The family of five-year-old Malak, the Libyan girl who lost a limb when a missile landed in her home, have spoken of their determination to return to Libya as soon as possible.
Malak was brought to Malta from Misurata yesterday, and is to be taken to the US to be given a prosthetic leg.
She wore a badge bearing the logo of the Libyan National Transitional Council and carried the council’s flag as she was carried down from a trawler yesterday.
The rocket ripping off her right leg and killing her younger brother and baby sister.
“It was a long voyage and we are tired but feel very good to be here... Malak was given a lot of toys during the trip and she is doing very well,” her father Mostafa Mohammed Al Shami said, soon after stepping off the Al Entisar.
Malak’s parents are now focusing on one objective – getting their daughter to the US where she will be fitted with the prosthetic leg that will allow her to run and be a child again.
Sitting in the Gżira apartment where they will be spending the next few days before setting off to the US, her father said: “She looks forward to walking again... Like all children she likes fun and games.”
Beside him Malak goes through emotional mood swings, she smiles and hugs her parents, sobbing between kisses, and impatiently insists that she wants to go to the playground she noticed nearby. Yet, despite their horribly traumatic experience in Misurata, the family is determined to return home after visiting the US.
“Gaddafi made all our people and our children suffer... We will do anything to get him out and make him look bad. Malak is the voice for all Misurata’s children... It is our country, he can leave,” her father said.
I Go Aid Foundation. an NGO set up by Libyans and Maltese, transported the family to Malta while the Global Medical Relief Fund is sponsoring all travel costs to the US. The Shriners Hospital will cover all expenses related to Malak’s treatment, from the fitted prosthetic to her physiotherapy.