Syrian refugee girl at risk of losing sight

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A five-year-old Syrian refugee in the Kurdistan Region needs urgent surgery to save her sight. 

Maram Saifuddin, from Qamishli in northeast Syria lost her left eye two years ago. Her right eye has been deteriorating over the past 20 days.

“Two years ago my daughter's left eye came out,” her mother Nazik Ali told Rudaw on Thursday. “Maram was playing with her brother when her brother’s finger accidentally hit Maram’s left eye,” losing her sight as a result.

She is now experiencing pain in her right eye. She is said to have already undergone three operations at $7,000 each. 

Maram’s family aims to take their daughter to Turkey or Iran to have eye surgery to prevent her from going completely blind. However, her father has no travel documents. 

“My daughter's eyes need surgery, or she will lose her eyes completely,” said her father Saifuddin Younis.

Syria has been embroiled in civil war since 2011.  At least 384,000 people have died, including more than 116,000 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.