The pandemic prevented them from obtaining treatment and access to health centers and workplaces

Coronavirus paralyzes 127,000 persons with disabilities in Gaza

  • Wadi is a peer mentor for people with disabilities.

    Emirates today

  • Telework is a means of "Wadi" to confront "Corona".

    Emirates today

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“Persons with disabilities are a group marginalized by society before Corona, so how is the situation after the outbreak of the pandemic ?!” ... With these phrases, the community activist in the field of defending the rights of persons with disabilities, Iman Wadi, one of the girls with partial visual impairment, described her tragedy after the outbreak Corona virus in the Gaza Strip.

The pandemic stood in the way of a 32-year-old Wadi (32-year-old) resident of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, reaching the Ophthalmic Department of the European Hospital, which has become a center for those infected with Corona, to receive treatment and conduct periodic checks, and the state of emergency witnessed by health institutions, curfews, and measures to confront the virus All of them prevented the spouses from obtaining treatment and the daily medical supplies needed for them.

Wadi, a community activist who also works as a mentor for people with disabilities in the Life Center of the Italian IduKid Foundation, which is specialized in the field of education and disability;

She can no longer be in the workplace since Corona invaded the sector in its second wave at the end of last August, which doubled her suffering in providing her with treatment.

Wadi says to "Emirates Today": "I suffer from the lack of vision in my right eye, while the left eye suffers from glaucoma. As a result, I need monthly eye drops that cost 270 shekels, which are not available in the Gaza Strip hospitals and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)." .

Double tragedies

Nihad Jarbou (37 years old), who suffers from a physical disability that has kept him from childhood, and his wife Zainab (35 years), whose feet were amputated as a result of a rare disease, the Corona pandemic turned their lives upside down.

The state of emergency in health institutions, the curfew, and measures to confront the virus, all prevented the spouses from obtaining treatment and the daily medical supplies needed for them.

In addition to the complexity of Corona, the living and material conditions of the spouses Nihad and Zainab, this pandemic executed the remaining movement in their bodies, and stood in the way of the continuation of their work in knitting clothes and cloth dolls, as a result of the closure that all areas of the Gaza Strip witnessed.

Determination is facing an epidemic

People with special needs who overcome their disability over the past years did not accept to be idle in front of the Corona virus that swept their lives, so Wadi has revolted in the face of the epidemic at the pace of the struggler who is struggling for the justice of his cause, and has overcome all Corona challenges.

The epidemic and her workplace did not limit her extraordinary ability to continue this work from a distance, so she quickly regained her strength and began her job duties from inside her home.

Wadi says, "After the outbreak of Corona in various areas of Gaza, and the imposition of the curfew, I resorted to experimenting with the idea of ​​working remotely through social media."

• Nihad Jarbu` suffers from a physical disability that has persisted since childhood, and his wife Zainab had her feet amputated as a result of a rare disease, and their lives were turned upside down due to the Corona pandemic.

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