Reference :
V-P-IL-E-02989
Date :
18/04/2017
Caption :
Gaza, Sheikh Radwan. Portrait of a woman who had to be amputated and received a leg prosthesis from the ICRC.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
This widowed mother of 8 children broke her leg in 1972 and had to be taken to hospital. She was later diagnosed with gangrene due to the incorrect handling of the break and doctors had to amputate her leg above the knee.
It was soon after this incident that she first got to know the ICRC. The humanitarian organisation helped to get her transferred to a hospital in Israel, where she received her first artificial limb. A few years later, when the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center - which is supported by the ICRC - opened in Gaza and started providing artificial limbs in 1978, she became one of its first patients.
She was very attached to her mother, since she had already lost her father before the accident and the amputation, which happened when she was only eight years old. She still remembers constantly asking her mother to “bring back my leg.”
She grew up with the support of her mother and with her artificial limb. She managed to continue her schooling and obtain a bachelor’s degree in Arabic Studies. She worked for around four years with the support of various job creation programs. “The daily tasks became much easier when I got the artificial limb,” she said.
She got married in 1992 and had children. Now, she focuses on raising her children; her youngest is 12 years old.
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
5550x3700
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
