Asem’s Story: Hurt in Gaza, Treated in Jordan
Asem was playing football in Gaza’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood when a drone dropped a bomb on him. After months of pain, he reached Jordan for care.
Pictured
Boy in a black hooded sweatshirt sitting on a hospital bed, looking at the camera
FAJR’s leadership on Our TeamI always dream of standing among my friends again as they play football, blocking the ball with my foot and defending the goal once more.
Asem is from Gaza and is now receiving care in Jordan. This is his story, in his own words.
I’ve always had so many dreams. Sometimes I imagined myself as a famous football player. Sometimes I was an Olympic swimmer. Sometimes I was a pilot.
But the first plane I ever saw up close was not the plane of my dreams.
It was a drone. And it dropped a bomb on us while we were playing football in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood.
My friends all ran in fear. But I stayed where I was, staring up at it in wonder.
I was too young to understand how a plane could target children who, just moments before, had been playing and laughing.
In seconds, the bomb fell right on me. It felt as if time had stopped.
Then I was lying in my own blood, unable to move, not understanding what had happened to my body.
After long months of pain in Gaza, I was finally able to travel to Jordan, where I could receive the complex care my injuries needed.
“I always dream of standing among my friends again as they play football, blocking the ball with my foot and defending the goal once more.”
I hope I’ll go back one day.
They may have stolen my childhood, but they will never steal my dream.
Read about FAJR’s medical evacuations from Gaza and the MedEvac program, or see FAJR in Jordan.
