(Transcript from World News Radio)
As a major military operation continues in north-west Pakistan against armed groups, one victim of an extremist attack in the region is quietly recovering near Melbourne after undergoing surgery.
17-year-old Kashmala Munawar was at church on a Sunday morning when her congregation came under attack in Pakistan's Peshawar Province last September.
Dozens of people were killed in the twin suicide bombing at the Anglican church in what was described as the deadliest attack against a non-Muslim target.
Kristina Kukolja has the story.
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"Right, let me have a look at that .... (screws in bolt to frame) ... Push down, you ok? Is that hurting there? (K: Yeah) Ok. And the other way?"
A burst of shrapnel took one of Kashmala's legs.
In May. she underwent reconstructive surgery to save the other.
One day, it'll help carry the weight of a prosthetic leg, but for now it rests extended on her wheelchair -- pins and frames protruding from the shrunken limb.
She hasn't walked in almost a year.
But today, on a visit to her surgeon, Kashmala is getting some important news.
"Kashmala, want to come back in? Come over and have a look at your xrays. That's where we corrected your leg and that's all healed up. It's done, finished, over. Your knee is good. It's nice and straight and it looks good in the other view (of the xray) as well. I think we can take the whole frame off."
Kashmala's surgeon is Associate Professor Leo Donnan.
"The bones were shattered in her shin, in her knee and her foot and ankle. She came over here with a temporary frame, with pins into the skeleton to hold it roughly in the right place. Everything had sagged and rotated and her leg wasn't really going to be functional like that. Essentially what we've done is gone top to bottom and we've reconstructed her knee, her shin, her foot and ankle."
There's rarely a quiet moment back at the rehabilitation farm where Kashmala is staying, in Kilmore outside of Melbourne.
It's a temporary home to a small group of children from around the world receiving medical treatment for conditions or injuries that are untreatable at home.
A host of volunteers, teachers and carers hover overhead.
Physiotherapists from St Vincent's Private Hospital visit once a week.
"Are you able to lie down flat Kashmala? Because then that bends, that gives you a little stretch at the front of the hip, doesn't it? Super."
Restoring movement to Kashmala's leg will be slow.
"Well, we start with the exercise where we just bring out the leg to the side a little bit so that we don't get a tight hip. Will I help a little bit? I'll take the weight of the frame and when you're ready we'll bring it out to the side, but just go as far as you're able. Alright, have a little go."
Senior physiotherapist Ruth O'Connor gently guides Kashmala through the exercises.
"The exercises are based on strengthening the core stability, particularly strengthening the quadricep muscles at the front of the thigh. All the muscles around the hip joint because Kashmala won't have stud on the leg for, not far off a year. We need to try and strengthen those muscles for when she's going to walk on the leg.
Kashmala's days go by in the company of friends she's made, reading and writing, and making Skype calls to her family in Pakistan.
But at times memories of the bombing come flooding back.
"My sister, who was inside the church, she came out and she was just crying. She told me, "I told you to sit with me, just stand up." I said, "I can't stand up. It's very difficult to stand. It's very hard." And I see the people were just crying and lying on the [ground], bleeding, and my mother beside me and my little sister were just down and bleeding, and I was trying to call somebody to help us.
Sometimes the memories linger.
"I just feel very sad because so many people, so many of my friends died. Sometimes I saw them in my dreams and I wake up and sometimes I cry and sometimes I am just afraid because I am alone in one room. It's difficult today, but I am used to it."
Pat manages the rehabilitation farm, owned by the Children First Foundation.
"I think she's looking forward to her future. She believes that this can happen. A lot of kids will come and you'll say "We can fix you, it will take a little while," but maybe they don't totally believe that this is going to happen. But now that she's well on the way, she's had operations, she's comfortable with the hospital, she understands they're not going to hurt her, so certainly she'll be looking forward to her second and third small procedure with much more confidence and looking forward to going to hospital rather than being terrified of it. She's much happier."
The Foundation's Julie Webber says she wants to see that happiness to continue in Kashmala's life.
"What we want to see Kashmala achieve her potential and to be able to go home and continue her life, hopefully as well as it would have been before she was injured."
That's a dream Kashmala, too, shares.
"I believe that one day I will be able to walk on my legs and go back to my home. And my whole family will be very happy to see me, that I am walking again. They are just waiting for me to come back."
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