UAE Helping Hands: Syrian man needs urgent surgery to save eyesight

The proceedure costs Dh40,000 but Ahmed Al Hassan's entire family earns less than Dh4,000 a month

Ahmed Al Hassan from Syria at his residence in Sharjah. He needs donations to pay for his eye surgery. Satish Kumar / the National

Sixty-three-year-old Ahmed Al Hassan from Syria is partially blind and needs urgent surgery to restore his vision. As if that was not enough to contend with, the father of seven also recently fell and broke his thigh bones.

In his right eye, he can only see shadows and, is completely blind in his left eye – without surgery, he will lose his eyesight permanently. His doctors have said it must be done as soon as possible for any hope that Mr Al Hassan will see again. But the procedure costs Dh40,000, which he cannot afford.

“Now if I need to go anywhere, even to the bathroom, then I need to call my wife to help take me there,” he said.

Making his condition more grim – Mr Al Hassan also suffers from diabetes, and he had to have his right foot amputated four years ago.

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“When my employers saw that I was disabled, they fired me but felt pity on me. They kept me on their visa but without pay,” he said.

Mr Al Hassan’s children are also going through financial difficulties. His two daughters have moved to Turkey and Germany, while his sons, the eldest of which is 37, are in the UAE. As a family, they earn less than Dh4,000 a month.

“We are barely surviving but thank God, we are at least safe in the UAE,” he said.

"One of my sons has kept his children at home because he can't afford school fees and the other will have to go back to Syria.

“They would never leave me in this situation but we are all barely making ends meet. God knows how difficult life has become.”

Hisham Al Zahrani, manager of Zakat and Social Services at Dar Al Ber, said: “Ahmed Al Hassan needs Dh40,000 for his surgery. He is almost blind and without help he will never see again.”