Syrian amputee dreams of new legs in Turkey

Maryam al-Hamdo, a 16-year-old Syrian girl, will soon be able to walk again, eight months after an airstrike by Bashar Assad forces in Idlib, Syria, injured her and led to the amputation of her legs. Hamdo will be fitted with prosthetic legs in Gaziantep, the Turkish province bordering Syria where she took shelter. A charity-run prosthetic limb production workshop in the province has helped Hamdo realize her dream of walking again.

The young girl was fleeing airstrikes in the company of her cousin when the latter was killed in a strike. Hamdo was injured in a second airstrike, and her disfigured legs were amputated. Her relatives helped Hamdo travel to Turkey, where she was hospitalized in Kahramanmaraş, a border city. Upon hearing that the International Association of Merciful Hearts was helping refugees maimed in Syria's ongoing civil war, she applied for prostheses. In about one month, she will be fitted with new legs and looks forward to returning to her family, who stayed in Idlib. Recounting her first moments after the attack, the girl told Anadolu Agency (AA) she couldn't move and saw her legs "torn apart."

"The next moment I was in an ambulance, and I passed out there. When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital in Turkey," she recounted. "I miss my family so much and want to reunite with them as soon as possible," she said. Some 6,500 Syrians, including children, have received prosthetics in Turkey after losing their limbs in the Syrian civil war. The prosthetics are courtesy of local and international nonprofits that help refugees who fled the ongoing conflict.