'People's convoy' departs UK to build hospital in Aleppo

The Syria Campaign raised over £155,000 in just ten days through an online crowdsourcing campaign and aims to use the funds to construct a children's hospital in northern Aleppo province.

Society

4 min read

Martin Armstrong

17 December, 2016

A convoy member speaks to the press before departure this morning [Getty]

A convoy destined for Aleppo province carrying supplies to build a new children’s hospital departed London on Saturday after public donations raised over £155,000 for the initiative in a period of just 10 days.

“Many people have witnessed what is happening in Aleppo, and wider Syria in the past few weeks and have been frustrated, unsure of how they can help,” said Dr. Rola Hallam, a Syrian-British NHS affiliated Doctor, and one of the organisers of the initiative speaking to The New Arab from the convoy en route to Dover.

“The money raised shows this. The initiative will help save lives. But it is also a show of solidarity and support. Having seen the worst displays of humanity in Syria these past five years, today was a display of the very best of it.”

The £155,000 figure was raised with donations from three thousand people across the globe with organisations including the Syrian American Medical Society, Physicians for Human Rights, and Medicin Du Monde US (MDM US) supporting the crowd funded project which has been overseen by The Syria Campaign.

The departing convoy will meet up with an additional convoy made up of members of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM) in France before proceeding to Turkey, and then the Syrian border.

The initiative will help save lives. But it is also a show of solidarity and support.
Dr. Rola Hallam, one of the organisers of the People's Convoy

The actual building of the hospital and implementation of the project is set to be handled by the Independent Doctor’s Association (IDA), a Syrian organisation which helps deliver healthcare services. The IDA will also run and maintain the facility once it has been built.

Once constructed the hospital will also be run by IDA, said James Turner, a spokesperson for The Syria Campaign in comments to The New Arab explaining that the facility will aim to treat up to 185,000 people, 33 percent of whom will be under the age of 12.

Hallam, who spent her childhood in Syria before moving to the UK, said that the motivation to start the crowd funding service came following news in November that Syrian regime bombardment had put all services in the formerly rebel-held districts of east Aleppo out of service, an apparent violation of international humanitarian law reported by The New Arab at that time.

The Syrian regime has since claimed victory in Aleppo while evacuations from the area have begun amid ongoing reports that east Aleppo residents have been summarily executed by Assad-affiliated fighters.

“The targeting of healthcare facilities in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria has been devastating. It is not acceptable and it is a violation of international humanitarian law,” said Hallam, commenting on attacks on healthcare facilities in Syria.

“There has been complete impunity.”

the heroic medical workers of Syria continue to give their all to save lives and support the vulnerable
Dr. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

Healthcare facilities have been routinely targeted in Syria’s civil war, principally by the Syrian regime, but also by opposition combatant groups exacting a devastating toll on civilian populations.

Speaking to The New Arab shortly before pro-regime troops secured control of east Aleppo, Mohammad Abou Rajab, a medic based in the city, said that since all medical facilities in the area had been rendered out of service by airstrikes medics were often forced to operate out of makeshift facilities, with limited electricity supplies, often in unsanitary conditions that led to heightened risk of bacterial infections during surgeries and treatments.

“It is devastating … there are also shortages of oxygen supplies, and various blood types,” said Abou Rajab speaking at that time, explaining that several wounded patients had died as a result of such shortages.

The "People's Convoy" initiative, which is the first time funds to build a hospital have been raised through crowd funding, has gained the support of people including Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

“The Syrian conflict is producing more and more extreme examples of the loss of common humanity and compassion. But the heroic medical workers of Syria continue to give their all to save lives and support the vulnerable,” said Williams.

“They deserve our solidarity and assistance in every way possible. The People’s Convoy is a unique effort to show them that they and the people they selflessly serve have not been forgotten by the international community.”

Over 400,000 people have died in Syria’s now nearly six-year long civil war, while 4.8 million Syrians are now refugees in other states, and a further 6.6 million are internally displaced.

Scenes of destruction in Aleppo, witness to some of the war’s worst fighting, have been so severe that the UN has described the city, once viewed as one of the world’s most beautiful, as a “graveyard”.