8-year-old Maya finds an angel in Istanbul

Maya Merhi's plight has touched medical professionals and aid agencies around the world. Photo / Syria Charity

An 8-year-old Syrian girl pictured moving around a refugee camp on artificial limbs made of plastic tubing and tin cans is to receive medical care in Turkey after her plight was seen around the world.

Maya Merhi was born with no legs and until now has been walking on homemade prosthetics cobbled together by her father Mohammad Merhi, 34. He shares the same disability, known as congenital amputation. But after pictures of Maya in Syria were seen around the world, she was taken to Istanbul for treatment.

And her life should be about to change.

"Maya will walk, God willing, in three months time," said Dr Mehmet Zeki Culcu, the prosthetics specialist treating her at an Istanbul clinic.

Maya, originally from Aleppo region, had been living with her father at a camp for displaced people in the Idlib region of northern Syria, victims of Syria's seven-year civil war.

After the pictures of her shuffling with difficulty around the refugee camp made a huge impact, the Turkish Red Crescent intervened.

The father and daughter were evacuated from Syria by Turkish authorities and taken to Istanbul for treatment at a specialised clinic.

They had been living in the south of Aleppo but had to leave for Idlib at the start of the year as fighting began to rage in their native region.

Maya will walk, God willing, in 3 months time.

Dr Mehmet Zeki Culcu

Maya, like her father, had been able to move around more easily by crawling.

But recent surgery, which further reduced the length of her limbs had impeded her.

"After the operation, she was not able to move around and was sitting the whole time in a tent," said Mohammad Mehri.

"For her to move out of the tent, I had the idea to fix on her limbs tubing, stuffed with a spongy material to reduce the pressure.

"Then, I added two empty cans of tuna because the plastic was not strong enough to resist the friction with the ground."

With these impromptu prosthetics, Maya was able to walk outside of the tent and could even go on her own to the camp's school.

Mohammad, who has five other children without the condition, said he replaced the plastic tubing once a month and the tins once a week.

At the Istanbul clinic Maya sat in her father's arms in his wheelchair, clearly overwhelmed by the whole experience.

Her father will also be given prosthetic legs in Turkey. "It's more important that she can walk so that she is autonomous," he said.

"I dream of seeing her walk, going to school and back without suffering.

Culcu said he had been "very touched" by the pictures of Maya and had decided to take on the cost of her prosthetic legs and those of her father.

He said the homemade limbs her father had made were likely to prove of huge benefit because they had got her used to walking.