When it began, everybody was full of hope. It wasn’t long until Alexandra Kriesche finally got pregnant. The young family was happily expecting their first offspring. On October 17th, 1995 it finally happened: little Samira was born - her parents' pride and joy. In these days nothing hinted to the drama that should begin soon.

First the Kriesches worried a lot because the child cried - more, more often, and longer than the other babies. In the hospital the parents were reassured: "Maybe the mother's milk doesn't agree with her. You will see, this will get better."

Samira was three months old when it was discovered that she suffers from an extremely rare illness: Morbus Canavan, or Canavan Disease. This disease is so rare that hardly anyone even knows the name. Only 200 children in the entire world right now suffer from it. The disease isn't only rare, but is also terminal. Canavan children have a life expectancy of six years at the most. On 17^th October Samira will already be three years old

Due to the strain of Samira's disease, the marriage of her parents dissolved. Samira's father couldn't tolerate the burden and left his wife and daughter. Today Alexandra lives with her companion and Samira in Usingen, Germany, outside of Frankfurt. This year, the two married on Samira ’s birthday. Because of Samira’s deteriorating condition, Alexandra has been totally isolated in the past. "I would be happy to have had some contacts on the outside. If only once in a while somebody came to take Samira for a walk in her pushchair." Once the desperate mother posted an advertisement for assistance. "A personal secretary contacted me and wanted 25,00 DM per hour," she says bitterly.

There's no division either in Alexandra's days and nights. Virtually every minute Samira has to be cared for. She is fed through a tube, is permanently connected to a monitor, and has to be moved every 2 hours. A fulltime job for the mother that doesn't end with dusk, because Samira lost her sight. She can no longer differentiate between day and night, confusing her little body’s internal clock.

And Alexandra herself finds some reason for hope. False hope as it turned out up to now - again and again. In the US exists a field test with genetical surgery that was partly successful. This method isn't accepted and the international ethics commission has to decide whether to operate or not.

"You clutch to a straw," says Alexandra. Of course, she didn't want anything more than the operation. But how to achieve that? Tv and radio stations proved to be tremendously generous to the young mother. Both offered to organize the 100.000,- DM costs for the operation. It was a race against the time, because in the beginning of the year Samira suffered from pneumonia. She spent days in the clinic, her life endangered. Despite that, Alexndra dared to fly with her daughter to New Haven. The Yale University doctors' decision was devastating: Samira's lungs were too weak, there was no way for her to survive the operation. The possibility allowing Samira's pneumonia damaged lungs to heal in Yale and to operate afterwards didn't exist. "It was the death sentence for the little one," Alexandra foretells and she's very composed.

Yet there's a second straw to which the mother clutches: it was last November that the German section of "Dolphin Aid" in Düsseldorf made a 14 day dolphin therapy in Miami, Florida available for Samira. The dolphin therapy lasted 14 days, 45 minutes each day. For Samira the high sounds of the dolphins were very soothing and comforting, and she laughed a lot. . But after some time she began to turn her head in the corresponding direction when she was sitting on her mother’s lap and was addressed from the side. "We almost couldn't believe it, but Samira indeed began to move her head, and grab with her little hand for my finger," the mother enthuses. Indeed the dolphin therapy gave Samira a lot of courage to face life and heightened her quality of life.

"Samira was very relaxed and happy. Unfortunately she can't talk, but I can see in Samira's face if she is feeling well, if she is happy, or if she's in pain and not feeling well. With the help of many, including MELT, we will be able to make another therapy next year in July."

Editor's Note: Please check out these web sites for more information about Samira's challenges and the therapy that has helped her.

Want to help? Please order a pin with the following form. $5 from each Pin will go to Samira's Dolphin Therapy fund.