We Met Nadia

If you go to LDS.org on the home page is a story about a little Syrian refugee named Nadia who was shot in the back and  paralyzed.  The Church used her story to tell about the humanitarian efforts in this part of the world.   Today we met the young girl in Amman.  She's living in a tiny apartment in a welfare tenement with her family.  She has really had a rough time, but has got the attention of a very benevolent man named Jamal.  This man wants the Church to bring Nadia to the US for treatment, but that is impossible.

In Syria 500,000 people have been killed, 2,250 paralyzed and 12,500 injured are living in Jordan.  400 babies are born every month and have no blankets.  100,000 have had no food for more than 2 days.  It's a terrible situation. 

Before we left we noticed Jamal reach into his pocket, pull out a wad of bills and give them all to her.  Jamal and his wife have been picking her up twice a week and taking her to their home to bathe and to care for her.  It was truly a lesson to us in being Christlike.  

This is her story:  When Nadia was 11 years old she and her family were living in Homs, Syria.  The army came to their home early in the morning one day to kill her father because he was suspected of being part of the opposition. He escaped by hiding under the stairs.  Nadia was a pretty girl and when the men saw her they wanted to rape her.  She fought back and hit the man who was attacking her with a rock.  He shot her while she was laying on the ground and they thought she had died and left.  After that her father carried her on his shoulders for 8 days, walking to the Jordanian border.  She was paralyzed from the wound.  Her father lost his mind.