Valley Becomes Girl’s Vision For Future‎

Phoenix, June 11, 2006 – Kauye Hassani can finally see America. Her mother’s colorful head scarves, her infant brother, the walls of her Phoenix apartment — even her toy wooden blocks — have slowly come into focus for the 3-year-old Somalian girl.

April surgeries by Scottsdale Dr. James Plotnik removed cataracts that had blinded her more than two years ago, while living in a dusty Kenyan refugee camp.

Cataracts are not unheard of in children, Plotnik said, but in the United States, Kauye’s would have been detected early by a pediatrician and removed.

“When she came in, they were some of the worst I ever saw,” he said. “She was just feeling her way around the room.”

Her mother, Hawa Mchiwa, 31, assumed her daughter would never have the independence she expected for her other four children.

“I didn’t think she would ever see,” Mchiwa said through Aden Aden, a translator. “I thought about when she would grow older, I would have to always hold her hand. I thought she could never go anywhere alone.”

The Hassani family was one of several families that came to Tavan Elementary School in the Scottsdale Unified School District last year. When they arrived, none of the children spoke English nor their parents. And the school had to scramble to find the best way to accommodate them.

Though Kauye’s changes might seem the most drastic, she’s not the only refugee child whose life has has been altered.

When Shakira Aden, 6, started school in fall, she knew no English, said Aden, her uncle.

Now, she can read the alphabet, thanks in no small part to tutors from Desert Canyon Elementary School, he said. As with many of the children, fourth-grader Salim Mohamed has blossomed socially since moving to Phoenix in 2005, said his teacher, Shelly Rose.

“At the beginning of the year, he didn’t make a peep,” she said. “Suddenly, he speaks in class, he’ll use a slang word and try to be funny. He just came out of his shell.”

But many of the children, including Kauye’s sisters and brother, have had to leave Tavan. Out of 20 Somalis, just nine are left, Aden said.

Rising rents in the Arcadia area mean families have moved farther into Phoenix, out of Scottsdale district boundaries.

The Hassani family moved to a government subsidized complex in February, but the Tavan staff still helps them with translation and other services.

“What am I supposed to do? I cannot just leave these families,” said Tavan staff member Elizabeth Kloehr.

The Hassanis, like the other Somali refugees at Tavan, came to the United States after living in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya — the largest camp of its kind in the world, with nearly 100,000 inhabitants.

Their people, the Bantu, fled anarchy that broke out during Somalia’s civil war in 1991, walking for days to the camp, where children were plagued with malnourishment and disease.

In the camp, Kauye became sick, then developed the cataracts, her mother said.

After moving to Phoenix in February 2005, it took a lot of time to cut through red tape and schedule Kauye’s surgery.

But in April, Plotnik finally was able to remove the cataracts and implant lenses.

During a follow-up visit two weeks ago, he said the girl’s eyesight is coming along well.

“We’re optimistic she’ll develop relatively normal vision,” he said. “It will just take a little while for her brain to learn how to use the eyes.”

Source: East Valley Tribune, June 11, 2006

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