By Da One
Why should I, a grown man, be shedding hot tears in the sweet evening breeze, after the sweltering heat of the day has given way to lung soothing bubbles of fresh air?
This is the second time today that I came across a video of a pale looking, dim spirited little boy by the name Amat Seine in Facebook posts by unknown friends. Earlier in the morning, just before my kids woke up from bed, I saw Amat squatting in a short video taken whilst he was agonizing in pain. He had his hands under his chin. Gently rocking himself from side to side, I heard him groaned a couple of times. I went to back to the post again. He is said to be suffering from a heart condition that could not be treated in The Gambia. India and Germany are given as potential countries where those supporting him have established contacts with doctors for treatment.
Before I could finish reading the whole description of Amat’s conditions, my son came to me in bed brimming with a good morning smile on his face. I was momentarily jolted back to my own surroundings. I looked at my son, who is just two and a half years old, and my heart was crushed. He is heathy and vigorous, unlike Amat. Amat is older than my son, he is said to be seven years old. I became drowsy with the thought that Amat could equally have been my son, with the same conditions or even worst.
I asked myself the obvious question. “What would I have done, if my son would have been in the same or a similar situation like Amat, with no means to afford paying a colossal sum of money to get him the needed treatment”? What would I have done?
I put it at the back of my mind to come back to the post later in the day. The hustle and bustle of the day will continue until late evening. I have forgotten Amat and his health problems. I sat down to sip cold water and enjoy the breeze outside. After my brain started to slow down for the night, it struck me that I have indeed promised someone that I would check back on him again. It was Amat.
As if time does not move for him, he was at the same crouching position in the same video. Well what did I expect? That he will be bouncing and smiling as if nothing has happed? By this time, my son was already fast asleep. I lifted my eyes and stared into the starless night sky for some answers on why life could be so unfair. Thoughts of Amat sitting there for answers and perhaps a little bit of help filled my heart with a suffocating pain and my eyes welled with tears. I remember the resemblances I saw between Amat and my own little boy this morning. It feels as if I am looking at my own child die away without being able to help. I contemplated how I could give my own life for the sake of this little innocent angel to survive this calamity.
Which country let’s its future perish from treatable and curable diseases because it has perhaps forgotten to invest in its own citizens to become the specialists that Amat today so badly needs. Or just someone has decided to put those monies into their own pockets. I wanted to cry out loud or just hit someone badly into a coma. Yes, cry I did, but I have to muffle my voice that I don’t wake people up.
How many Amats and Bintas are out there who will die because of the same thing without anyone noticing? Amat might be the lucky one because the gallant humanitarian Giving Back to The Gambia Charity Foundation Inc. is far in collecting donations for Amat’s oversees treatment. Please check them out and chip in.
But how on earth has it come to this? How on earth!!