Devoted Foster Father Brings Comfort to Terminally Ill Children

Single Father Devotes His Life To Fostering Terminally Ill Children

By Emma Taggart on August 9, 2024

Human kindness knows no boundaries, and few embody this truth better than Mohamed Bzeek, a Libyan-born, LA-based man who has fostered over 80 children in the past 25 years. “The key is, you have to love them like your own,” Bzeek said recently. “I know they are sick. I know they are going to die. I do my best as a human being and leave the rest to God.”

Bzeek started caring for foster children with his late wife Dawn in 1989. He first experienced the death of one of his foster children in 1991, when a little girl with a spinal disorder sadly passed away on July 4. By the mid-1990s, the Bzeeks decided to care exclusively for sick or terminally ill children, since no one else would take them in. The Bzeeks worked closely with the Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services, who would call them every time there was a child in need.

Bzeek’s wife passed away in 2014 after battling an illness that caused seizures. Since then, he’s had to care for his terminally ill foster children on his own, as well as his only biological son, Adam, now 27 years old, who was born with brittle bone disease and dwarfism. Despite his own challenges, Bzeek remains undeterred in his mission to help others.

Most recently, Bzeek has welcomed a young girl with a rare brain condition into his care. She’s blind, deaf, and paralyzed in her arms and legs. He says, “The only way to communicate with her is by touch, and so I hold her. I want her to know that somebody is here for her. Somebody loves her. She is not alone.”

Bzeek gained a deep understanding of what it's like to confront a life-threatening illness without family support when he underwent treatment for colon cancer in 2016. “I had to face everything by myself,” he recalled. “At 62 years old, I was scared and afraid to be alone—I felt what the kids feel.” Thankfully, a life-saving operation spared him, but the frightening and isolating experience left a lasting impact on him.

“The young kids, how they feel when they are alone, have no family, nobody comforts them, nobody tells them, ‘It's ok, I'm here for you, we go through this together and it will be fine.’” Bzeek explains. “This operation in December has humbled me, and makes me work more and help more kids.”

Bzeek is dedicated to providing care to sick children for as long as he’s healthy. “We are human beings. We should help each other.” he says in a GoFundMe video. “It doesn’t matter what color, what religion, what country. Like this [we can] live in harmony, and we’ll be united and not divided.”

If you’re moved by Bzeek’s compassion, you can contribute to a GoFundMe campaign created by Imad Bashir. The funds raised will help support Bzeek in his ongoing dedication to caring for terminally ill children.

LA-based single father Mohamed Bzeek is dedicated to fostering terminally ill children, providing them with love and care during their most challenging times.

A photo of Mohamed Bzeek who since 1995 has fostered only terminally ill children. Source for the information located the comments section
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