Turkey provides hearing aid for Afghan girl


The Turkish Red Crescent has helped a 7-year-old deaf-mute Afghan child regain her hearing after she lost it in an explosion near her house.

Bibi Zainab Sadad, the eldest daughter of 35-year-old engineer Seyed Obeydullah Sadad and 25-year-old math teacher Toba Sadad, was just a year old when she profoundly lost her hearing due to an explosion near their house in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Thousands have lost their lives in the raging Afghan conflict in the past 18 years, while millions have been forced to flee their homes and thousands have been injured.

After exhausting every option in their war-torn country, the Sadad family left everything behind and began the long, weary journey to Turkey.

"We came here because there is a shortage of doctors and hospitals in Afghanistan," the girl's father Seyed said.

Traveling for days on foot, they reached Turkey's eastern Ağrı province through Iran. They have been living in Ağrı for a year now.

"When my daughter was born, there were bombs exploding everywhere. After one of those explosions, blood started to come out of my daughter's ears, and she could not speak or hear after that," Seyed told Anadolu Agency (AA).

He said their daughter has regained her hearing with the hearing aid she received from the Turkish Red Crescent.

"When she put the hearing aid in her ear, her reaction was worth seeing," said Orhan Tatlı, the Ağrı head of the Turkish Red Crescent.