alamals

Dareen is a Palestinian 8-year-old little girl, who grow up in a standard Gazan family that was haunted by so many ghosts. poverty, occupation, war, constant lack of livelihood needs, but for her, the worst ghost of all these, was domestic violence. The family suffered domestic violence for some time. 13 years, the same scene at dinner, where the mother was mistreated and beaten along with her children. Dareen lived 6 of those years watching what supposed to be her source of security, assaulting both her mother and siblings, which caused her to be withdrawn, isolated, and partially disconnected. Due to her isolation, and her preference of loneliness, her medical diagnosis of Diabetes was delayed, and it was challenging for some time to get her condition to be stable.

Years go by, her suffering becomes complicated, more loneliness, aggression, and isolation. In December 20th of 2023 the war caused the family to displace from the North of Gaza, to Rafah to seek protection, and a safer shelter, staying in the displacement camps of Rafah and suffering all kinds of hardships. Few days later, the father decided to abandon the family and leave for good, leaving the Mother (Siham -32 years old) in charge of the family, carrying the responsibility of 5 children: Rida -6 years, Ghazal -14 years, Jamal -11 years, Abdelrahman -15 years, and Dareen -8 years. Being a separated mother and run a family in the worst times of the war was a very difficult thing to do.

Through an exclusive interview with Siham –The Mother-, she told us that having Dareen as the most special need member of the family was challenging especially during the war, finding mates to play with, and games that suits her medical condition was hard. And Siham said ” The Diabetes, made it harder for her to participate in the normal children activates. However, when LIFE Psychosocial Support team showed up at our camp, they have shown her the attention she needs, they even encouraged her to participate in the group games and activates with other kids.”

She also added ” As I was watching her participating, it was highlighted to my attention that my little girl likes group activates even more, and I found out that Dareen is a very competitive spirit, and she was very excited sharing her winning stories in the games she played during the activates, especially the game of Flying Plates, where she won 2 times in a row, and she was always looking forward to the next day LIFE’s team coming again”. Siham told us that it is not only Dareen, but also her other children showed a noticeable ability to express their emotions, especially after the second and third sessions, and also an obvious decrease in the signs of anxiety and stress, they were less scared, less worried, and the psychical support activities had a direct effect on them.

Siham was smiling as she was telling us how happy she was after finally seeing her daughter excited about something, especially after all the hardships they went through as a family, and she can’t wait to see Dareen in her next adventure.