Chronic care is beyond the capacity of many nonprofit health organizations, as well as UNHCR, due to high costs and limited funding. Most organizations are limited to providing basic primary care for Syrian refugees. However, 83% of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon report at least one family member is living...
In the informal settlements in Akkar, near the Syria-Lebanon border, the atmosphere was entirely different than our clinic in Tripoli. Although the work conditions were harder with the scorching sun and dusty air, the ebullient spirit of the children brought joy and much needed lightness. They often greeted us playfully,...
This past July, our team arrived in Lebanon with 14 suitcases filled with medications, vitamins, anti-eczema creams, anti-lice shampoos, medical and dental supplies, a portable ultrasound, and a healthy dose of determination. Organized by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), our team of 13 US-based doctors and 11 interpreters participated...
Using her crutches, Tamam moves quietly and measures her steps to reach SAMS makeshift clinics inside a settlement in the Bekaa Valley, where SAMS medical mission volunteers are providing treatment and medications for some of the many Syrian refugees residing in the area. Tamam, 63, fled to Lebanon six years...
Anita Jensen is a midwife from Norway who joined SAMS on the recent OBGYN medical mission to Lebanon to provide care and services for pregnant, displaced Syrian women. She spent five days with SAMS mission in Lebanon, visiting settlements and rural areas to consult with women, provide them with advice,...
Her neighbors call her “Oum Malek.” Oum Malek, 45, fled from Aleppo at the beginning of the Syrian crisis. She now lives with her husband and two kids in the Saadnayel Valley, in one of Lebanon’s many informal settlements. For many years, Oum Malek has suffered from an obstetric disease....
Since August, 646,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh. According to the latest Doctors Without Borders report, at least 6,700 Rohingyas died, mostly due to violence in a brutal military crackdown, between August 25 and September 24. This deeply troubling number includes at least 730 children under...
I spent last week volunteering as an interpreter with the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) on their November mission to provide health care for Syrian refugees in Jordan. Seven years on, and the suffering of Syrian refugees still continues, yet I was constantly left in awe by their amazing resilience....
Mohammed started working with SAMS as a psychologist in the Bekaa Valley three years ago. Originally from the countryside of Damascus, he studied psychology and started working immediately after graduation. Not long after, he was forced to flee from Syria to Lebanon when the war reached his hometown. With the...
Leila* chose a career in psychosocial support for a simple, but powerful reason – “to help people” she says, sitting in a small office tucked away in SAMS’s multi-specialty clinic in the Bekaa Valley. Before she left her hometown in the rural Damascus, she worked in special education, providing care...
“I have a lot of family who are affected by the conflict. I know how much they struggle, and how poor their mental health and emotional well-being is.” Alia Salam recently started working with the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) in Lebanon, as the Psychosocial Support Project Director. For Alia,...
When he first began volunteering with SAMS Hellas, Dr. Alexis was afraid to ask his patients about their stories—worried he would “reopen fresh wounds”. Dr. Alexis, an internal medicine physician who had been in practice for two years, joined the SAMS Hellas team on the ground in Greece for three weeks,...
