Latest news with #Sahloul
Saba Yemen
4 days ago
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Eight Palestinians Martyred in Israeli Bombing of Khan Yunis
Gaza - Saba: Eight Palestinian citizens were martyred and others injured at dawn on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), five citizens — including three women and a child — were martyred, and more than 20 others were injured when Israeli forces bombed tents sheltering displaced persons in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis. The report added that a woman and her son were martyred, and nine others were injured, in a drone strike targeting Al-Hanawi School in northwest Khan Yunis. Another child was martyred and others injured in a strike targeting a tent sheltering displaced persons near Al-Ard Al-Tayyiba in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis. It also stated that two more citizens were martyred and others wounded when Israeli warplanes bombed the Sahloul family home near Al-Shafi'i Mosque in the western camp area of Khan Yunis. Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelled various areas alongside heavy gunfire targeting the eastern, western, and northern parts of Gaza City. Over the past 24 hours, 56 Palestinian citizens have been martyred in ongoing Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Arab News
27-04-2025
- Health
- Arab News
How doctors from Syria's diaspora are helping Homs rebuild its shattered health system
INNUMBERS * 7 of 17 Hospitals in Homs that are fully functional. * 58 of 227 Public health facilities that are fully operational. (Source: WHO) ANAN TELLO LONDON: After 14 years of civil war, Syria's largest province, Homs, has emerged from the conflict with its health system in tatters. Now, as families begin to return from displacement, diaspora doctors are stepping in to help revive damaged and long-neglected services. Among them are more than 30 physicians and civic leaders from Chicago. The Syrian American delegation, led by Dr. Zaher Sahloul of the US-based nonprofit MedGlobal, conducted workshops in early April as part of the Homs Healthcare Recovery Initiative. Sahloul said the scale of the crisis is staggering. 'During the conflict, many physicians, subspecialists and allied health professionals left Homs,' he told Arab News. 'The main hospital in Homs City, Al-Watani, was completely destroyed.' The exodus of medical professionals left a 'huge shortage of specialists, hospital beds and primary health centers,' highlighting 'deep inequality in the distribution of healthcare, especially between the city and rural areas,' said Sahloul. Outdated technology and a lack of medical supplies, equipment and medications have further hindered care. Once dubbed the 'capital of the revolution,' Homs was a key battleground in the uprising against Bashar Assad that began in 2011. Years of fighting devastated the province's infrastructure, leaving hospitals in ruins and severely limiting access to basic services. 'Half of Homs city has been destroyed, and several other cities were heavily damaged, shelled, or under siege — including Palmyra, Al-Qaryatayn and Al-Qusayr,' said Sahloul. 'A huge number of people fled Homs and became refugees or internally displaced.' By December 2013, almost half the governorate's population had been displaced, according to UN figures. In the city of Homs alone, 60 percent of residents fled their homes. Homs is not alone in experiencing such devastation. Today, only 57 percent of hospitals and 37 percent of primary healthcare centers across Syria are fully operational, according to the World Health Organization. Insecurity and violence since the fall of Assad in December continue to disrupt health services, endangering both patients and medical staff. Since March, surging violence in Alawite areas — particularly in Syria's coastal region and the Homs and Hama governorates — has damaged six major hospitals and several ambulances, according to the UN Population Fund. More than 1,000 civilians — including many medical students — have been killed in sectarian attacks, the UN children's agency UNICEF said in early March. The hostilities have also triggered a fresh wave of displacement. 'The escalation reportedly caused additional civilian casualties and injuries, the displacement of thousands of families and damage to critical infrastructure,' Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East, said in a statement on March 9. Within Homs, the healthcare system is particularly strained. According to a February WHO report, just seven of the province's 17 hospitals and 58 of its 227 public health facilities are fully functional. Another four hospitals and 124 facilities are operating only partially. Patients with chronic conditions face serious barriers to care. Cancer patients in Homs 'have to go to Damascus to receive their treatment,' said Sahloul. 'Patients with chronic diseases cannot afford their medications due to the economic situation. 'Some patients on dialysis occasionally miss their treatments due to a shortage of dialysis kits. These kits are expensive, with each session costing around $20 to $25.' The humanitarian crisis is compounded by economic hardship and continued sanctions. With monthly wages ranging from just $15 to $50 and about 90 percent of the population living below the poverty line, many cannot afford basic care. Mass layoffs affecting about 250,000 public-sector workers have further strained the system. The UN estimates that 15.8 million people will require humanitarian health assistance in 2025, even as funding continues to decline. Mental health needs are also immense. 'There are large numbers of war victims, including those displaced by violence and people who have lost family members,' said Sahloul, adding that torture survivors and former detainees are 'deeply traumatized.' He said: 'As IDPs and refugees begin to return, the burden on mental health services grows.' The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that at least 1.4 million Syrians have returned home since the fall of the Assad regime. It projects that as many as 3.5 million refugees and IDPs could return by the end of the year. 'This means a growing number of people are coming back to areas with limited or no access to essential services like education, housing and healthcare,' said Sahloul. 'All of this creates a situation that is nearly catastrophic.' Given the scale of the crisis, Syria's Ministry of Health cannot meet all needs alone. Sahloul highlighted the urgent need for support from NGOs and foreign governments to help sustain as well as rebuild the healthcare system. Aid agencies are stepping in. The UN Office for Project Services, in partnership with the government of Japan, is working to rehabilitate Homs Grand Hospital to restore critical services. Similarly, the American Syrian Homs Healthcare Recovery mission, led by MedGlobal, has provided emergency supplies, performed critical surgeries and trained local healthcare workers in collaboration with Syrian communities. Highlighting the initiative's impact, Sahloul said: 'Some teams began filling gaps in the healthcare system by donating funds for essential medical equipment, including a cardiac catheterization machine for Al-Waleed Hospital, an eye echo machine for Al-Harith Hospital, a stress echo machine for a public hospital, neurosurgical equipment for the university hospital and more.' The mission, which began with a small team and quickly grew to include 650 expatriate physicians, has focused on three urgent priorities: Supporting dialysis patients, sustaining cardiac catheterization centers and addressing mental health. 'As part of the initiative, we provided dialysis kits across three different centers,' said Sahloul. 'Non-communicable diseases, not war-related injuries, are the primary health threat,' he added, citing high rates of smoking, hypertension, diabetes and fast food consumption. The Ministry of Health has also inaugurated the Homs Center for Mental Health Support to assist survivors of torture and war. However, Sahloul said that improving healthcare requires more than equipment and supplies — it demands addressing longstanding inequities between urban and rural areas, and among different communities. 'One of MedGlobal's main missions is to reduce these disparities by identifying and filling gaps in healthcare access,' he said. 'Historically, Syria has faced significant inequities between rural and urban areas, as well as within different neighborhoods based on their demographics. 'There are also disparities between major urban centers like Damascus and Aleppo, and the rest of the country. The eastern part of Syria, Hauran and the central regions were historically marginalized. 'By targeting these disparities, there is hope to ease tensions and begin healing a fractured society.' Despite growing rehabilitation efforts and the commitment of local and international organizations, the scale of need still far exceeds available resources. As instability continues across Syria, both patients and health workers face daily risks. The path to recovery is long and uncertain. Without sustained support, aid agencies warn, the country's most vulnerable will remain at risk.
Saba Yemen
26-04-2025
- General
- Saba Yemen
Launching second semester exams at Hajjah University
Hajjah - Saba: Today, Hajjah University launched the second semester exams for the academic year 1446 AH (2025 AD) in the Colleges of Sharia and Law and Education and Humanities, with 280 students participating. During the launch, the University Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Abdo Sahloul, inspected the progress of the exams and heard from the deans of the two colleges about the arrangements made to provide a suitable environment for students. Dr. Sahloul emphasized the importance of providing optimal conditions for students and urged them to persevere and work hard to achieve the best results. Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (Local)
The National
14-02-2025
- Politics
- The National
Is US missing 'Berlin Wall' moment in Syria with foreign aid cuts?
President Donald Trump's contentious stop to foreign assistance, including the near closure of the US Agency for International Development, threatens key humanitarian operations in Syria at a crucial moment of transition. Adham Sahloul, a former USAID special adviser focusing on China who was also Middle East policy adviser to Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign, said the decision means Washington is 'losing an opportunity' at a 'Berlin Wall moment' for Syria and the Middle East. 'What Syria needs is investment,' Mr Sahloul told The National. Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai this week, Syria's transitional Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani said the country's new leadership has inherited a struggling economy, partly due to the sanctions imposed during former president Bashar Al Assad's regime. Washington has historically been the largest source of humanitarian support for Syria during its decade-long civil war, allocating $16.7 billion in humanitarian funds 'using existing funding from global humanitarian accounts and some reprogrammed funding', according to a Congressional Research Service report. Mr Trump and much of his Republican Party have long maintained that Syria is 'not our fight'. The Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre has been forced to lose 70 per cent of its team, keeping only 'core' members who have been forced to lose 50 to 60 per cent of their salary, according to executive director Mohammed Al Abdallah. The SJAC's work focuses on documenting war crimes committed throughout the Syrian conflict, expanding beyond Syria's borders to 'follow war criminals' who had made it to Europe as refugees. Their portfolio spans from: the protection of mass graves inside Syria; collaboration with war crimes units in Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium; and building an open-source collection of evidence of war crimes, including the preservation of about two million YouTube videos from the course of the civil war. Humanitarian aid, energy, health care, water infrastructure – these are all sectors that have a significant need in Syria, and it is 'questionable who will fill that void', Mr Sahloul says. China already appears to be at the ready as Syrians tackle the day-to-day impacts of a sudden halt in US aid – including accountability in the fragile aftermath of more than a decade of war. At a recent briefing on Capitol Hill, Mr Al Abdallah said a Chinese official had called him asking to speak at the UN. Mr Al Abdallah said he declined, but warned Congress that 'bad actors' could become more involved in Syria without Washington's leadership. Defunding the work aimed at achieving justice in courts of law also have impacts for regional security and the endurance of governance in Syria, he said. 'The damage is going to be really prolonged and it only will evolve into instability and chaos, because if there's no accountability mechanism, people will want to take revenge.' The aid cuts have already posed immediate security threats in Syria's north-east, where salaries were frozen for many of the prison and camp guards responsible for securing ISIS militants and their families at Al Hol and Al Roj. The guards left work until US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver. Barbara Leaf, the former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told the Middle East Institute last week that Syria was 'one of the first places' she thought of as the Trump administration carried out Elon Musk's promises to make major aid cuts. 'ISIS is far from a depleted organisation. In fact, it risks regenerating more rapidly within the context of Syria's current transition,' Ms Leaf added. For Syrians, the impacts go deeper than staffing measures and geopolitical strategy. 'When it comes to civil society work, when it comes to humanitarian aid, when it comes to clearing ordnance or a whole list of essential services, the Syrian civilians play the biggest price out of that,' Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, told The National. 'Many live under poverty. USAID cuts across the board is bad, especially for the region, but Syria is affected more than others.' The Syrian diaspora is impacted, too. At a briefing Senate Democrats hosted on Wednesday, USAID's former assistant to the administrator for humanitarian affairs Sarah Charles warned that she is 'very worried about Lebanon,' and that as of this week there is 'no food assistance in the pipeline' for the more than 800,000 Syrian refugees living there. 'At a time when this administration has decided we're going to accept zero refugees, we are also saying that we're going to cut off assistance to those countries that are hosting the largest numbers of refugees,' Ms Charles said. The world of international aid and development has faced long-standing accusations of systemic corruption and disorganisation. Aid 'often comes with conditions tied to the interests of donor countries', said Raad Al Tal, head of the University of Jordan's economics department. 'Continued dependence on it may delay sustainable development, reducing the country's ability to tackle crises on its own,' he wrote in the Jordan Times. Research on Lebanon published by the London School of Economics, for example, highlighted that 'foreign aid has also played a role in keeping this entrenched Lebanese political structure alive' and perpetuating 'structural deficiencies' in governance there. Republicans leading the charge to disrupt US aid, including Mr Rubio, say the agency is plagued with inefficiencies and that only '10 cents on the dollar' of US aid goes towards actual development projects. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch cautioned at a policy hearing this week that 'everybody needs to stay calm, we're going to get through this.' 'There's money that's been spent that shouldn't have been spent,' said Mr Risch, a Republican who has historically advocated on the importance of humanitarian funding and believes work like SJAC's is important for easing Washington's sanctions regime against Damascus. "There's going to be some aches getting there, but we will get there, for things that are necessary for the best interests of the United States to continue," he added. His Democratic counterpart on the committee, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, told The National that based on her discussions with Secretary Rubio, 'an appreciation for the importance of getting waivers, particularly in certain areas, like the detention camps' in Syria. But the abrupt – and some argue anti-democratic – execution of the halt on US aid poses significant risks for global development. Mr Sahloul says the US has 'amazing colleagues' in Japan, the Indo-Pacific, the UK and Europe who have 'been ambitious' in global aid and could take more leadership, but Washington has played a key role as a 'convener' for these countries' aid agenda.
