The possibility of having to live with a new family she does not know while missing her own feels like one change too many to be dropped onto Dunya in the span of one week.

The new year has been one of many changes for the 16-year-old who just wants to see her parents but is instead recovering in hospital waiting in limbo while the next steps are being figured out.

"Too many changes have happened in my life in one week: I fell, they want to separate me from my brother and join another family which, I don't know how I will cope with that situation," L.A. Matheson Secondary student Dunya, who asked to not use her real name, said via phone from her hospital room.

"In the meantime, I miss my family."

She remains in BC Children's Hospital, unable to return to where she was living in Surrey with her older brother. 

"We used to live together, but since I fractured my hip, the hospital is trying to connect me with a foster family, ... but the social worker is still trying to find an option, so I am still in here in hospital," Dunya shared, noting her brother can't take the responsibility. "The social worker said he is going to work, in full-time work, so he won't be able to take care of me during the day, and when he comes back, he has to go to university."

Dunya, originally from Afghanistan, arrived in Canada as a refugee on Sept. 8. She lives with a bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta (or brittle bone disease) and scoliosis, making her body more fragile than most. The 16-year-old came to Canada on her own to join her older brother in Surrey, where they settled, while their parents and baby sister remain in Kabul, the country's capital.

Now the teen is ready to be discharged but has no parent or guardian suitable for her to stay with while in recovery, which is about six weeks.

"My bones are really weak, I've had more than eight fractures before, but none of them were as serious as this one. It was because of this fracture that I had my first surgery in my life," she said.

The refugee teen has been there for about a week now and is unable to get up and move around on her own.

It was a fun day with her older brother initially; he wanted to teach his sister how to use the transit system since she was on winter break from school but he would remain working full-time. The siblings went from Surrey all the way to North Vancouver so Dunya could learn the full scope of the bus and SkyTrain system in the Lower Mainland.

"We were talking then suddenly, I slipped on the ground and I couldn't get up or walk, and then we called the ambulance and the ambulance came," she recalled.

She was taken to Lions Gate Hospital nearby but then transferred to BC Children's to have the necessary surgery on her hip. 

"I'm still in hospital because I don't have a parent or guardian here to watch out for me or take care of me. My situation is hard and risky, and my bones are fragile, and the hospital hasn't sent me to home yet because of not having a parent or guardian," Dunya explained.

She speaks to her parents in Kabul daily; they are full of stress and worry but are unable to do much from where they are.

"They are too worried about my situation because my doctor told me that if I slip on the ground, my hip and leg bone could fracture. My whole body is at risk of fracture. They wish that they could help me here, they are so worried," Dunya said.

"They are trying to come here, but they don't have any option because they don't have enough money, so there's no way they can come by themselves."

Dunya and her family are of the Hazara ethnic group, a minority in Afghanistan who have been facing persecution for decades. Most in the ethnic group are also a religious minority, Shia Muslims.

"Because we are Hazara, we are in danger, I don't even know how to describe it in words."

It is because of this reason that Dunya's family wanted to leave Afghanistan and settle somewhere safer where religious persecution would not be a threat, but having the whole family travel together was not viable.

"We had no choice to travel together because it is expensive," the teen explained from her hospital bed.

Feeling isolated, "depressed and stressed," Dunya reached out to her teacher, Annie Ohana, for support as the list of people she knows in Canada is a short one.

"For the short time she has been here, amidst all the terrible obstacles she is facing, they have already contributed in so many ways," Ohana said about Dunya. 

"Volunteering to speak on a Human Rights Panel on Dec 10th, being an excellent student, and advocating for justice for everyone. It is a cruel injustice to see a family so harshly separated. No child should be left in such a way, and we need the Canadian government to help her family out of oppression and end the emotional and mental distress she is facing."

The teacher added that Dunya's father, a surgeon, would be an asset to B.C.'s health care system. 

"We need help from an immigration lawyer knowledgeable in refugee cases out of Afghanistan and helping minors," Ohana said, adding that donations are being accepted for Dunya through e-transfer at aosf219@gmail.com

The teacher can also be reached at ohana_a@surreyschools.ca to answer questions or those who want to offer support to the teen.

Dunya just wishes she could go back to her home in Surrey with her brother and be reunited with her whole family soon.

Not only will Dunya have to live elsewhere with strangers, she may also have to switch schools, depending on where she is placed, another change she is preparing herself for.

Dunya's father is a doctor in Afghanistan, so receiving the care she needed was more accessible for her then. Her mother also helped care for her daughter however was needed. It is now that she is alone in a hospital that she is realizing that there is no one else to take care of her.

"It's so depressing and I'm stressed," Dunya said.

"I just want my parents to join me here and to live together and I just want to wake up again and be able to walk and live as a normal human."