Wednesday, February 13

Sick child robbed of life saving electricity

M is 5 years old, a friendly, funny child, rather small for his age.
His mother and brothers and sisters live in a flat they squatted many years ago. M suffers from a severe form of asthma, and needs inhalation every 5-6 hours in order to breathe.

His kindergarten teacher is not able to provide the inhalation and as a result, M is at home all day long. His mother has to take care of him and as a result , she cannot work.
Her ex-husband stopped paying alimony and for reasons of bureaucracy, she has not yet started receiving social security.
Medicine and food are more important than paying the electricity bills, leading to a debt. With as a result she was cut off from the grid half an hour ago.
So was her neighbour, the single mother of a 1 week old baby.
Normally neighbours' lend a hand in these cases, but the whole building has been cut off.

For M this means danger, he cannot survive without inhalation.
His mother asked the electricity company guy to come upstairs and see for himself.
He refused.

The electricity company people were accompanied by two border police goons.

Jaffa, winter 2008

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