HAZELWOOD, Mo. — Many 5 On Your Side viewers have been asking about how 12-year-old Hadi Zaqout from Gaza has been doing since he was first profiled earlier this week.
Hadi lost his leg in Palestine during an Israeli missle strike in November. He traveled to St. Louis with his mother, Kamilia Zaqout, who lost her cousin and her cousin's grandmother in the same attack.
"She said wherever we walked, there were people who were dead. Dead bodies," she said through a translator.
Hadi is in St. Louis to get a new prosthetic leg at Shriners Children's Hospital. On Saturday, he got to experience his first American trivia night to benefit HEAL Palenstine, the nonprofit that helped bring him here.
Kamilia Zaqout said she and her son both feel more at home with their host family in Kirkwood after arriving on May 20 at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Speaking through translator Lina Warrad, a volunteer with HEAL Palestine, Kamilia said everyone is treating Hadi with such love.
"She feels like that it's kind of helping him to heal. Even though it's going to be a slow process, he is healing."
HEAL Palestine has brought about a dozen children from Gaza to the U.S. for medical treatment. The organization pays for travel, housing and medical expenses.
It's hard for Kamilia to not think about her six children still in Gaza and her injured husband.
"(It's especially hard) when she's having a good home cooked warm meal," Warrad translated. "She's sleeping on a comfortable bed. She doesn't forget her kids, but she said that's when I most remember them because I know they're living in a tent. She feels guilty because her 17-year-old daughter is now responsible for taking care of her four younger siblings."
The mother and son duo are planning to stay in St. Louis potentially until the end of the year to complete physical therapy.
"HEAL is for us to heal," Randah Zalatimo, a volunteer with the organization said. "We feel so helpless being so far away."
"We've done protests. We've done fundraisers. ... What else can we do? (Now we have) someone come to us to touch and feel and take care of," she said.
Visit HEAL Palesntine's website for more information or to make a donation.