A mother of 5 disabled children struggling with challenges

KABUL (Pajhwok): Tahira, a mother of five disabled children lives in a hut in Kabul’s Chihildukhtaran area and has been grappling with extreme poverty and hunger.

This mother expects a helping hand from charitable organizations and individuals.

A Pajhwok Afghan News reporter met this mother who leads a life full of miseries. She said she married a man 28 years ago in western Ghor province and had a lovely and happy life at the beginning.

She said her husband owned a cart and would work during day time to support his family.

The happy life of Tahira did not last longer because her first child was born with a physical and mental disability. Her son could not talk and did not understand what other people told him. Her son (Qurban Ali) is now 26 years old and his head abnormally grew bigger but can talk as other children and did his chores by himself.

Tahira added with the passage of time, her problems doubled and tripled because her second and third children also suffered from both mental and physical disabilities.

The disability of Tahira’s children worried her and she knocked at many doors seeking their treatment, but all of her attempts had no favourable result because doctors told her that this was an incurable congenital health problem.

“My disabled children need serious attention, their condition is worsening day by day while I have never neglected my motherliness responsibility towards my children,” she said.

She said: “I mostly lose patience, but I have never been ungrateful to Allah, because it is not good to be… I tell myself that of course it was my destiny and fate, I still thank Allah no matter what.”

With all her patience, she had never experienced any failure in serving her disabled children. Her fourth child Abu Zar 14 is healthy, he is in Iran and her fifth child Fatima 12 is also healthy.

“With all hardships and problems in my life, my last two healthy children give me a hope of a brighter future. Unfortunately her sixth and seventh children Rahman 10 and Mukhtar 6 also suffer from both physical and mental issues”, she said.

The birth of Tahira’s last two children with disabilities prompted her husband to break up with her and marry another woman, the sourest memory of Tahira’s life.

Tahira, after separation of her husband, has been solely looking after her children and feeding them besides struggling with other problems of life which dragged her to Kabul city.

As tears rolled down her cheeks, Tahira said she was worried about the future of her five disabled children. “As they grow day by day, they are not able to go somewhere alone, they cannot distinguish between good and bad. I am trying to serve them the best way until I am alive, after I die, I don’t know who will take care of them.”

To win the bread for her children, Tahira has sent her daughter to a carpet weaving factory and her son Abu Zar to Iran to work there besides she expects charities.

She said: “Abu Zar is not old enough, he must study at a school, but the hardships of my life forced me to send his to Iran.”

Tahira feeds her family with more difficulties: “I think hardships and miseries of my life have no end, poverty and hunger bother me a lot.”

She asked rich and charitable people to help her support her disabled children.

aw/ma