FATHER TURNS TO CROWDFUNDING SITE FOR HELP RAISING DISABLED SON REJECTED BY HIS MOTHER
After his son, born with Down’s syndrome, was rejected by his mother,
a father has turned to a crowdfunding site to generate funds to help
raise the child alone
‘I looked at this guy and said, “he’s beautiful and I’m absolutely
keeping him”‘ Photo:
By Telegraph Men
10:55AM GMT 06 Feb 2015
A heartbroken father whose son was born with Down’s syndrome in Armenia
has revealed that his wife filed for divorce after he refused to give
up the baby, which she had rejected.
Samuel Forrest then took to crowdfunding site Gofundme to raise money
to return home to New Zealand and raise his son there.
Forrest told ABC News: “This pediatrician walks out of the room with a
little bundle – that was Leo. She had his face covered up and hospital
authorities wouldn’t let me see him or my wife. When the doctor came
out, he said, ‘There’s a real problem with your son.'”
After being told Leo had Down’s syndrome, Forrest said: “I had a few
moments of shock. I looked at this guy and I said, ‘He’s beautiful –
he’s perfect and I’m absolutely keeping him’.”
However, the reaction of Forrest’s wife, Ruzan Badalyan, was very
different. “I got the ultimatum right then,” Forrest said. “She told
me if I kept him then we would get a divorce.”
According to Forrest, it is not uncommon for parents in Armenia to
reject children born with Down’s. “What happens when a baby like this
is born here, they will tell you that you don’t have to keep them,”
he told ABC News. “My wife had already decided, so all of this was
done behind my back.”
Badalyan filed for divorce a week after baby Leo was born, Forrest
said. After that, Forrest, a business contractor, made plans to return
to his native Auckland, using the crowdfunding platform Gofundme.
“As a now solo father, Sam’s aim is to raise enough money to be able
to care for Leo fulltime himself for at least a year, to give him
the love, cuddles & devotion he needs to thrive,” reads a message on
Forrest’s funding page.
Within 24 hours, his story had gone viral and he had received pledges
of over $170,000 (far exceeding his target of $60,000).
Forrest has vowed to use some of the funds to help other families in
Armenia whose children are born with disabilities.