Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
LAST week I was watching a late re-run of CNN's most touching documentary show yet. It was titled: "rescuing Youssif", and what a show it was.
There wasn't a dry eye in the room after watching that show. The documentary showed the story of a young Iraqi boy whose face was brutally burned by three masked men while he was playing with his cousins just a few metres away from his house.
The reason why those three men did this atrocious act was never revealed, however many do believe it was an act of violence influenced by sectarian differences in Iraq.
Due to the lack of ambulances in the country the child had to wait for hours in agony before his father was able to get home to take him personally to the hospital.
Upon arrival at the hospital, doctors worked around the clock to peel off the burned skin, the process was successful except for one thing: it was done without any anesthetic.
The father then wrote letters to the ministry of health, the parliament and to anyone who would listen. But nobody was ready to help or to do anything.
The father then risked his and his family's safety by approaching a foreign broadcasting channel, CNN, for help.
The programme-makers only needed to take one look at Youssif's disfigured face to realise what this child had been put through and they decided to make a feature story about him and all the unfortunate children in Iraq.
This story was such an eye-opener for me and all those who have read or watched Youssif's story.
Youssif is a brave boy. I do hope that no child or parent will ever again have to go through the sort of suffering Youssif and his parents have had to endure.
This column salutes all the loving and hard-working parents across the world.
Editor's note: The story prompted an outpouring of support to get help for the five-year-old. More than 12,000 CNN.com users have contributed to a fund set up by the Children's Burn Foundation, the non-profit organisation that paid for the family's travel to the US and is covering all of Youssif's medical bills to help him smile again.
