By Wardah Wilkinson
The Syrian conflict has been named the worst humanitarian crises of our time, with over a million people in need emergency medical treatment and basic food, hygiene packets, blankets and other daily necessities. The African Muslim Agency who has partnered with, the Saed Charity Association has sent a medical team to set up a mobile clinic in Hatay which is on the Syrian and Turkish Border.
The AMA team has for the past year run sustainable campaigns on the ground in Syria. Regional Director Hafiz Hassan who was earlier this month in Hatay, said they have now launched mobile health facilities. The project will bring professional help at no cost to the Syrian villagers who are in dire need of healthcare.
“You see a 15-year old girl needing medical assistance for her 5-year old sister, who are orphans but the closes hospital is 100km. I’ve met 2 youngsters selling tissues inside the Turkish border to support their family, as they fathers are unable to work,” said Hafiz Hassan.
“There is no medical facility close to the villages; the people working on the trucks are professional medical doctors and nurses. There is an organised system, its one truck for 18 villages.”
The truck will mainly treat people in the Western countryside of Aleppo and Northern Idlib Governorate. They estimate to 3000- 4000 people from Homs, rural Damascus, Hama, Aleppo, and Eastern part of Syria.
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Syrian born, Dr Haytham Zaiter, who holds a PhD in agriculture, joined AMA to give back to his own people.
“Currently in Syria 12.8 million people need health care more than half of the population. This is due to bombing the hospitals 121 health facilities has been destroyed, 800 doctors and nurses has been killed since the crisis started. The whole community is destroyed when the hospital was destroyed.”
With many people being displaced and majority of the population unemployed it’s almost impossible for these people to afford transport cost to attend hospital, added Dr Zaiter.
The mobile clinic will travel too hard-to-reach areas, where 650 thousand people are affected by conflict and only have one hospital that’s 600 km away. The AMA trucks will consist of three services, one being paediatrics, internal medicine such as first aid, and gynaecology, second diagnosis and hospital referrals and the third, a survey on common health problems.
The AMA has urged the community to support the project.
“We request the listeners to donate to the AMA mobile clinic project, the need is urgent; we hope that the listeners open their hearts and pockets, to contribute to this much needed project,” Choonara concluded.
To make a donation:
Account Name: AMA Projects Account
Bank Name: Standard Bank
Account Number: 002511134
Branch Code: 005205
Reference: Syria mobile clinics
