Her Name Was Lailuma Malikzada
Lailuma Malikzada, Program Officer HACT, UNICEF-Kabul, Afghanistan passed away on 25 October, 2023. Rest in Power, Lailuma!!She was paralyzed in a road accident while on an official mission in Khost Province, was evacuated to a small clinic in Pakistan and sent back to Kabul after several months where she languished in extreme pain for months and fought to breathe (couldn’t actually breathe without oxygen).
I was Lailuma’s supervisor in UNICEF-Herat (16 years ago). She was our Finance Assistant those days. In several of my column-articles, I mention her as LM––that’s my Lailuma!
Four years is a long time. We created many memories . . . She assured me that she would come to get me if the Taliban attacked our guest house. She phoned me daily at night when I was left alone in our guesthouse for almost two weeks without adequate safety measures.
“Always keep your burqa handy,” she used to alert me. I had actually bought a blue burqa on the advice of my female national colleagues––an absurd escape strategy!
Lailuma (and other national female staff) taught me how to walk slowly like an Afghani while wearing my blue-burqa.
“Wear closed shoes. Your painted toe-nails will give you away,” she joked and we giggled together.
The entire time after her accident we kept in touch. She sent me WhatsApp voice-mails. She was in excruciating pain, and with breathing distress I could barely understand her––had to play her voice-mail over and over and over . . .
What could I do? I spoke with colleagues (mostly retired), wrote to top shots in NYHQ (in active service now with the prospect of retirement, eventually) and the region––RD, ROSA, Ted Maly and Magassa in NYHQ . . . I discovered I was the one to inform HR-NYHQ (!) about Lailuma’s situation. Our former Rep in Afghanistan, Catherine made calls . . .
“I will commit suicide, Nuzhat Jaan,” Lailuma’s voice reached me on WhatsApp, from thousands of miles away––a whisper as she winced in intense pain.
So, I drafted a letter from her to Roseangela––head of disability Unit. Lailuma pleaded not to be retired as she was the bread earner––she had two minor children and sick husband to take care of.
She wanted to reach out to the ED––I drafted her letter but she told me to wait. She was afraid of backlash . . .
Below is the letter Lailuma sent to her office and several people in UNICEF. I am appending it as it was sent to me:
“(Since I could not sit or write therefore, I dictated it to my 14 years old son Mosaid–– to draft the email for me):
I am Lailuma Malikzada Program Officer HACT UNICEF Afghanistan Kabul country office. I was on a official field mission with my colleagues traveling from Khost province to Paktia provincial capital Gardiz that I was badly injured in road accident in the afternoon of March 23 , 2022. I was very badly injured and lost my conscious and was taken first to Gardiz provincial hospital for first aid and then to Royal private hospital . According to doctors my general conditions were very unstable that they could not perform surgical operation on my neck.
After almost 72 hours from the incident , I was evacuated to Shifa z international Hospital Islamabad Pakistan.
I am lying in the bed in bad physical and psychological conditions. Could not move my legs and body only could move my hands with limitations. I have a bad pain in my neck.
I am an Afghan woman with two minor children and a husband with multiple medical conditions. I am the major bread earner of my family. The wellbeing of the entire family rely and depend on me.
I cannot go back to Kabul in this miserable condition for treatment or staying.
Now I am under physiotherapy and physical rehabilitation, my doctor at Shifa International hospital doctors recommended to evacuated to another country for advanced treatment/ rehabilitation facilities.
Therefore I would humbly request unicef to help me and get a second opinion about my health condition by evacuating me Germany, Dubai or Bangkok or any other country that has the expertise to treat my case.
Looking forward to hear from you soon.
With regards
Lailuma Malikzada”
(Note: I guess our emails must have generated some concerns . . . some attempts were made to medevac her which were unsuccessful . . . and a few months before she died, the office tried to evacuate her to Dubai. Her visa application was refused. And that was it.
I remember, years ago, in one instance, an international consultant was about to undertake an official mission with her infant but the nanny was refused visa to the country she was travelling to. The UNICEF-Deputy Rep became the “personal guarantor” of the nanny––the problem was resolved. This is leadership.
*Lailuma told me to share her story as I deemed appropriate. I didn’t take her permission to use her photo.
I spoke with Lailuma’s sister, others in her family, and I got in touch with my colleagues from the Herat office, to cry together––carrying a rock in my heart.)
Lailuma’s Whatsap messages to Nuzhat
1
Many thanks for publishing Lailuma's story. She wanted to be heard.
ReplyDeleteA very sad story may her dear soul rest in eternal peace and may her family endure her loss
ReplyDeleteMy heart aches with profound sorrow for my dear colleague, Lailuma Malikzada. It's impossible to hold back the tears. Lailuma and I shared the same office, and we stood side by side for over 15 years. The pain I feel is immeasurable.
ReplyDeleteI am genuinely anguished by the actions of the UNICEF Afghanistan management that, in my eyes, let her down in the most tragic way. It's as if they turned their backs on a member of their own family. I can't help but ask: What if she had been one of their own?
The depth of my emotions knows no bounds, and I hope that this loss is not in vain, that it serves as a poignant reminder of the responsibility we bear toward our colleagues, who are like family to us.
Lailuma asked me a question several times: "would I be treated differently if I were an international staff?" An international staff wouldn't have waited over a year struggling to take every breath, coping with excruciating pain, losing total control of the (paralyzed) body but alive with an active, sane brain that knew what was happening, that registered the unbearable pain. An international wouldn't have waited for the medical unit's dilly-dallying or due (?) processes that took so long––s/he would have flown to a place with improved medical facilities without losing precious time, I am sure.
ReplyDeleteThe hospital in Kabul where she was sent back (to die) was ill equipped. Lailuma begged to be evacuated in another country where they could manage her intolerable physical pain. I understood (till the time she and I spoke), no high officials visited her in Pakistan or Kabul . . .
Before my time a national staff was badly injured in an RPG attack in Herat. He was instantly evacuated outside the country and received life saving treatment in improved facilities.
Leadership Matters.