home is Gaza. It took two months for Hamza to get through the inextricable mesh of diplomacyof fate, of public and private interests, of the corroded relations between two countries at war.

And if he made it, and did not die like the other child in Gaza suffering from the same pathology, it is thanks to an international network of families who did everything to ensure that name, his name, ended up at the top from the bottom to the list. «I still can't explain it, because there is no rational reason why we can leave Gaza today. We did it and that's enough for us.” On the other end of the phone there is Marta D'Agosto, Venetian aid worker. No one can understand more than her. Because of her daughter Nina (whose life is told on the page www.ninalaguerrera.org and on the linked FB and IG pages) is suffering from the same disease. A disease, of genetic origin, which prevents the liver from absorbing glucose. This means being subject to a specific diet and also being exposed to infections and gastroenteritis, with the need for immediate hospitalization.

«I couldn't rest. According to bilateral agreements, if you are not injured, you do not leave Gaza. And Hamza was not hurt. His illness was completely unknown, so no permission for him. Without the right foods, without the right hygienic conditions, crushed in Al-Mawasi with only one functioning hospital and without medicines he would have survived very little.” Marta becomes aware of the situation of her little one because her mother, a teacher not even thirty years old, desperately seeks help in the social groups that bring together the few parents with children affected by this pathology.

«My channels as a aid worker were of no use because the situation in Gaza is difficult and unique. But of course, my work helped me activate the right procedures.” Marta gets on the phone, writes, cries, is conciliatory and then screams, makes herself heard, doesn't let go. “”I know, I stalked everyone I could. My battle was first of all to make a country that does not know this disease understand how serious it can be. Hamza was the only child left in all of Gaza with that disease. And his days were numbered.”

This is how Marta organizes herself together with the group of parents with children affected by glycogenosis 1B. «It was not an action that I carried out alone, I would like to underline. Many mothers have moved. An aunt of the child lives in the United States and began to put pressure on the government and wrote to the Turkish embassy, ​​and another aunt who lives in Qatar also took action. We from Italy immediately activated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I must say that the crisis unit did everything to be able to bring the child to Italy. The aunt from the United States had activated the Turkish embassy and in the end, due to a completely imponderable plan unknown to us, the visa arrived”. The pressure from the Italian community lasted two months and a week. A very long time, which encouraged us to lose hope. Then something moved in the consultations between Israel, Palestine and Egypt, and it arrived permission for Hamza, his 7-year-old sister and mother Haneen. They left with only the clothes they were wearing, with the little milk they had left, water, medicines and the bare essentials. They waited for hours at the border, then they were in Egypt for a couple of days and finally put on a flight to Ankara where they were welcomed with humanity and professionalism.

«Even though I have been working in this area for years, I have never seen a conflict with such blatant violations of humanitarian rights». Hamza left Gaza with a problematic form of pneumonia from which he is recovering. The family has obtained clothes and support, but does not ask or want more than necessary, immensely grateful to the mothers who concretely worked for their salvation. «They also struck us with their enormous dignity and strength. They are two guys not even thirty years old, two professionals, trapped in hell. A unique and splendid family that deserved an opportunity.” Now the goal is reunion.

«The father, like all adult men, was not granted a visa to leave the country. And now Hamza's mother finds herself in a Turkish hospital alone with exhausting all-night shifts and two children to look after.” The mechanism of exit priorities is contaminated by a strong system of corruption and it is not certain that the miracle of Hamza's exit will be followed by a second miracle. However, the family did not give up and launched a fundraiser to help the father of the two children obtain an exit visa.

Source: Vanity Fair

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