'YOU WILL HAVE IT': FATMEH (24) WAS GIVEN UP FOR ADOPTION BECAUSE OF HER DISABILITY
Fatmeh (24) was born in Bethlehem. When her biological parents find out that she has Epidermolysis Bullosa (also known as butterfly disease) , they give her up for adoption to Dutch foster parents.
“I used to think: why did my parents drop me in a children's hospital. But afterwards I am very grateful to them for that," says Fatmeh in Je Zal Het Maar Hebbben .
BANDAGED FROM HEAD TO TOE
“My biological parents saw that something was wrong and they didn't know what to do with it,” says Fatmeh. “Then they asked another organization if they could take care of me.” When she was almost two years old, a Dutch couple took her into their family.
Due to her illness, Fatmeh is deficient in proteins. This makes her skin extremely vulnerable and open wounds can arise out of nowhere. She has to be bandaged from head to toe every day to prevent infections, with the only exceptions being her neck and head.
Despite the great care, her foster parents want Fatmeh to grow up in her own environment. That's why they stay in Bethlehem as long as they can. But after twenty years, the foster family decides that it no longer works: “It is impossible to support a child with a disability in the country”, says Fatmeh's foster mother.
SHAME
Fatmeh now understands the decision of her biological parents well: "If someone has a disability, it is very strange for them, those children are then stored in the house," she says. “Because they are ashamed that they have a child with a disability.”
But the positive 24-year-old likes to look on the bright side. She is grateful that her parents made the difficult choice at the time to give her up. “I can do an internship or go to school here if I want,” says Fatmeh happily. "That's just not possible there if you have a disability."
She is now doing an internship. In fact, as an intern management assistant she is working on achieving her dream job. “I've wanted this since I was little,” she says, beaming about her position.
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