“TOthey belong to a generation that has never seen anything but war, but cherish dreams for their future. ” Dejan Panic, responsible for the activities of Emergency in Afghanistanthus outlines the profile of 20 Afghan students admitted to the Surgical Center for War Victims in Kabul following the kamikaze attack which took place on 30 September in a training center. Over 30, the victims.
Afghan schoolgirls victims of the kamikaze attack
Young Afghan women – between 18 and 25 years old – were in the center together with hundreds of other students, to make their ambition more concrete: they were preparing to take the admission test to medical school.
“Actually, I still have to finish high school, but I decided to take the course a year early because I really wanted to get ready for the entrance test” she says. Fatima, from the hospital bed of the Italian NGO.
Fatima and Tahira Credit @Vincenzo Metodo
The dream of Fatima
Fatima is only 18 years old, she has lost her father and, to pursue her dream, she left her mother in her hometown. “Thanks to her, who works endless hours on the farm, – he points out – I can afford to live in Kabul, where I study and share a room with other girls. Although it is not at all easy, my mother has always supported me in choosing to continue my studies“.
Fatima’s dream is to become a surgeon to make her contribution to saving lives, in a country battered by violence and deprivation. “I want to help my people, especially the poorest,” she says.
Fear does not stop the ambition to become a doctor
To share the same dream is Tahiraher roommate in the women’s ward of the surgical center, also with the signs of the explosion evident on the body and soul. «I too – she says – to attend the course I had to leave my country and my family. I live in a hostel, where I share a room with 6 other girls“.
Emergency surgical center for war victims Credit @Laura Salvinelli
The sacrifices of Tahira and the other Afghan students
Still alive, however, is the bond with the family, to which, in order to keep up with his studies, he lends a hand in the production of small handicraft objects.
Despite the obvious difficulties, Fatima and Tahira, like so many other Afghan girls who are often denied the right to education, are determined to pursue their goal of professional fulfillment.
At the moment they try to mitigate the suffering with the hope of their dreams, but, as Panic points out, the death they escaped is pictured in their eyes.
The sound of the explosion imprinted on the mind
“One morning – says Dimitra Giannakopoulou, medical coordinator of the Emergency Surgical Center –Tahira confided to me that she had not been able to sleep because the sounds of the explosion continued to echo in her head, the screams of those who ran away.. I explained to her that she is normal, she will need time to metabolize, even if she will never forget an event of this magnitude ».
The situation of severe insecurity in Afghanistan
Unfortunately, as the two Emergency operators reiterate, this is not an isolated attack: “In the last two months alone, in our Center, we have managed 12 mass casualtiesor procedures of extraordinary urgency following explosions and attacks. And, on a daily basis, we continue to receive injuries from gunfire, from shrapnel to shrapnel, from mine explosions and improvised devices. In the country there remains a situation of strong insecurity and instability, but we continue to ensure timely treatment ».
The hope that emerges from pain
Fatima and Tahira, you arrive at the hospital with books and notebooks still under your armhave undergone several surgeries and have a long hospital stay before them, but have started smiling again.
“Every day, these girls give us proof of how hope can emerge from horror and pain»Comment Panic and Giannakopoulou, while also taking care of the wounds of the soul of the two students who, together with many other young hospitalized people, are waiting for nothing more than to return to school.
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