Fixing Wheelchairs & Building Friendships

Fixing Wheelchairs & Building Friendships

As a young girl, Najah* became paralyzed from the waist down due to a doctor’s mistake. She now uses a wheelchair, bumping over the Judean hills around her home just south of Bethlehem. Her chair needs constant repair, but she isn’t ready to give up its familiarity...
“Water, water,” they plead.

“Water, water,” they plead.

Their steps are faltered, their faces thin and drawn. The desperation in their eyes is almost palpable. “Mai, mai (water, water),” they plead. I’m surrounded by flattened buildings, crumbled cement, and bombed cars in Mosul’s old city. Armored Humvees drive by, on...