Dubai: When Ezza Eid Mohammad puts on a sad face with the children in her care at the orphanage, they come running to her asking what they have done to upset her.
“They compete as to who loves me more and all want to sit on my lap when one of them comes to me,” laughs Ezza, who currently has taken on the role of an aunt in one of the villas at the Family Village and cares for five little boys.
Ezza is sitting on a sofa besides another ‘aunt’, Lama Salem Kabooti, talking about how attached she is to her five boys here. Her biological son, she says, is constantly asking about his siblings in the village.
As Ezza is narrating her story, a soft voice is heard from upstairs. A little girl is asking for help to get ready from ‘aunt’ Lama, who takes care of three little girls aged between 6 and 9.
“Are you ready? We need to leave soon,” says Lama, with a big smile on her face. The girls, she says, feel shy to come down knowing there are visitors in the villa. “They are getting ready to head out for some shopping,” she explains.
Next minute, three little girls wearing Cinderella dresses run down the stairs towards Lama. A pile of beautifully wrapped gifts awaits them downstairs. The girls get tremendously excited seeing the gifts.
“The one thing these children need is to always feel safe,” says Lama, an ex-banker, who left her job to devote time at the Family Village. “You have to display more affection here than at home with your biological kids because these children are more sensitive and sometimes, you don’t know what’s bothering them,” she said.
A big part of the challenge of establishing a close bond with the children at Family Village is to make them feel like it is their home, says Lama. Helping some children get rid of bad habits formed during their earlier years is another challenge that is being met with the help of the psychologist who’s always with them at the village.
The children wake up to go to school, do their studies, and are also allowed sufficient time to play outdoors through the course of the day. There are also a number of activities arranged for them outside the village. IPads are made available to them along with access to the internet.
Lama and Ezza believe their service will bring them immense spiritual rewards.
“We treat them no different than our own kids and our families are used to us spending time here,” says Ezza. “They know they have another family living in this place.”
Soon, Jaber Jassem Juma’a, a 35-year-old who acts as a father figure to the children, walks into the villa to talk about his experience of being one of the two fathers working in weekly shifts to raise a bunch of boys.
“The young ones are obedient but the teenage boys were a bit stubborn at first,” Jaber says, before adding, “but now they have improved so much. It’s all about understanding and nurturing them.”
Before the caregivers took on their roles, they were all given intensive training and much of it was psychological, said Lama. They were taught how to deal with orphans of different ages and children with distinctive behavioural patterns.
Juma’a says he is worried that the children could one day ask about their real mother and father. “It’s painful to hear them indirectly ask [this question]. All we can do is try to make them forget [that part of their past] and give them the affection they need.”
Nasser Al Harbi, another father figure in the village, is the psychologist taking care of the issues the children face.
Moving orphaned children into a new environment, he says, can have a number of psychological effects on them ranging from mood swings to a difficulty fitting in. This is why the transition needs to be smooth to give them a sense of belonging, he says.
“We have made this transition through collaborative efforts and we can tell it is successful looking at their positive attitude,” says Nasser. “If any issues arise at this point, they can be managed easily because the children feel safe and have received the affection they were looking for.
“We are preparing them to face life with their own distinct character.”
