Eye operation for Yezidi child

Twelve year old Yezidi refugee Hafal Edo and his family are among the Yezidis in northern Iraq who were targeted by ISIS in 2014. His family escaped to Kurdistan where they now subsist without employment and with scarcely a thread of hope in a camp for displaced Yezidis.

Then Hafal suffered a serious injury to his right eye. His family took him from doctor to doctor and from clinic to clinic. Eye surgeons said he needed a cataract and pars plana vitrectomy operation to repair total retina detachment and PVR. The operations had to be done quickly if Hafal was to have a chance of keeping his vision. When WestEye Hospital's eye surgeon Dr. Noor el Din offered to do all the procedures at a reduced fee of USD$3,300, Hafal's family despaired since they only had $200 left by then.

In September Hafal's older brother Rakan then reached out to Patrick Harrigan, who organized a Facebook fundraiser that just raised the $2,000 down payment due to WestEye Hospital before the procedures could begin. Happily, the procedures were deemed to be successful. However, Hafal's family is now obliged to pay the balance $1,300 owed to the hospital. And they have spent several hundred dollars on four long distance trips by hired car, overnight stays in the city, meals, and medical tests.

On November 17th we learned that Hafal's family were given until November 25 to pay $1,000 of the balance $1,500 owed to WestEye Hospital in Erbil or else, if left unpaid, after 15 days a complaint would be lodged with the Kurdish police who will arrest Hafal’s adult brother Rakan Edo. The Edo family are Yezidis living in an Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq. There is no work for Yezidi refugees, so Rakan after saving his little brother Hafal’s vision will soon languish in terrible conditions unless we can pay the balance US$ one thousand within ten days.

The good news is, Hafal's operation was successful. And the hospital was only asking for one thousand dollars out the full balance of $1500 still owed to it.

Happily, with the help of generous donors, we managed to raise and send the one thousand dollars in time. So Hafal can now go back to WestEye Hospital for post-procedural appointments--and his brother Rakan is no longer under the threat of arrest for failure to settle their bill. A happy ending for everyone!

This fund raising campaign was coordinated by Hafal's older brother Rakan and by Patrick Harrigan of Gainesville, Florida, USA who has been working with Yezidis on a daily basis since 2014. Rakan and Patrick are in regular contact by phone and text.

Thanks and appreciation to everyone who has contributed to send help and hope to Hafal, his family and others living in refugee camps!