PAKISTAN - Iram

“When the earthquake struck, I was at home with my sister-in-law. My mother had left us alone to go to a funeral. I was sitting by a wall and it fell on me.  I don’t remember much: the earth was moving. I was crying, I was in so much pain. Ten minutes later, my sister came to my rescue and my family carried me to the village to see the doctor. He said I was alright, that I was only slightly injured. But my parents could see that there was something wrong with my legs. So they took me to another doctor who saw on the x-ray that I had broken my back. He told them to take me to the hospital in Rawalpindi as quickly as possible, where they operated on me. I’ve been here for a month and a half. The doctors are very kind and every day, Simon, a physiotherapist trained by Handicap International, makes me do exercises for an hour. I can’t feel anything in my legs, I can’t move them, I can just sit up if somebody helps me. But I hope I’ll be better soon and that I will be able to leave the hospital soon. My parents are here with me, but I want to go home. I can’t wait to go back to school because I want to be a teacher when I grow up!”