ABU DHABI // Given the chance to be granted any wish in the world, many youngsters might ask to meet a favourite celebrity, be a superhero for the day or be given a shiny new gadget.
But Zainah Alseqetri, a type 1 diabetes sufferer, chose to use hers to help her family and asked for a lavish home makeover from Make-A-Wish UAE.
“I wanted to do something to make my family happy,” said the Emirati teenager, the 2,000th person to be helped by the Emirates branch of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“And I wanted to make our home look better because it was old and looked the same way for a very long time.”
Speaking on World Wish Day – celebrated yesterday to mark the anniversary of the global foundation’s very first wish to be granted – Zainah said she got her wish this month.
“I was very happy to get a wish,” she said. “We got new furniture and they painted the whole house.”
The Make-A-Wish UAE team also transformed the ladies’ and men’s majlises, Zainah’s bedroom, her parents’ bedroom and family dining room.
Zainah, 18, said her parents and four sisters love their refurbished Ajman home.
“This was a wonderful wish that transformed their home life,” said Melanie Raymer, marketing and communications manager for Make-A-Wish UAE. “Her wish was not just for herself but for her family.
“Zainah was so very happy, she can’t express how much this wish meant to her.”
Other wishes the UAE branch has granted include a six-year-old Syrian girl who wanted to be Princess Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, for a day.
One wish recipient met a prominent UAE footballer, another had tea and an overnight stay at the Bur Al Arab, another got to be a policeman for the day.
“Abu Dhabi police escorted the wish child to the police station via helicopter and gave him a crime to solve,” Ms Raymer said.
The charity has granted wishes to children with leukemia, sickle-cell disease, type 1 diabetes, cancerous tumours, heart disease, thalassemia, Hodgkin lymphoma and kidney failure.
Every child who is granted a wish touches the hearts of the charity’s team of volunteers.
“My experience in Make-A-Wish UAE has taught me that families are broken apart because of the traumas involved with a sick child,” said volunteer Mini Elizabeth Abraham. “Often the siblings are neglected while the sick child takes precedence.
“Make-A-Wish UAE brings everyone back together because all immediate family members are included in the wish-granting process.
“When I meet the kids I see the pain and suffering and the worry on their parents face and it makes me sad, but when I see the happiness when their wish comes true all that pain vanishes for a moment.
“The joy that I get from meeting such gracious and caring people is beyond words.”
Fellow volunteer Ali Mohamed agreed.
“It makes me happy to be able to help grant a child’s wish and to feel that there is still good in the world,” he said. “I feel truly blessed to put a smile on the face of a child who has undergone long and sometimes painful treatment.”
Ms Raymer said wishes have the power to transform a child’s life.
”We believe that we can, and do, make an impact in a child’s life by granting their one true wish.
“Having their wish granted helps a child to feel in control again, the wish is about them, they feel empowered and able to fight their illness.
“The joy and anticipation on a child’s face when having their wish granted is priceless.
“It is a very humbling and heart-warming experience being part of this fantastic organisation that truly believes in sharing the power of a wish.”
Families can contact the Make-A-Wish Foundation UAE through its dedicated Facebook page and leave an inbox message or by email at info@makeawish.ae or by phoning 02 666 5144.
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