For Falasteen Tambora, life in Canton, Michigan offers almost everything a young girl could want.

Falasteen Tambora of Gaza had her badly damaged left leg surgically repaired through the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund in Canton.     Photo Courtesy of Steve Sosebee

It’s a safe, clean city with friendly people that’s also just a few miles away from several shopping malls, which are among her favorite places to visit.But despite those benefits, the 15-year-old aspiring nurse can’t wait to go home to a place that many have described as an “open-air prison,” the Gaza Strip. It is there, in her hometown of Beit Lahiya in the northwest part of Gaza near the border of Israel, where 21 of her family members reside in a house with just three bedrooms, including her mother Ghalia and her father Mohamad. Her family only has electricity for an average of three days a week, and water access is sporadic at best. Despite those problems, Tambora will return in May. For now, however, she’s focused on getting healthy with the assistance of local rehabilitation specialists and the support of her Palestine Children’s Relief Fund host mother, Mahira Elder.Tambora entered America in February 2009 in pursuit of advanced medical treatment for her badly damaged left leg, which was broken and afflicted with nerve and muscle damage after Tambora was hit by a large bullet.She had taken refuge on Friday, January 16, 2009 in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency School near her home that was the target of a bombing attack by Israel as well as fire from supporting ground troops. Over 100 people crammed each room of the building, expecting it to be safe from the surrounding chaos.Tambora had been sleeping when the bullet pierced her leg; she still isn’t sure if it came from airplane fire or snipers on the ground.She almost bled to death that night but quick thinking and resourcefulness kept her alive.The first doctor who examined it said it would likely have to be amputated, but a second opinion and subsequent four-hour surgical operation (from a neurologist no less, and without the aid of pain medication) allowed the leg to be saved.Painful memories of those days still linger in Tambora’s mind, even today in Elder’s peaceful Canton house, where Tambora lives and plays each day with Elder’s six children.The sound of planes heading to and from Metro Airport originally caused her to instinctively duck and look for shelter, and Tambora still refuses to sleep by herself at night.But the young girl’s toughness was on full display during her late March surgery to repair her damaged leg at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit. Tambora underwent a one-hour procedure to straighten the crooked bone in her leg and came out all smiles on the other end.”I’ve never seen anybody that had surgery and then be so excited and happy about it,” Elder said.The operation was performed as a courtesy from Dr. Jiab Suleiman, a long-time PCRF supporter. Suleiman was informed of Tambora’s condition by PCRF president and friend Steve Sosebee and was happy to offer his services to repair her leg.”I love to help any human being I can offer my services to, especially people without access to the appropriate services in their home countries,” Suleiman said. “I cannot even begin to tell you how gratifying and fulfilling I feel when I realize I helped make a child smile and to be normal again and have no pain.”While several other children in Palestine and other countries are in need of such services and host parents are readily available, contributions like Suleiman’s are still sorely needed to help more kids get the medical treatment they need.”Hosting is not the problem,” said Elder, who has hosted two other Palestinian children in the past for surgeries. “The problem is waiting for someone to offer to help us medical-wise, whether it’s a hospital or company, we need people to donate for medical missions in Palestine.” The Kent, Ohio-based organization has locations ranging from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles and back to Chicago and Cleveland in the Midwest, but surprisingly no location in Metro Detroit. The PCRF also provides supplies like orthopedic shoes and powdered milk for children in Gaza, operating on a $553,000 yearly budget. But with the large amount of injured and poverty-stricken children in Gaza, the need for more donations continues to grow. The process of getting a visa for injured kids is difficult but well worth it in the end as Tambora’s situation illustrates.Her story appeared on Fox 2 News in Detroit, and Tambora said through Elder, her translator, that she was happy to be on TV so more Americans can know what Palestinians are going through.”People don’t realize what’s going on, but outside of the U.S. people know because the newscasts show them,” Tambora said.Now, after more than a year of nightmarish circumstances, Tambora has re-gained the ability to walk again over short distances and has hopes of being able to play soccer with her friends again.Elder and her family will miss Tambora’s company when she leaves in just over a month, but the memories will last a lifetime.”The PCRF’s mission isn’t political at all, it’s about humanitarian work and changing the lives of these injured kids,” she said.”It’s very rewarding to see kids like these get the treatment they deserve and to see smiles on their faces.”Despite an uncertain future in Gaza, Tambora can’t wait to get back home, where her family tends to their olive trees and cooks for each other as part of a close-knit group.”People over there just want to have a chance to live a normal life,” said Tambora through Elder. “I just want to be like all of the other girls.”Now, thanks to the PCRF and Dr. Suleiman’s help, she has that chance again.For information on how to help a child in Palestine or to donate, visit www.pcrf.net.