Mum wants daughter to live with eye cancer so she can beg alms

A mother has refused treatment for her two-year-old daughter with cancer of the left eye, choosing instead to keep her as a prop for alms begging. The nongovernment organisation Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care (GIPLC) took custody of two-year-old Aisha Humaira on July 12 and got her hospitalised at University of Abuja Teaching […]

A mother has refused treatment for her two-year-old daughter with cancer of the left eye, choosing instead to keep her as a prop for alms begging.

The nongovernment organisation Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care (GIPLC) took custody of two-year-old Aisha Humaira on July 12 and got her hospitalised at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital for surgery.

GIPLC said her widowed mother had refused to take her to hospital because she used Aisha’s plight as a means to an end.

GIPLC had opened an appeal for N700,000 to pay for blood units, drugs, surgery and chemotherapy.

On Sunday, her mother took her out of hospital demanding to be paid instead.

“The nurses pleaded endlessly with her but she declined,” GIPLC founder Nuhu Kwajafa wrote on his Facebook wall on Monday.

“After numerous phone calls, the mother finally answered our call. She said something to me that really broke my heart. Aisha’s mother wants to be paid, before allowing her daughter access treatment.

“This situation where a parent denies a child access to healthcare, a basic right, is criminal and must be condemned. It is the same thing as denying an eligible person the right to vote or be voted for.

“These types of atrocities must not be allowed to thrive, especially against children, the future of our country.

In two days, GIPLC had already raised N210,000 in donations to pay for Aisha’s medical bills.

But it officially stopped accepting donations and has asked its contributors approval to channel the funds to another sick child.