Fahmo Aden: "I would do anything to see my boy normal again"

June 18 2007 was like any other day in the life of Fahmo Aden, a 34-year-old mother and small trader, until she was told her oldest son had been killed in an explosion.

"I was in the market when a friend called me to tell me she had heard that Abdiaziz [her 13-year-old son] was caught up in an explosion. I had sent him to school earlier before I left for the market."

Abdiaziz Abdulle was seriously injured when a remote-controlled bomb that killed some security guards of former Prime Minister Ali Gedi exploded.

"The first information I got was that he was killed in the explosion. I almost fainted but I ran to the area, not far from the market. When I got there I found him alive and was so happy.

"My happiness turned into sadness when the doctors told me he was severely injured, with so many pieces of shrapnel in his body. The worst was the one lodged in his spine, which is making it impossible for him to walk.

"I no longer work. I have to take care of him day and night. He cannot go to the bathroom. He cannot control his bowel movements. It is heartbreaking to see him like this. He was full of life. He wanted to be a doctor but now I don’t know what will become of him.

“Every time his school-friends come to visit him I can see the longing in his eyes to be able to go with them. It breaks my heart.

“He has begun to destroy any pictures of himself before he was injured. He says he does not want to see them.

“Doctors have told us there is nothing they can do for him in this country. They said he needs specialised treatment that is not available here.

“We cannot afford to take him to a doctor here, much less outside. We are a poor family that depended on what I could earn from the market and now even that is no longer there. We depend on the generosity of friends and relatives to survive.

“I would do anything and give anything, including my life, to see my boy normal again. Every day I pray for a miracle.”

ah/mw