My name is Sirvan, and I’m 11 years old. I live with my parents, two brothers, and one sister here in this camp - I’m the oldest one. When I was born, my family didn’t notice I had a disability, but when I was six months old, they discovered that I have Cerebral Palsy. Growing up has not been easy. I cannot walk or move my body normally.
When ISIS attacked Shingal, I was only two - we fled our village, and in that time my mother gave birth to my sister. We couldn’t take anything with us, but she was able to grab two bottles of milk for us babies. We hid on that mountain for seven days… and our situation only continued to get worse. My mother became very sick, and she was not able to take care of us. She was so sick that she even thought to leave me behind, but my aunt took me with her, and she saved my life.
Now that she’s ok, my mother says, “I don’t like to remember that moment, our lives were in danger, and I was so afraid that I just wished to die.” After spending seven days on the mountain, we come from Shingal to a camp. At one time, we thought maybe it would be safe to return to our home, but when we arrived, more fighting happened, and we were forced to leave again. We were running, and my mother tied us to her with a rope so we would not get lost. Thankfully, after some time, we found a car to take us. All around was the sound of shooting.
Until now, I don’t want to go back there and live those same events again, so I told my family, “If you go back there, I will kill myself.” After that, the Tutapona staff came to our tent and visited me, and invited me to the Heroes Journey program. I attended, and now I feel so good! Even my sleeping is getting better. I tell my mother every day, “I want to go to sleep early so I can wake up and go to the program!”
I really loved the stories in the program, especially Emmanuel’s Dream, because he was disabled like me, and he never lost hope. My hope is to someday walk, I know that it is possible with some hard work. My favorite Hero power was thankfulness, because I’m thankful from my family – especially my mother – because she loves me and cares about me.
“I’m thankful for my father, my mother, my brothers, my sister, my tent, my table, my carpet, and the sun.”
Because of the generosity of people like you, children like Sirvan have found hope to move forward. BUT there are thousands of people with stories that are yet to end with hope. Help Tutapona provide that hope and healing by donating today.
*Name has been changed to protect the individual and family.