His family donated his corneas as ongoing charity to their son
Wassim's eyes restore sight to two blind young men in Gaza
The owner of the two horns Waseem Azzam.
Emirates today
Samir Azzam: When I look now at the faces of the two young men, Muhammad Hamdan and Alaa Rihan, I see my son (Wassim) in their eyes.
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“Now I will continue my educational career after a hiatus that lasted for eight continuous years.” The blind young man, Muhammad Hamdan (19 years), did not expect this wish to be fulfilled to complete his studies again, after it stopped when he was eleven years old, and to regain his sight again, after That he lost it during the events of the Israeli war against the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014.
Many years passed until this wish became impossible for the young man and his family to achieve, but what was previously impossible has now become a reality. The blind young man (Mohammed) has become sighted, seeing everything revolving around him, with the eyes of a Palestinian youth from Gaza, who has recently risen to the heights.
Wassim Azzam, 28, died on September 23, by drowning in the sea in the northern Gaza Strip.
In addition to Muhammad Hamdan, 22-year-old Alaa Rehan, a resident of the northern Gaza Strip, regained his sight after a long deprivation, in the Azzam Corniche.
Studying after a long break
From the north of the Gaza Strip to the center, he accompanied Waseem's father, Samir Azzam, and his wife, Emirates Today, to visit the young man, Muhammad Hamdan and his family, and check on him, as part of the daily communication journey between them, which lasts for long hours via mobile phone and social media.
The young man, Muhammad Hamdan, from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, became sighted after a long deprivation. Eight years ago, he contracted meningitis, after the occupation forces committed a massacre against the residents of Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, during the events of the Israeli war in 2014, according to his father, Abu Karam Hamdan.
Today, (Mohammed) got a (Waseem) cornea, after an operation to transplant it, which was performed by a local medical staff inside a hospital in besieged Gaza, three days after the death of the young Azzam, and he is now seeing life as he had not seen it for eight continuous years.
After the success of Azzam's corneal transplant, Mohammed is now living a completely different life from the previous one, during which he will complete his educational career that stopped at the second year of middle school.
"When the doctor removed the cloth cover from my eye after the (Waseem) corneal transplant surgery, I felt like I was born again," says the young Muhammad, who was mediated by Wassim Azzam and his parents inside his house.
He continues, "I am currently living a new life, during which I will complete the school stages that I have been denied, in order to achieve my dream of studying engineering during the university level, with a different eye from the one that has denied me vision for many years."
"Who saved it"
“When I look now at the face of the two young men, Muhammad Hamdan and Alaa Rehan, I see my son (Wassim) in their eyes,” words through which Samir Azzam embodied his response to donating the corneas of his son (Waseem) as the first initiator of the “Who Lived It” campaign, launched by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip. To treat and save those who need a cornea transplant, so that their eyes can see what was impossible for many bitter years.
The grieving father said, while his granddaughter (Sarah) was near him looking at her father’s picture (Waseem): “Immediately after my son’s death, the Director General of the General Department of Pharmacy in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Munir al-Bursh, called me to tell me about the urgent need of a young man and girl for a corneal transplant, Inquiring about my consent to donate my son’s corneas, here I agreed directly, without hesitation or thinking, and the next day I was informed that I had replaced the girl with another young man, because her health condition did not match that of (Waseem)’s cornea.”
Azzam continues his speech, “What prompted me to donate my son’s corneas, so that it would be an ongoing charity in his name that will last for a long time, and every moment they see they remember my son, and thus the charity that was granted to save the blind, as well as following the path of my father, may God have mercy on him, in the charitable and humanitarian work that Everyone has seen it.”
He adds, "Despite the pain of parting with my son, I shared with the two young men, Rayhan and Hamdan, the joy of regaining their sight, and I was overwhelmed with great happiness when my initiative succeeded in achieving the happiness of others."
Vision after deprivation
A few meters away from the home of the Azzam family in the northern Gaza Strip, young Alaa Rehan lives. He transforms from a neighbor to a father (Wassim) to a member of his family. Every day, the grieving father accompanies him in his daily life, which he sees with the eyes of his son, who is lying under the dirt.
Rayhan told "Emirates Today": "Since I was four years old, I fell ill with a disease that lost my vision over the course of 18 years, while over the past years I received approval from the Department of Treatment Abroad in the Ministry of Health in Gaza five times, to transplant the cornea in a hospital in the Arab Republic of Egypt. But I was not able to travel, due to the unavailability of multiple treatment costs.”
Young Alaa adds: "The donation of the Azzam family to their son's cornea brought me back to life, after its luster had been extinguished over the course of many years, and I became a sight to all those whom I deprived of looking at."
"Mohammed" had a "Waseem" cornea, after an operation to transplant it, which was performed by a local medical staff inside a hospital in besieged Gaza, three days after the death of the young Azzam, and he now sees life as he had not seen for eight continuous years.
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