Goto main content

"The mine threw me up into the air and ripped my leg off"

Emergency Explosive weapons Rehabilitation
Yemen

Raja is 13 years old. She was keeping the sheep in the mountains when she trod on a mine which exploded and threw her into the air.  Her leg was ripped off.

Raja doing her exercises to learn to walk with her prosthesis

Raja doing her exercises to learn to walk with her prosthesis | © Ayman / HI

Her leg ripped off

Raja is a shepherdess and is 13 years old. She was keeping the sheep with some friends when she trod on a mine half buried in the ground.  She was thrown several metres into the air and her leg was ripped off.

An amputation ready for a prosthesis

Rushed to the nearest health centre, first of all the nurses stopped the bleeding; then she was transferred to the hospital in Sanaa. At the hospital she was operated on by the surgeons who took care to ensure her stump formed the right shape for a future prosthesis.

Depression

Immediately after her operation, HI provided her with a wheelchair. As she was depressed and permanently angry, she was also supported by a psychologist. Two months later, once her stump had healed correctly, Raja was fitted with a prothesis. Getting back on her feet had a radical impact on her morale. 

Victims living in poverty

Raja comes from a very poor family whose only income comes from growing qat (a shrub whose leaves are highly prized in Yemen). The money from the harvest is only just enough to feed her parents and ten brothers and sisters. Without HI's support the consequences of Raja's injury could have been even more dramatic for her and her family.

Walking long distances

In December Raja finished her rehabilitation exercises to help her adjust to her prothesis. She then felt confident about walking. She was no longer apprehensive and was able to walk long distances. She has improved every day and is now full of energy and the joy of life.

Going to school

Her time with HI has awakened a new vocation,

"I am happy to have faced up to my fears, to be getting out and about and walking again. I now want to go back home, to get back to my friends and my normal life. I would really like to go to school. Before the accident, I had planned to go to school the following year. I want to keep this promise and become a humanitarian worker to help other people, like the HI team has helped me."

Where your
support
helps

PRESS CONTACT

CANADA

Fatou Thiam

USA

Mica BEVINGTON

 

Help them
concretely

To go further

Injured by the war in Syria, this is Omar’s story.
© Saleh Aliwa - HI
Explosive weapons Rehabilitation

Injured by the war in Syria, this is Omar’s story.

Having had his leg amputated by shrapnel, Omar fled Syria with his family and is now living in Jordan where he has received physical rehabilitation treatment and a new prosthesis.

“When you have a disability, you can’t just get up and run for safety.”
© partenaire HI
Inclusion Rehabilitation

“When you have a disability, you can’t just get up and run for safety.”

Life can be harrowing for people with disabilities in war-torn Syria, as they are exposed to violence and discrimination. HI and its local partners are helping Faisal to live like any other father.

Displaced by war: the story of Tamara and her son Mykhailo
© O.Marikutsa / HI
Emergency Rehabilitation

Displaced by war: the story of Tamara and her son Mykhailo

After the bombing of their house, Tamara and Mykhailo had to abandon it. Thanks to a temporary shelter in Dnipro and HI’s services, they were able to get the help they needed.