Syria

Project: People’s Convoy to Syria

Location: Syria

Mission: To deliver a paediatric and maternity care unit to Aleppo

Ongoing civil war in Syria has taken its toll on healthcare provisions across the country.

In 2016, the last children’s hospital in Aleppo was bombed, leading to heartbreaking images of babies being removed from their incubators in smoke-filled wards.

A charity called CanDo established a project to deliver a new maternity unit to the city, and WEMF was asked to provide logistics and security support.

Outcome

More than £246,000 was raised to send a mobile hospital with supplies to rebuild facilities in Aleppo.

British/Syrian doctor Rola Hallam was horrified at the destruction of healthcare provision in Syria, having devoted many years of her life to helping set up hospitals in the country.

After attending the World Extreme Medicine Conference, she sought support from WEM to send a convoy into the heart of the warzone.

This crowd-funded project soon exceeded the target funds, and WEMF provided logistics and security for the convoy to travel across 10 countries to reach Syria. Once the convoy reached the Turkey/Syria border, the medical supplies were handed over to the Independent Doctors Association working on the ground. This enabled them to rebuild maternity and paediatric facilities in Aleppo to support women and babies throughout the conflict.