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The Syrian Revolution was the window from which the Syrian mind, mainly the young one, overlooked the experiences of the world.
After the youth left their nation, Syria, due to the ongoing brutal war, they have tried the best they could to present a good image and leave a very well impression in the countries where they are living as refugees, despite the fact that many organizations (with the exception of some), including the Syrian ones, which claim to help the refugees; have left them alone.
They are a youth group from the city of Muhassan in Deir Ezzor province; among them are students who left their universities, doctors, nurses, and former FSA fighters who left the province due to various circumstances. They all have been gathered in a refugee camp to do something positive for their country and revolution, even if they are living abroad.
The idea was simple but it had enormous obstacles. The idea was to establish a physical treatment center in Turkey’s Tel Abyad refugee camp (Oakeca Castle), to help treat civilians who are injured in the ongoing war in Syria, most of whom stopped their treatments due to poverty.
Difficulties and obstacles
The idea started by a youth group at the beginning of the fourth month in April of 2013, out of their belief that they could provide something for the victims of war in the camp.
However, the first obstacle was to get the camp’s administration approval, which they obtained after several attempts. After that, they started looking for funding for this project, despite the fact that all of them are volunteers and their work is done without a fee except for some assistance. Even though that each one of them is responsible for their families in need of expenses, their sense of responsibility towards their families in the refugees camp pushed them to work as volunteers.
We started our work with a simple salary
Those who welcomed the idea gave us what they were able to help us with even if the amount of money they provided was insufficient. However, a good start enabled us to buy some basic materials. In the beginning, the center began to operate and provide aid for the victims of the ongoing war in Syria, mainly those who suffer injuries in the joints.
Meanwhile, we were in constant contact with all the people and organizations to get more support for the development of our work. Mainly after receiving a large number of patients. Those who suffer from cerebral infarction which cause them difficulties in movement. Children with disabilities resulting from cerebral palsy due to lack of hypoxia congenital, cases of spinal cord injuries, tor limbs, and other injuries.
Because of lack of support, we could not provide all the necessary services, and most of those who joined our centre in the beginning were incompetent. So it was necessary to go to the organizations and the revolution staff and ask them for help. Unfortunately most of them they neither paid attention nor offered their support, with the exception of some who offered us an amount of money that did not exceed thousands Syrian lira. Some of our patients donated the devices that they were using for their treatments.
Saddam Alawi, one of the operators of the project, says: The simple support we obtained enabled us to provide major services, as we got qualified medical cadres who trained a number of young men and women volunteers. He continues “” Because of the success of the centre, we began to offer services to the workers in the camp, including the Turks. Most of those who benefited from our services were returning to express their gratitude. We also noticed a good and fruitful cooperation with the camp’s management and the Turkish authorities that facilitated entry of our devices and secured us a place for the center. It has recently provided us with an equipped big tent to continue our work in it.
Concerning the number of auditors and the services provided, Saddam says: The monthly average for the auditors is around 250, each reviewer has two sessions per week or more depending on the situation. And full recovery cases have exceeded one thousand.
There are also a number of improved cases such as: strokes and spinal cord injuries, disc and cerebral palsy in children. Saddam adds, “We currently have a number of facilities which are insufficient but still fulfils a need. These devices are Ultra Sound, Alarm simple currents devices, bulb rays, and a massage device.
We need to have more devices in our centre as our work is divided into two categories, a section for male, operated by a group of male volunteers; and another one for female, operated also by some female volunteers. According to Saddam the major difficulties are represented in the lack of moral and material support, the lack of a monthly compensation for workers because they have families and most of them are married or responsible for their loved ones. The women’s section is need of the following devices: Ultra Sound machine number one, and One bulbs rays number three, these are the main difficulties that we face in our centre.
Saddam adds “ A number of specialists in physical therapy have visited the centre and praised our work , and were even surprised that these services are provided by a group of youth who did not have experience in this field before the revolution .
Saddam says, concerning the most prominent wishes and aims that they dream of achieving in the centre, ‘’
1. We have opened another centre outside the camp and on our expense in order to provide service to the Syrians outside the camp, and those who cannot enter the camp. Our services are provided at nominal prices, almost free. The centre began offering its services also to the Turks, and it needs material and moral support. We are also planning to turn it into a hospital devoted to the treatment of the Syrians in Tel Abyad, whose number is around 65 thousand people .
However, such an idea necessitates the approval of the Turkish government, and this is difficult. Therefore, we call on officials in the organizations, the interim government, and the coalition to help and support us in order to provide services to those who have been forced by various circumstances to leave their homeland, knowing that we have the medical cadres who are capable of the opening of such a centre that would provide medical care. Large cadres sit in the camp looking for an opportunity to offer their services. Most of them were cadres of field hospitals in Syria who were forced to leave their home country.
2.We plan to open a prosthetics centre in Urfa, Turkey, to provide services to hundreds of patients but it also lacks sufficient support.
The most important wishes is to return to our nation and to maintain the equipment and the medical cadres so that we contribute to the reconstruction of Syria. This is the Syrian man who was displaced from his country due to the ongoing war but has remained creative and originator in all fields.