Celine, a little Syrian girl who got the gift of hearing in Turkey
Al Jazeera
Months after her brother, Aslan, had cochlear implant surgery, Celine finally got her turn.
Reyhanli, Turkey – Celine Abu al-Zumar is nearly four years old, and as she was about to hear for the first time in her life, her mother was near tears.
“In less than three months, the dream became a reality,” Fatima al-Essa exclaimed.
Celine was finally approved for cochlear implant surgery like her brother Aslan had been in April.
Fatima, a 26-year-old Syrian living in Idlib, Syria, recalled her sadness that her children Celine and Aslan, now five and a half, were born with a hearing impediment and had grown up feeling they were somehow different from other kids.
Earlier this year, Aslan had surgery – which normally costs $16,000, an amount his family could not afford – funded by the relief organisation Alameen in neighbouring Turkey.
