“Thanks be to God for your help. It is a miracle!”
As we wait for life to return to normal, we’re missing our project teams and visitors. We’ve had to cancel our annual medical clinic and wheelchair distribution. And while we continue to look for other ways to help, it’s always disheartening to have to postpone projects that help so many people in our community.
But despite all that, Seeds of Hope is still working. And at the end of last year, we had the opportunity to make an incredible impact on one family.
Ehab Nimer works tirelessly to care for his family. Over the years, his wife and two children have struggled with almost constant health battles. His wife has Type 1 diabetes—a condition that is difficult and expensive to manage in the West Bank. She has suffered two strokes and is now in a wheelchair after having to have her foot amputated.
Ehab’s son has been plagued with heart issues since birth. He lives with one kidney and has to have fluid drained from his lungs regularly. Ehab’s daughter Maiar had to drop out of school in the 11th grade to stay home and help care for her mother and younger brother so that Ehab could continue to work. At 19 years old now, Ehab’s son is still suffering and unable to work.
Maiar is 20 years old now and has had diabetes since childhood. She recently started to experience some blurred vision and discovered significant issues with her eyes. After several months of trying treatments from specialists, nothing was working. She was losing more and more of her sight.
Desperate for answers, Ehab took Maiar to Jordan to a specialized eye clinic where they discovered that she needed surgery if she wanted to regain and retain her sight. However, the cost was $5,700 per eye. In addition to the mounting medical bills from the whole family, Ehab was now out of work since Maiar could no longer help care for her mother and brother. There was just no way he could afford the operation.
Ehab tried everything to figure out how to pay for this surgery, but he couldn’t come up with the money. He slowly began to lose hope—his daughter would be blind.
PHOTO: Maiar recovering after her successful surgery!
That’s when Ehab reconnected with Seeds of Hope.
Over the years of living and working in Jericho, Ehab knew about Seeds of Hope. We had even been able to help him in the past with other medical issues and medications that his family needed. But this surgery was a much bigger request.
Thanks to the consistent and generous support of the Seeds of Hope family, we were able to give Ehab the money he needed for Maiar’s first surgery!
“The doctors were able to stop the bleeding and clean the eye,” Ehab shared. “The goal was not to separate the retina from the cornea and to restore her sight, and it was successful!”
“I would like to express my gratitude for the help my daughter received,” he continued. “You saved her eye! Had her eye gone without care, she would have lost her vision. Thanks be to God for your help. It’s a miracle that her sight was restored!”
Maiar is recovering well from her operation and regaining her sight. She will likely need surgery on her other eye soon, and we will see what we can do to help Ehab when that time comes. But in the meantime, we’re so grateful for stories like these that are a direct result of your generosity and support.
When everything seemed hopeless, Seeds of Hope gave Ehab and Maiar hope. We’re thrilled that the Nimer family got to end their year on a positive note, and we can’t wait to see where else we can spread hope in 2024!
