Dear John,

In case you have missed this wonderful headline circulating in the media, I wanted to share it with you.

According to her doctors, Tafida Raqeeb is making a recovery and beginning to get better!

Doctors at the Gaslini hospital in Genoa, where Tafida was allowed to travel, following our campaign, have said that she is well enough to be transferred from the intensive care unit where she was being treated, onto a recovery ward. She is being weaned off her ventilator, as she is able to breathe without it.

Not only that, but her catheter has been removed as Tafida is now able to control her urinary function. 

Tafida’s mother has said: 

“If anyone could see Tafida now, they would be shocked. There are no tubes in her nose anymore, and she is always opening her eyes. She has got a big room in the rehabilitation unit. It has equipment for physiotherapy and there is a hydrotherapy pool in the unit. Basically, her recovery starts today - with all these things that she couldn’t do before.”

This is the little girl for whom some UK doctors said that there was no hope and who would be better off dead!

Paolo Petralia, general manager of the hospital, said: 

"We are happy to have welcomed Tafida, fulfilling the desire of her parents, who asked for time and all the best possible quality of life."

'This time for Tafida and her family is a condition of human dignity.’

Human dignity is at the heart of what you and I fight for at CitizenGO and this news is why we do what we do and why we fight so hard for the rights of the most vulnerable in society. 

I am sure that like me, you are overwhelmed with happiness for Tafida and her family... but the joy is also tinged with sadness for the families of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans who were denied the same opportunity.

Neither Charlie, Alfie or Tafida will be the last children whose lives are placed at the mercy of totalitarian authorities in the world. Families of sick children shouldn’t be put through the ordeal of a fraught court battle where they are stripped of their basic parental rights.

Tafida’s recovery is in no small part thanks to the determination of you and me and all of us here at CitizenGO... and without your support this would have not have been possible.

We will continue to fight every single time that we see a sick child like Tafida, like Alfie, like Charlie from being denied their right to life.

With heartfelt thanks for all that you do.

Thank you,

Ignacio Arsuaga and the entire CitizenGO team

More Information:

The Daily Mail: Tafida Raqeeb survives life support
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7866987/Tafida-Raqeeb-survives-life-support-Big-step-British-five-year-old.html