KUWAIT: Long-distance internet love affair to end in marriage in Kuwait

A disabled man from Kuwait and a woman from the Philippines who fell in love over the internet over two years ago have finally met in person and are making wedding plans thanks to the efforts of the founder of a charitable society. In the Kuwaiti town of Hawalli, Mohammed Omar used to spend hours on his computer chatting over the internet to his fiancé who lives thousands of miles away. The couple, who have been in love for over two years, had never yet met in person. With Omar living in the Arab Gulf country and Rosaline Calidguid, his fiancé, in the Philippines island of Negros, the couple had for years talked about the day they would be finally meet face to face. The day finally came, thanks to a woman who watched the virtual love affair blossom, and who decided her intervention was necessary to unite the two. Omar was was brought to Kuwait's Society for the Handicapped when he was nine years old by his Yemeni father 30 years ago. Born with a physical disability which keeps him in a wheelchair and prevents him from using his left arm, Omar has spent most of his life in the care of Mudi al-Essa, the society's founder. "When his father first brought him here he was very young. He was orphaned of his mother. His mother died and his father told me 'treat him like your son'. His father used to visit him sometimes but then, he might have passed away, I don't know, but he cut off contact. He stopped visiting him. He (Mohammed Omar) was like the other children and was quite smart," al-Essa explained about Omar's childhood. "He started to contact a young girl and they decided to get married. We accepted and agreed to this at once. Why should we prevent him? As long as this is what he wants. And we gave him a lot of help," she said. Al-Essa's charitable work, which has helped children and the the disabled in Kuwait and across the Middle East, was recently honored in a book titled "1,000 Peace Women Across the Globe." "We raised him. The young man is very polite and well-mannered, we gave him a good education. He asked us (for help) and we did not object," al-Essa added. Omar, a mechanic who works at an electrical company, met Calidguid through a chat room on the internet about two-and-a-half years ago. After spending day after day communicating with each other, the couple decided they were a perfect match and wanted to marry. Omar said he told her about his disability early on in the relationship. "After a month I told her everything about myself, and then she spoke to her father and mother and told them everything. I called her parents and they agreed (for Omar to marry their daughter). They did not object. They knew everything about me and they did not have any problems with it," Omar said. But the Calidguid family's agreement to the union did not ensure they could be brought together. Calidguid did not have a visa to visit Kuwait, nor did either of the couple have the financial means to buy a plane ticket. Omar decided to ask al-Essa for help. Al-Essa applied for a visitor's visa for Calidguid, and arranged for payment for her ticket. After a several-month wait for the visa, Calidguid finally arrived at the Kuwait International Airport to meet her fiancé face to face. They are getting to know each other better over dinners in Kuwait's restaurants and visits around the city -- always accompanied by a chaperone as dictated by Kuwait's conservative social rules. When Calidguid's visa expires, she plans to fly back to the Philippines, prepare to move home and return to Kuwait around the new year, when they plan to marry. Many in Kuwait have been touched by Omar and Calidguid's story, and a local philanthropist has paid for Calidguid's bridal dress. The Kuwait Society for the Handicapped and other philanthropists will share the wedding costs. Omar has no plans to move away with his future wife from the centre where he has spent most of his life. Instead, he will be given a bigger room for him and his wife to share. Rosaline says she knows that there are many uncertainties relating to her new life and adjustments to be made. "Yes it's going be a lot of adjustment, I know. And (there will be) challenges yes a lot of things,'' she said. But she says she will do whatever it takes to be with her fiancé and marry him. ''I cannot live without him," she said.

ITN Source | August 20, 2007

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