Meet Burhan and Shady: Two of Our Amazing Physios in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq

Temi:

Iraq

“Seeing disabled people arrive in wheelchairs or on crutches, then discharging them from rehab and seeing them go home with a prosthesis – those are the moments that most stay with me.” Burhan is a physiotherapist at EMERGENCY’s Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Centre in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq:

“Rehabilitation is a turning point. It starts from physiotherapy, and includes bandaging, training patients to use their prosthesis, and it continues with home modifications and support opening businesses. All these services that we provide here pave the way for disabled people to return back to their community.”

Shady is a fellow physiotherapist at the Centre. He mentions a patient he will always remember. “I’ll never forget her. Farida. She lost a limb and both eyes. We worked so hard on her recovery. Helping people, helping them to stand up again, makes me think, ‘This is what I’m here for.’ My work has changed my life completely. That’s what I try to do for my patients, too, when I give them the prostheses and the care they need.”

Burhan, Shady and the whole team here in Sulaymaniyah are extremely passionate and determined to support people disabled by war and landmines to rebuild their lives. Being there for patients for as long as needed is crucial to the rehabilitation journey.