SAMS

Craniotomy in Conflict SAMS recently donated critical craniotomy equipment to a medical facility in Aleppo. It did not take long before the equipment was to put to use saving lives! Meet the first child to undergo brain surgery with the new equipment, during bomb attacks no less.

Inside SAMS’ Dental Clinics Why Dental Clinics? When it comes to the supply of vital health related services for a refugee community, dental care is often overlooked. However, SAMS sees the importance and necessity of this aspect of healthcare.

 On Wednesday night, President Obama addressed the nation and outlined his strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.” That strategy includes providing additional training and military assistance to the Syrian opposition and potentially authorizing airstrikes inside Syria. Dr. Zaher Sahloul, President of SAMS, spoke with...

The outbreak of polio in Syria last October was a shock to the international medical community. The countryhas not seen a case of the disease in 14 years, making the reemergenceof polio as surprising as it is urgent. Polio generally affects children under five years of age, and if left...

Throughout the turmoil of this crisis, women and children remain incredibly vulnerable. Women and children make up 75% of the refugee population. Syrian refugees and IDPs are especially vulnerable. In onestudy, 452 Syrian women living in Lebanon who were between the ages of 18-45, were interviewed. This study found that...

The horrors experienced by the Syrian people on a daily basis are unimaginable. Even for an adult, dealing with the level of psychological trauma that results from escaping barrel bomb attacks and surviving endless mortar shelling, would be incredibly difficult. Yet far too often, the ones bearing witness to these...

By Dr. Zaher Sahloul Aleppo, like the rest of Syria, is facing a humanitarian tragedy of unprecedented proportions. By then end of the Syrian crisis, Aleppo as we know it may cease to exist.  Relentless bombing by barrel bombs, indiscriminate shelling of civilian neighborhoods, destruction of historic landmarks, displacement of...

The impact on healthcare is even worse. The Geneva Convention prohibits fighting parties from attacking doctors, ambulances, hospitals, or field hospitals (FHs) displaying a Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem; such targeting is considered a war crime. In Syria, no such norms or conventions are respected. There has been a...

According to the director of the United Nation Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOCHA, the Syrian crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis in terms of the disconnection between the international response and realities on the ground. At one point in the crisis, all directors of major UN agencies publically...

According to the UN, the Syrian crisis is the worst humanitarian catastrophe witnessed by humanity in the past 25 years, and the worst crisis in our times. The number of people affected by the Syrian crisis exceeds those affected by the Pacific Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Rwandan Genocide...

Finally, Syrian children, or the ones not disabled by fear or their amputations, will be able to dance in the streets, when Aerial bombing and shelling are not in action, jubilant that they can now breathe normal gunpowder- scented air without fear of suffocation and convulsion to death. Luckily for...

As a result of the recent drought affecting Syria and neighboring countries, refugees are more likely to contract diseases due to a shortage of safe drinking water and the deterioration of water and sewage systems. The influx of refugees into already highly populated areas of host countries has put extra...