Saif can continue to spend time with his family

Thank you for helping me out of a situation in which I felt completely hopeless. My name is Saif — I am 57 years old and a refugee from Iraq. My family and I came to the United States of America two years ago because we felt unsafe staying in our home country. I was tortured by the security forces under the regime of Saddam Hussien because I was suspected of being disloyal. Later, my family received death threats from the militia.

When we came to the USA, I immediately started to work so that I could support my family. Although it was a low paying job without medical insurance, I still felt proud about my ability to support my wife and children. About a year after I started working in this job, everything changed. I was laid off due to my health condition, which affected my ability to support my family. My pride in myself began to diminish and I still could not get past all the trauma I experienced in Iraq. It was all too much — I began to feel like everything was hopeless and that there was no purpose in my life. In my despair, I decided to try and take my own life.

Before I could, I found people that understood me and offered me hope. I began to see a counselor from International Counseling and Community Services, a program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest. I felt this counselor understood my feeligns of hopelessness and helped me find purpose in my life again. They also helped me understand my feelings and together we found that medication could be used to treat my condition. However, I soon realized that the medication was expensive and I did not have the medical insurance to cover it.

I began to despair again but my counselor found a solution. He said that there are people who donate to the program and we can use that donation to help me buy my medication. I was surprised that someone I didn’t even know would help me to buy my critical medications. I was amazed by the generosity of strangers. Because of people like you, I can afford my medications, which help me feel stable and allow me to continue counseling and the healing process. I no longer feel so hopeless and have a strong will to live. I don’t know what I would have done without these counseling services and important medications.

Thank you for being there for me when I needed it! You helped change my life!