The rigors of daily life in a war zone are unimaginable to many; it’s a world filled with hardships, insecurities, and very real dangers to life and limb. Izzeddin Alnawasra, a 15-year old survivor of such a life, lost his leg in a traumatic amputation after sustaining a gunshot wound in May 2018. He later came from Gaza, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to the United States, and arrived in a wheelchair—but “with a smile that would light up his whole face!” remembers Mike Kelly, CP, Izz’s prosthetist at Lawall.
Izzeddin was born in Refugee Camp Magahzi, a United Nations-operated camp established in 1948, where he lives with his parents, four brothers, a sister, and about 50,000 other camp residents.
When their efforts to help him get fitted with a prosthesis were unsuccessful, his family sought aid from the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), an American Humanitarian organization with three offices in Gaza.
“They wanted to know if we could help their son walk again,” remembers Dunia Saed, Patient Affairs Coordinator for PCRF, who works to arrange medical care for kids like Izz. “At about that same time, we were setting up a volunteer chapter in Harrisburg, Pa., where we would have volunteers able to support him during his medical journey.”
An online search for a nearby prosthetic provider willing to offer their time and talent to help Izz led them to Lawall.
Arrangements were finalized, a visa obtained for Izz, and travel arrangements were made that brought him to Harrisburg in March 2019, where he stayed with a host family during the fitting of his prosthesis, and the adjustment period that followed.
Kelly remembers him as “a very soft-spoken young gentleman, very mature. For a young man, he’s mature in the way he handles responsibility. I gathered that his life included responsibilities like catching fish and food to eat for each day. He was respectful of people or elders, but also respectful of what we were going to be doing for him.”
Although Izz didn’t speak English, Kelly experienced no difficulty in communicating with him. Not only did Izz have reliable translators, but having raised three children himself, Kelly caught the unspoken messages in the teenager’s expression and tone of voice, he reports with a chuckle. “Maybe I could just hear the adolescence coming out in him from time to time! He was being a gentleman, but he was informative in many ways,” Kelly laughed. “He would give me a look –or maybe just a smile and a thumbs-up.”
Kelly found Izz to be a natural teacher. “He encouraged me to learn his language, teaching me how to say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. Then, when we’d see each other a week or two later, I could greet him in his own language. A teacher teaches information, but they also are able to teach through their life experience, and through his demeanor, his friendliness and kindness, he has such a lot to teach other people—as he has already taught me.”
