NEW YORK — Aisha Jaiteh, 2, and her mother, Bintou Sonko, arrived on Staten Island back in November from Gambia.

They’ve been staying with the Global Medical Relief Fund, or GMRF, the not for profit that coordinated the complicated surgery that would correct Aisha’s club feet and hand.

After three surgeries and months of rehabilitation, Aisha was deemed healthy enough to go back home this summer.

But the coronavirus pandemic has made that impossible.


What You Need To Know

  • 2-year-old, mother, arrived on Staten Island in November for surgery for club feet and hand

  • The Global Medical Relief Fund charity coordinated the trip, helped fund the corrective surgery needed

  • The child had 3 surgeries, but was not ready to head back to Gambia until July

  • Coronavirus travel restrictions have made it impossible for Aisha and her mother to get home

“We cannot get her back. So she’s been finished since July and the airlines, because we’re from the U.S., the airline will schedule and then they’ll say no, we’re not taking, she can’t go through,” said Elissa Montanti from the Global Medical Relief Fund (GMRF).

GMRF is a locally based charity that aids critically ill or injured children, especially those from war-torn countries where medical care is inadequate. Three other families housed on Staten Island were able to go back to their native countries this spring, before travel became impossible.

But Aisha wasn't ready. So even though she and her mother have round-trip tickets back to Gambia, they have no idea when they'll be allowed to travel to the country again.

“I miss my family. And my kids. And I want to see them. Because it’s been since — I was here since November on the 3rd and almost one year, so I miss my family,” Bintou Sonko said.
 

(Aisha Jaiteh, 2, on Staten Island. Photo courtesy Global Medical Relief Fund.)


They've considered purchasing new tickets to fly from Washington, DC, to Brussels, but that would mean the $6,000 the charity paid for the first tickets would be lost. They'd also have to come up with another $6,000 for new tickets, a daunting task for a charity that hasn't been able to fundraise since March.

“It’s very frustrating. It’s heartbreaking,” Montanti said.

The pandemic has created a backlog of about 50 children from countries in Africa, South America, and the Middle East, all waiting to come here for surgery or to be fitted for  prosthetics.

“What we would have to do is, bring the children here, they would have to be tested, they would have to be quarantined, but we don’t want to chance it because god forbid in transit they get the virus,” Montanti said.

So with its medical mission on hold, GMRF has shifted focus to the food crisis at home, so far hosting nine pop-up food pantries for people in need.

It’s hoping to get Aisha and her mother back to Gambia by the new year to revisit the older sisters who haven't seen their mother, or how their baby sister has finally learned to walk:
 

 

 

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