Page 44 - MY Book - My Voice

Visiting the Jall al Bahar gatheringOne day I was able to join some of the social workers from the BAS center on a visit to someof the families in the gathering Jall al Bahar. Siham Hamid, one of the highly competent social workers with long experience, is visiting families that are included in the BAS family guidance center’s activities and support program. She visits the families regularly to follow up and to help strengthening the families’ ability to take care of their children and deal with their di culties.I wanted to see how she works and the living conditions and environment that the children from my workshops are living in. I have passed the gathering many times before on my way to Tyre, and have noticed people selling sh along the street, or seen people sitting outside their houses just a few meters from where the cars are passing by.We are told that the Palestinians are allowed to sh, with some limitations, so many families have shing as their main income. Others do seasonal work in agriculture or work in construction.We cross the street and pass through one of the narrow sandy paths between the houses, less than a meter wide. We bow under a line with clothes drying in the wind, and we face the sea.We notice that huge tires are placed outside the houses on the beach to prevent the sea from washing away the sand beneath the houses.Siham takes us to visit Abu Moloh and his family, a wife and three children. Abu Moloh is originally from Gaza, but moved to Lebanon in 1967 and lived in Ain El Helwe camp in Saida his rst years in Lebanon. He got married, and the couple got three daughters. The oldest daughter is at school when we visit. She is a clever girl doing well both at school and in activities at the BAS center. We meet the two youngest sisters who are staying at home. They have CP and are not able to speak well or walk, and need their mother’s assistance continuously. The family moved to the gathering in Tyre hoping to receive support from an NGO for their two handicapped children. A NGO has donated some pedagogical games, and the mother has been guided on how she can play with her daughters to stimulate them. The mother herself never had the chance to go to school, and is illiterate. She is now participating in workshops at the BAS center for parents. She proudly shows us a notepad where she has written numbers and single words and colored drawings.When we enter the sitting room, one of the girls recognize me from the workshops and is seeking my attention by showing me things and whispering words, so low that I can barely hear them. I realize she whispers words in English.The father used to work, but is not able anymore due to bad health. He shows us the kitchen where the waves sometimes come all the way in. In stormy weather some houses in the gathering are being destroyed or being ooded with water from the street above. In other houses, the waves reach all the way into the living rooms, like the father show us.Abo Moloh wants to take his family and immigrate to Germany; he believes they would get help and treatment for their daughters there. I get a present as we leave the house, a little decoration made out of shells from the beach.42