My son is quadriplegic.
He's got phrenatrophia.
He can't move at all.
I took him to the doctors in Syria.
One of them said to me “Throw him away.”
“Leave him and throw him away until he dies.”
When we came to Australia I felt a big difference.
The improvement was 100 percent.
He was about to die before we left Lebanon.
People used to say, once you go to a foreign country
you have to forget about your children.
You may lose your children.
But this is completely untrue.
They look after children here more than in my home country.
They treat children as a priority and look after them.
And they don't take them. The idea that they take your children is not true.
There is a big difference between here and Iraq.
In Iraq there is no care, and there are no schools for autistic children.
Normal schools do not accept children with disabilities.
The difference is big here.
There is care, and there are special schools and hospitals.
There is a big difference.
It was dangerous in Syria - wars, explosions.
So much so that often we could not send them to school.
When we took him to hospital
he was in a semi-coma.
He was about to die.
For a week or two we kept asking the doctors what was happening
and they kept saying “You need to be patient.”
Within a month, there was a big difference.
Life came back to him after we had lost hope.
Yusuf has benefited a lot from going to school.
I believe he's comprehending a bit more. Previously his ability to understand things was minimal.
He's moving much better than before. Now he goes to school.
He is receiving physiotherapy. He is able to use his sense of touch and feel things.
He can understand now.
Previously, he wouldn't respond if you called him but now he does.
We can feel that he can respond. He takes his hands out and moves them.
Without school, he didn’t move them at all.
They installed two prosthetic legs for him, to help him walk.
The improvement that I saw was unbelievable.
I'm used to seeing him sleeping 24 hours a day.
When I see him sleeping now, he opens his eyes and laughs.
He moves a bit in his bed.
His life has come back to him.
They care for children.
In terms of the doctors and the hospital... We are all okay.
We enrolled them in a school that specialises in autism.
We have received attention and care since we moved here.
Everything is okay for us and our children.
The school looks after our children, in relation to teaching them the right thing,
and looks after them to make them feel that they
don’t have a disability, for instance, or autism.
In addition, there is security here. That’s the most important thing.
The most important thing here is that people are not discriminatory.
I mean, if they see my son, they consider his disability a normal thing.
They do not interfere in personal matters and they treat us normally.
They love school very much.
They are very happy going to school.
When they don't go to school they get upset at home.
They love to go every day.
I would like to thank our case worker who has done many things for us and the kids.
My country, Iraq, is one of the richest countries
but there is no attention and support given.
And nothing to make you feel that you are a human being.
Since we arrived in Australia, we feel we are valued, valued as human beings.
For now, everything is okay. It’s okay.
Thank God we came here. Everything is okay.