Mariposa Group Helps Pay for Iraqi Teen’s Prosthetic Eye
Thursday, February 14th, 2008Noor Obaid walked the streets of Iraq with her head down because she’s self-conscious and embarrassed about her lazy left eye, blinded and scarred by shrapnel three-and-a-half years ago.
The U.S. military attacked 19-year-old Obaid and her family as they drove along a Fallujah highway in August 2004, she told a group of Americans — including some from Mariposa and El Portal — dedicated to getting her medical treatment.
Obaid’s uncle died, shrapnel lodged in her mother’s chest and metal shards ripped into her eye.
Fellow Iraqis wouldn’t take them to the hospital because they were intimidated by the U.S. soldiers’ presence at the checkpoint, she recalled. Finally, the troops left and they were taken to the hospital, where she was given pain pills, but no treatment.
After suffering day after day and year after year since then, Obaid will finally be able to lift her head. (more…)