Afghanistan children find solace in Redondo Beach
Arefa taking in the sun as she spreads her wings at the beach. Photo by Carina Glasser
A six-year-old girl laughs and jumps in the waves at Torrance Beach, while she tries to keep the bandages on her head from getting wet. The little girl’s name is Arefa. She is from Afghanistan.
Arefa is a burn victim from a bombing in Afghanistan who is in Los Angeles area getting skin grafts. Even though she can’t get her head wet in the waves she still has a huge smile across her face.
Solace means comfort in a time of distress. The non-profit organization Solace for the Children helps children in war-torn Afghanistan receive the medical attention they need.
About four weeks ago, six Afghan children arrived in Los Angeles to meet host families recruited by Solace for the Children. During their time here the children bond with their host families, visit local attractions, and receive the medical treatments they need. All the children’s medical services are donated by doctors, dentists, and optometrists.
Not all the children Solace for the Children helps have as serious medical needs as Arefa. But all have needs beyond medicine, as their trip to the beach on Friday demonstrates. They need to experience the simple joy of being a child not living in a war zone.
“I remember the first time I took her down to the water and her eyes popped out of her head…it was just squeals of joy,” says Jami Valentine, Arefa’s host and a board member for Solace for the Children-Los Angeles.
[scrollGallery id = 425]This is the third summer the organization has brought Afghan children to the U.S. Valentine hopes the program’s success will continue.
“I hope we expand our network of doctors and host families,” she says. “Each year we have had six kids but we would love to see that number grow.”
“We pick the children based upon which doctors we can get to donate their services,” Valentine adds. ”The first year we did it we had a really hard time getting doctors to do it, but now that we have networked out its easier to find doctors.”
People have also started to donate camp time to Solace for the Children. This past week the six kids have been attending Hammerhead Beach Camp on Torrance Beach.
Hammerhead is run by Jamie Bateman and her brother-in-law Bruce Kocsis. This is the camp’s sixteenth summer but its first at Redondo’s Torrance Beach location. It is also their first summer working with Solace for the Children.
“We do a lot of philanthropic things and I heard about Solace from a family member and decided to reach out to them,” Bateman says. “The kids come when they can and they have a great time.”
Even if there is a bit of a language barrier, it doesn’t show. The children still speak the language of “play.”
At Hammerhead the children sing songs and play tag despite the fact that they don’t understand the rules. But their favorite part is jumping and splashing in the waves with the camp counselors.
“It’s like they are any other kid from Redondo, Manhattan, Hermosa, PV, or Torrance,” Bateman says. “They fit right in.”
One of the other children from Afghanistan is 12-year-old Faisal. He is the only child in the group that speaks English and this is his second trip to the US through Solace for the Children.
“The first time I came here I went to Florida and I didn’t speak any English, but when I went back to Afghanistan I took an English class and now I speak pretty good English,” Faisal says. “I want to make my English better.”
Faisal first came to the US because doctors were concerned that he had a heart defect but it turned out to be only a minor murmur.
He is very grateful for all the help he has been given. He wears new glasses and is that rare child who is happy to have been to the dentist’s office.
“I am really glad to be here,” Faisal says. “And I am so happy that they are able to help me.”