A Child’s Right to Play: Yousef’s Story
Yousef is eight years old. Like any child, he wants to run, to play with his friends, and — above all — not to feel different from them.
Before his surgery he was rarely still: the first into a game, the last to come inside, his days measured out in scraped knees and shouted laughter. Being one of the crowd was everything to him.
Holding back
Surgery and a stoma threatened all of it. For his parents, the worry was constant: how to keep him comfortable and secure through a busy child’s day, especially when child-appropriate supplies were so scarce in wartime. Children sense the worry of the adults who love them, and Yousef was no exception. Slowly, carefully, he began to hold back from the games he had always thrown himself into.
A child who stops running is a quiet kind of heartbreak. The stoma had not taken his legs — only, for a while, his certainty that it was safe to use them.
A child again
The right supplies, and clear guidance for his parents, changed everything. With his care managed reliably, the constant worry lifted from the whole household — and meeting other families who understood eased their sense of isolation. What had felt like a crisis became, simply, something they knew how to handle.
Reassured, his parents could let him be a child again — and a child, given half a chance, will always run straight back to his friends.
Back in the game
Yousef is back on his feet and back with his friends. His story is a simple but powerful one: every child has the right to play, and the right supplies can protect it.
An illustrative story. To protect the privacy and dignity of the people we serve, this account does not portray a real, identifiable individual. It is a fictional story drawn from the real experiences and outcomes of Giving Island’s work, written to convey the human reality behind the supplies we deliver.
Behind every story like this is a simple thing: the right supplies, delivered in time.
