Abandoned women and their children rejoice at gifts

ABU DHABI // Two women abandoned by their husbands years ago said the Hefz Al Nema boxes they received were the first gifts they had seen in years.

“No one has ever gotten us anything,” said Y A, a Palestinian whose husband disappeared five years ago. “I survive by selling food and on the charity of friends and neighbours.”

The Abu Dhabi resident supports five children. The eldest is 12, and her nine-year-old daughter has leukaemia. Two weeks ago, Y A received a box filled with clothes and accessories.

“My daughter didn’t understand what this was,” she said. “She has never seen anything like that. No one has ever gotten us anything. I only wish that they could keep sending us things.”

Her daughter undergoes treatment at the Queen Rania Hospital in Jordan, but prefers to return to the UAE with her mother after each visit.

“At least here I get support from people and charities like the Red Crescent,” said Y A.

“No one would care about me in Amman.”

Y A came to the UAE 10 years ago with her husband, but does not know where he is.

“One Eid five years go he just left and never came back,” she said. “I heard a few years ago that he died. We don’t ask any more.”

S B, an Indian, married an Omani man who then abandoned her 17 years ago.

“I don’t know where he went,” said the mother of five. “I kept going to court and police every day, to ask if they knew anything and then the court just gave me my divorce papers.”

She and her children live in Ajman, in her mother’s house.

She received a package from Hefz Al Nema two months ago.

“I can’t afford clothes for myself or my children,” said S B. “My children grew taller and the clothes became short on them, so I took them and wore them.”

She said she asked for six blankets.

“I wish they would keep sending me clothes and food.”