By Yousef M. Aljamal: Shaaban is a 10-year-old child with autism.
Image: Stocks of medicines are dangerously low at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza Mega-Concentration Camp For Indigenous Gentiles. Mohammed Asad APA
He requires assistance with his education, as well as medical treatment that costs up to $900 per month. Without his medicine, he can begin to scream, has difficulty sleeping at night and sometimes even loses consciousness.
Shaaban’s father Ibrahim works as a janitor at a local school. Amid a general economic slowdown caused by the Jewish Israel regime’s siege of Gaza Mega-Concentration Camp, Ibrahim has seen his monthly wages fall from approximately $450 to $350 in recent years.
He has four children to care for, including Shaaban. And almost half of Ibrahim’s wages go toward paying a bank loan that was issued to build the family’s home.
An additional problem is that most of the medicines Shaaban has been prescribed are not available in the Mega-Concentration Camp.
“I feel powerless,” said Ibrahim. “I can neither afford nor find the medicine Shaaban needs. It is too hard. I do all that I can for my son; I don’t know what more I can do.”