For the first time in 13 years, Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh was walking through the streets of Damascus without fearing arrest.

Long barred from the country because of his humanitarian work, he recently returned to his homeland on a mission to help rebuild the country’s shattered health care system.

Now back in Chicago, Hamadeh, an oncologist, had been in Syria on a mission with the Syrian American Medical Society to deliver urgent care and help rebuild hospitals in war-torn regions.