Six abandoned children rescued by Sharjah child helpline

Sharjah: Six children were rescued and sheltered by the Sharjah Social Services Department after their father abandoned them and left the country even as their mother is hospitalised due to cancer.

The Sharjah Child Helpline, part of the Social Services Department, came to the help of the six children who were home alone and living in desperate circumstances, with their mother hospitalised at Tawaam Hospital.

The mother, from Syria, was identified as Wafa Hussaini, 32, while her six children — three boys and three girls — were identified as Ebrahim, 12, Khalil, 11, Aya, 10, Sundon, 8, Noora, 6, and Yousuf, 5.

Ahmad Ebrahim Al Tartoor, director of Protection of Children’s Rights Administration at Sharjah Social Services Department, told Gulf News that their child helpline number received a call from an Arab woman, a friend of the mother, saying that six children were left alone at a house in Sharjah without food and care and that their mother was suffering from cancer and had been admitted to Tawaam Hospital for treatment.

A team from the department, accompanied by Sharjah Police, visited the house where they found the children living in cramped and unhygienic conditions in a small room.

The children were taken to the Children’s Social Centre run by the Sharjah Social Services Department and provided with shelter and care, ensuring that all the siblings were together so they felt a sense of security and familial comfort.

The Sharjah Social Services Department also kept in touch with the hospital to check on the mother’s condition. The physicians at the hospital said the woman’s condition was unstable. Her medical report, of which Gulf News has obtained a copy. indicates that she suffers from cancer.

The mother of the six children told Gulf News that her husband had divorced her and run away to Germany more than a year ago. He left her in a small room in an apartment located in Al Majara area of Sharjah and without money, forcing her and her children to live on charity.

Her children had not been going to school for over an year as she was unable to pay their school fees, she said.

After her husband abandoned them, Hussain said she sought medical help at Al Qasimi Hospital, as she was increasingly feeling tired all the time. She was told that she was suffering from cancer and subsequently transferred to Tawaam Hospital for further treatment.

She thanked Sharjah Social Services for the help they have rendered to her children in offering them shelter and care. “The department’s officials are so kind to my children who were abandoned [by their father] leaving them to their fate,” she said.

Sharjah Social Services Department is studying the condition of the family and coordinating with charity associations to resolve their problem and ensure a decent life for the family.