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Meet Dr.Ahmad, one of the medical professionals fighting on the COVID-19 front in Syria
My name is Ahmad Sayeyd Yusef, I live in Idlib in the northwest of Syria. I graduated medical school and I used to be an orthopedics surgery resident. Currently I’m working as an Internist and on the frontlines of COVID-19 in Syria.
I’ll start by introducing the idea of the isolation centers. Each center consists of four female and four male nurses, infection control officers, janitors, a manager, and an on call doctor. We are three doctors, each one of us takes two 24-hours shifts to cover the isolation center for the whole week. We start everyday by the morning rounds, we check up on the patients and conduct a clinical examination for each one of them, and then we update their meds list in accordance with test and examination results.
Here’s how the morning rounds usually go, we start by wearing a protective suit and a N95 mask suitable for the pandemic. We start from the area designated for the people suspecting a COVID-19 infection, and then we move on to the area of the confirmed cases. During this time, one of the nurses keeps registering new patients. We accept patients or refuse to do so depending on the center’s capacity as well as the severity of each case.
We accept the cases that we can handle. We start by clinically examining the patient and then performing a PCR test. If the result is positive we give the people a choice, they can either isolate themselves at the center, or at home if possible. Most people prefer to isolate themselves at the center, only a few expressed their ability to do self-isolation at home. When they choose to do so and prove that their home is suitable for isolation, we provide the needed instructions and we let them sign a pledge to complete all of the isolation days at home.
Generally, we only accept non-critical and moderate cases of COVID to our center. We don’t accept critical cases in an isolation center as these kinds of cases need a hospital to get the proper care. According to WHO’s protocols critical cases should be treated in a hospital and not in an isolation center. Though we do follow those protocols, one day a patient came to our center. He was an elderly with blood pressure problems and an oxygenation level below 50. He had roamed all the hospitals and isolation centers with no luck of finding an available bed. We didn’t even have any oxygen cylinders at the time, but we had to accept him and do whatever we could to save his life. The whole center started working to acquire an oxygen cylinder at any cost, and we stayed all night providing care for him until we were able to find a slot for him in a hospital the next morning. This was one of the hardest days for us as a team, full of pressure, stress and heroic efforts. It was an example of how we sometimes have to do things we don’t do under normal circumstances. Thankfully, that patient recovered completely, Abu Ramiz is now back to his little shop.
We faced a lot of difficulties while responding to the COVID-19 crisis. For example, some lockdown rules should’ve been deployed in the area to slow down the spread, but that didn’t happen. At first COVID started spreading quickly among the youth filling the isolation centers with patients, but then COVID made its way to the elderly which was a huge disaster. During that period, as the number of deaths started to fly we started to feel helpless and guilty. There were some attempts to hide the number of deaths at first, but after a short period of time the correct numbers started to show.
I can summarize a part of the challenges we faced as follows: The insufficient number of beds in hospitals in general and more especially ICU beds. The lack of enough oxygen sources. The lack of enough medicine. Insufficient resources in general was one of the hardest challenges. At one point it was difficult to get our hands on protective suits to protect ourselves while treating patients. Some of the challenges were even more basic, like the lack of proper heating in the medical centers. Something as fundamental as food was even a problem during the pandemic as all patients were eating the same meals. Normally, you’d have special meals for each patient depending on their medical status, so you’d have a meal specially prepared for cardiac patients, one that’s specially prepared for diabetic patients and so on. In our case during the pandemic we offered the same meals to all patients no.
Here’s how all our week looks like: At the end of the week all of Idlib’s hospitals, isolation centers, and ICUs get packed with patients. Then someone brings a member of their families as they are in the jaws of death with an oxygen level in the 50s, and asks us to accept them into the center. We don’t have the capacity to handle such cases, we don’t have the needed equipment. That patient gets stuck between packed hospitals where there are no available beds, and isolation centers that can’t provide them with the proper care.
Note: We had this conversation with Dr Ahmad at the beginning of 2021, COVID had recently made its way into Syria back then. We tried to get a new update about the current situation from Dr Ahmad, but he’s very busy dealing with a huge surge in cases in Syria as the Delta variant started spreading in Syria worsening the situation dramatically. We’ll try to get as many updates as we can about the matter and share them with our audience soon.
We met Dr.Ahmad through our friends at Violet as he works in one of their isolation centers. Huge thanks to all of the health workers in Syria and around the world for their huge efforts in fighting the pandemic.
Meet Dr. Abo Saad, the surgeon you watched in For Sama as he was saving a pregnant woman and her infant
I’m Dr. Abo Saad. I have been a general surgeon since 1993 and I have now been living in both Idlib and Aleppo’s countryside since we were forcibly displaced from Aleppo. This is my story over the course of ten years of the revolution.
Since day one of the revolution, I provided free urgent medical attention to the wounded, both in my personal clinic and private hospitals. Once an operation finished, we used to transfer the patients to private apartments to protect them from the regime forces.
As the situation developed and Eastern Aleppo got out of the regime’s control, I kept working for free in my personal clinic and East Aleppo’s public hospital alongside Dr. Abdulsalam Al-daeef and Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hariri, who were both doing amazing work at the time. The regime used to mercilessly bomb civilian areas all the time. We did dozens of operations with little to no capacity. Resources and equipment were low - we had to use whatever we could find in the hospital to do the procedures as safely as possible.
I remember that in the first Ramadan of the revolution, I was the only surgeon doctor in the hospital and we received more than 40 injuries in one wave. We worked painfully hard, for too long. It almost felt like dying. One day, I was doing an open abdominal operation for a young man and during the operation, someone came to us terrified, saying. “Doctor, wrap up quickly! The regime forces will be in the hospital in an hour”. It was a very difficult situation. I turned to my surgical assistant and the anesthetic technician and said, “Will you continue this operation with me?” They said, “We’re with you no matter what”. We continued the operation and the young man survived. We had been lucky that time - that day, the regime forces fell back and were unable to enter Eastern Aleppo.
As the regime’s attack on civilians escalated, people were in even more need of medical attention. I founded the first clinic in eastern Aleppo along with a dentist, internal doctor and gynecologist to provide medical care for people, and later we added a team for vaccinating children. I used to frequently go to Al-Quds hospital, it was a small clinic at that time, but then it was expanded into a hospital by Dr. Hamzah and Dr. Abdulsalam Al-Daeef. It was then that I transferred there to open the surgery department and start working at Al-Quds hospital.
I still remember a man in his sixties who had been shot in the chest by a sniper from the regime’s forces. He was barely able to walk when he arrived at the hospital. That morning, the generator was broken and I did a chest operation for him without any light, except small lighters and flashes! Fortunately, the man was discharged to return home once he was doing better.
What made the people feel even more desperate, were all the tortured and killed detainees that the regime sent to us by the river. A lot of the people who had worked on pulling the bodies from the river came to me with nervous breakdowns.
I used to do normal routine surgeries in Al-Quds hospital but when the shelling got more intense and the regime used barrel bombs on civilians we had massacre after massacre. There was a river of blood belonging to children, women, and the elderly.
I always felt like the staff at Al-Quds hospital were like my children and my siblings - I was the one who fixed the disputes among staff members or between the staff and management.
When the hospitals in the countryside needed a surgeon, I was always there, because saving lives in Aleppo or anywhere else is both my professional and moral responsibility. We used to go to the countryside through a road named “Alcastelo,” which means, ‘The road of death’. I remember one day I went with Dr. Hamza and Waad to support one hospital with their surgeries. We went through that road in the middle of the night - bombs were landing everywhere around us, and we were unable to turn on the car’s lights fearing the regime’s warplanes. We reached our destination and once I completed the surgeries, we returned to Aleppo the next day.
Our staff did not only operate inside the hospital, they also used to respond to the areas that were hit and pull people from under the rubble. Al-Quds hospital was targeted more than once and we almost died on top of each other in the corners of the hospital. The hospital was targeted horrifically, the massacre of Al-Quds. Nurses, doctors, and staffers were martyred. One neighborhood was targeted heavily and after a few moments, a child named “Sahad” got to the hospital with a critical injury. We did an urgent operation and she survived, but she lost her mother and brother.
After the regime intensified its shelling on the area even more, I founded a hospital in a garage along the road in Aleppo’s southern countryside. I did some surgeries there, but after a couple of months the hospital was targeted, so we evacuated it.
Aleppo was then besieged, and I hadn’t seen my family for six months. I spoke to them through the internet, I sent pictures of chocolate to my younger son - I sent roses to my wife and children.
As she was on the road towards Al-Quds hospital to give birth, Maisaa, a woman in her 9th month of pregnancy, was hit by warplanes and injured in her abdomen, head, and limbs. I did an emergency operation to save her and her child, and the results were great. Not too long ago, a woman came to me at Al-Quds hospital in Idlib, with a five-year old child. It was Maisaa with her child. She was pregnant again and asking for advice that has nothing to do with the previous surgery, thank god.
After we’d been displaced from Aleppo, I went to support the surgery department in Aleppo’s western countryside hospital. We were hit by the Russian and regime warplanes and the whole hospital collapsed over us, there were three injuries and one martyr, and I only got some minor burns.
I helped the NGO Syria Relief and Development to create a hospital in a village in Idlib. Staff from Al-Quds hospital joined that hospital and started working until a separate place was provided for Al-Quds hospital to start again. After a few months, Al-Quds hospital was standing again in Al-Dana, Idlib and its staff transferred there.
My only concern was always to look after Al-Quds hospital’s patients, and to serve the staff, help them, defend them, and make things better for them.
The Guardian: Denmark could face legal action over attempts to return Syrian refugees
Activists fear a ‘dangerous precedent’ being set as Copenhagen uses a report that deems Damascus safe to deny residency status
Denmark’s attempt to return hundreds of Syrians to Damascus after deeming the city safe will “set a dangerous precedent” for other countries to do the same, say lawyers who are preparing to take the Danish government to the European court of human rights (ECHR) over the issue.
Authorities in Denmark began rejecting Syrian refugees’ applications for renewal of temporary residency status last summer, and justified the move because a report had found the security situation in some parts of the country had “improved significantly”. About 1,200 people from Damascus currently living in Denmark are believed to be affected by the policy.
Guernica 37, a London-based chambers which provides pro-bono and affordable assistance in transnational justice and human rights cases, is working with asylum lawyers and affected families in Denmark to mount a challenge to the government policy under the Geneva convention principle of “non-refoulement”. Neither the UN nor other countries deem Damascus as safe.
“If the Danish government’s efforts to forcibly return refugees to Syria is successful, it will set a dangerous precedent, which several other European states are likely to follow.”
Since Denmark does not have diplomatic relations with Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syrian refugees whose residency renewals are denied face the prospect of being held indefinitely in detention centres.
And in a cruel quirk, because the Danish authorities recognise that Syrian men are at risk of being drafted into the military or punished for evading conscription, most of those affected appear to be women and older people, many of whom face being separated from their families.
Ghalia, a 27-year-old who was reunited with her parents and brothers when she arrived in Denmark in 2015, had her residency permit revoked in March. She is the only member of her family to be affected.
While Ghalia is appealing against the decision, the uncertainty and worry of being separated again have left her unable to sleep, she said.
“I feel nothing but fear about going into the immigration centre by myself, but I can’t return to Syria … it is like they believe we have a choice but if I go back, I will be arrested. You can’t do anything in the immigration centres, you can’t work, you can’t study. It’s like a prison. I’ll just waste my life away in there.”
Carl Buckley, the barrister leading Guernica 37’s efforts, said taking a case to the ECHR in Strasbourg is one of several potential avenues affected Syrians could turn to if they exhaust the appeals procedure in Denmark.
He said: “The ECHR is a slow-moving system, but we would make an application asking the court to consider interim measures, which would involve ordering Denmark to stop revoking residencies until a substantive complaint has been considered and ruled upon.
“In theory that could happen pretty quickly. And while it would only apply to one individual’s case, we would hope that Denmark would consider it carefully or they will end up with thousands of similar applications.”
Guernica 37 and a consortium of 150 Danish law firms working on asylum cases are hopeful it will not be necessary to take the Danish government to the courts.
Faeza, 25, a nurse working in the northern town of Hillerrød, was treating Covid patients when Denmark’s immigration services invited her for an interview in August last year. “I was interviewed for eight hours. I was asked over and over, why hadn’t I returned to Syria? I said because it wasn’t safe.”
Her permit was revoked in January of this year and she spent many stressful months appealing against the decision: like Ghalia, Faeza was the only person in her family who’d had their permit revoked. While the ruling was overturned in July, she remains terrified of being questioned again and the prospect of returning to Syria alone. “I am happy at the decision,” she said, “but I am now worried [in case it happens again]. As Syrian refugees, we are subject to unjust decisions.”
Syrian refugees react to the decision to repatriate with a sit-in at Denmark’s parliament building in Copenhagen, 21 May 2021. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
In 2018, hundreds of Somalis in Denmark had their permits revoked under a similar scheme. Some won their appeal to stay but, according to the Danish Refugee Council, many left Denmark and have disappeared, possibly to live without status in another country.
For Ghalia, whose appeal court appointment has been delayed because her lawyer was sick, the waiting is agony.
“I’m right back to that point when I first arrived in Denmark and feel helpless all the time,” she said.
“I have no control over my life and I feel like I haven’t done anything to deserve this.”
The new Arab: Besieged and starved: How 'the wheel of life' has stopped in Syria's Daraa
As the people of Daraa al-Balad area remain at loggerheads with the Syrian regime and Russian forces, the residents are being starved of food and medicine while also deprived of education and other basic amenities over their refusal to participate in Assad’s “farce” elections.
Since May, Daraa has been under siege by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Daraa al-Balad consists of several neighbourhoods, Palestinian refugee camps as well as camps for those displaced in the occupied Syrian Golan. There are also agricultural farms within the two to the three-kilometre area, but many have moved their operations, fearing bombardment by regime forces.
No access to medicine or care
Blocked off from medical attention, the elderly and children faint from the heat, as access to treatment for serious illnesses is barred.
“A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital,” local businessman and family man Mohamed Zatima tells The New Arab.
He says that the Russians even go as far as to block off veterinary supplies to the area. “A siege by the Russians and the regime on Daraa al-Balad is not limited to humans, but even to animals,” he comments.
Coronavirus is also a cause for alarm, as cases are rising and victims of the deadly disease cannot enter the hospital in the city centre.
Local father-of-six Abu Abdullah, 55, who is now out of work due to poor health, describes life in besieged Daraa as tragic and difficult under a “suffocating blockade”.
Having undergone an open-heart surgery eight months ago, he needs access to hard-to-get medicine, which is now impossible. “There is medicine I will have to cut out due to the lack of it, no presence of doctors, and my inability to buy it on the black market,” he says.
He continues: “There is no water, no electricity, no way to go to hospitals and doctors in the regime’s area from medical laboratories, radiology or service centres.”
"A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital"
The Syrian regime and Russian planes fly low over the neighbourhoods, frightening children, causing great anxiety, and making it impossible for them to continue their education.
“I have four children who were prevented from entering schools and practising their hobbies," says Mohamed Zatima. "Due to the Russian jets which fly over the neighbourhoods at a low level, the children suffer from anxiety which has affected their behaviour.”
Abu Abdullah says his daughters are unable to complete their education, due to the fact they are blocked off from schools in regime territory, and his other children are unable to work. “My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study,” he says.
"My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study"
Protests continue
Despite the besiegement, local activists continue to protest against the regime’s blockade, and the presidential elections, known as “the farce”. Untrusting the Russians, the local governing bodies have rejected the most recent deal put forward.
Local activist Loranc Alakrad explains, “Russia asked us to hand over light weapons, 200 Kalashnikov rifles and 20 machine guns, but the response of the civil committee was that we do not have these weapons, and it cannot be delivered – this request was completely rejected.”
Local protests demand the release of detainees, and the implementation of certain clauses in the July 2018 agreement that have not yet materialised, including the removal of militias and the return of the army – which has taken up residents in civilian homes and shops – to its barracks, the return of students to their schools and universities, and employees to their jobs.
رغم الحصار الخانق
— لورنس أبو آدم (@lornce_adm) July 3, 2021
رغم التهديدات الروسية
رغم تآمر الجميع
على مهد الثورة #درعا_البلد
يخرح الأهالي ويصدحون بأعلى صوتهم سوف نبقى
تحدي وصمود
صبر وتحمل
لتبقى مهد الثورة القلعة الصامدة
بثلة من شبابها الصابرين الثابتين#فكوا_الحصار_عن_درعا_البلد#تضامن_مع_مهد_الثورة#الحرية_لدرعا pic.twitter.com/AtjvDrV1Rt
What next?
As the siege continues on the city, the residents can only speculate what will happen next. Will the regime launch a brutal offensive? Or will it simply continue its siege until the locals are starved out?
“The regime and the Russians are still besieging the neighbourhoods of Daraa al-Balad, and in light of the arrival of new reinforcements, this suggests the possibility of a storming and massacre against us,” Mohamed Zatima explains.
He fears an offensive against the people of Daraa, however, others don’t.
“We are almost dead and there is no deterrent to him after the world abandoned us and his possession to all kinds of power and with the support of regional and global powers,” Abu Abdullah says. “This is a method of starvation and siege… and punishing a people for just an opinion.”
Mohamed Zatima says if Assad stood in front of him, he would call him a child killer and a war criminal.
He dreams of a better Syria, and rather than migrate to Europe, he has hope that Syria can achieve democracy: “I do not want to emigrate, but I want my country to become like the countries of Europe in terms of respect for human beings and appreciation of humanity. Syria is our country and the country of our ancestors.”
Abu Abdullah on the other hand would want to migrate, striving for a decent future for his children. He would tell Assad to leave them in peace: “Leave and let us heal our wounds, for we have been exhausted by the war.”
The Authors:
Amy Addison-Dunne is a freelance digital journalist with an interest in the Middle East and British politics. She has written for the Daily Mirror, Morning Star.
Marwa Koçak is a journalist and translator with an interest in politics and human rights in the Middle East. She speaks Arabic, English and Turkish. She has written for Middle East Eye, Al-Jazeera.
COVID-19 IN SYRIA: The number of vaccine doses that were provided for northern Syria is incredibly low compared to the population.
My name is Noor Asidi, I studied nursing and midwifery. I currently work at Early Warning, Alert and Response Network (EWARN), where I take swabs and conduct COVID-19 tests.
First we prepare the testing devices and the necessary forms, then we start reaching out to isolation centers as well as individual patients who were showing symptoms but were not admitted to a healthcare center.
Noor Asidi at the COVID-19 testing center in Idlib / Abdullah Hammam
We health workers fighting COVID are in immediate danger, so we have to take all possible precautions. That’s why I put on all my protective gear before I begin taking swabs. After I take a swab from the patient, our team provides the patient with information about the virus, how it spreads, how they can isolate themselves, and we advise them to stay in isolation until the swab results come back. If the swab is positive, we tell them to self- isolate either at home, without coming in contact with anyone, or at one of the available isolation centers. We also explain to COVID-19 positive patients how important it is to wear a mask and take the prescribed medication.
Noor Asidi taking nose swab from a patient in Idlib / Abdullah Hammam
One of the biggest issues we face in northern Syria is the lack of oxygen supplies in the isolation centers. If an elderly person or someone with chronic illness comes to us, there would still be no possibility of admitting them into the center due to either the lack of doctors or the lack of enough oxygen.
What I think people can do is collaborate and work towards expanding the oxygen capacity that our isolation centers have. This could perhaps be done by providing small mobile oxygenating devices or by supporting oxygen-generating plant projects in the area.
The number of vaccine doses that were provided for northern Syria is incredibly low compared to the population.
When the vaccine was first announced, most people had their doubts about it, some people even refused to take it. Now, after we have seen the positive effects the vaccine has carried with it to other countries, and as studies keep confirming that the vaccines are created in accordance with WHO, we’re changing our minds and leaning more towards having the vaccine.
Personally, I took the first dose of the vaccine about four weeks ago, I didn’t get any of the side effects or symptoms that some people are spreading fear about. I plan on taking the second dose, of course, to achieve the best protection possible, and I do advise everyone to comply with their healthcare provider and take the vaccine if they’ve been advised to.
Photos credit: Abdullah Hammam
Independent: Protests after Syria appointed to WHO’s executive board
Protesters accused the Assad regime of years of attacks on hospitals
(AP)
Medical workers in Syria have protested furiously after the country’s government was elevated to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) executive board.
They took to the streets in rebel-held Idlib after learning the regime of Bashar al-Assad had been appointed to the body after a vote that faced no debate or opposition.
The WHO’s executive board members hold three-year terms. They set the agenda for its health assembly – the decision-making body – and implement its policies.
Protesters noted the grim irony of the Assad regime’s appointment, following its years of bombing raids on hospitals and clinics during Syria’s bloody, 10-year civil war.
“We reject the idea that our killer and he who destroyed our hospitals be represented on the executive board,” read a banner carried by some of the protesters on Monday. Some two dozen medical staff members protested outside the main health department.
Rifaat Farhat, a senior health official in Idlib, said Saturday’s vote “contradicts all international and humanitarian laws”.
Salwa Abdul-Rahman, a citizen journalist based in Idlib province – the last rebel stronghold in the country – said he feared a representative of the government could try to cut medical aid to the region, which is home to millions of people.
Hundreds of medical centres have been bombed, mostly in government airstrikes. Half the remaining hospitals and health facilities are functioning only partially or not at all, while 70 per cent of Syria’s medical personnel have fled.
UN watch: Syria Elected to WHO Executive Board, Activists Outraged
GENEVA, May 29, 2021 — Syria was elected to the World Health Organization’s executive board on Friday, sparking outrage among human rights activists worldwide.
“Syria’s election is a travesty,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Switzerland. “It’s like appointing a pyromaniac to be the town fire chief.”
“Syria’s Assad regime, with the help of its allies Russia and Iran, systematically bombs hospitals and clinics, killing doctors, nurses, and others as they care for the sick and injured. Health professionals have also been arrested, disappeared, imprisoned, tortured and executed. Electing this murderous regime to govern the world’s top health body is an insult to Assad’s millions of victims, and sends a terrible message,” said Neuer.
White Helmets, the Syrian civil defense group of emergency medical workers, also condemned the election. “We are appalled by the WHO’s decision to reward the Assad regime for destroying hospitals and killing doctors and refusing to provide medical assistance to Syrians by electing it as a member of its executive board,” tweeted the group.
Neuer called on UN chief Antonio Guterres and WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to denounce Syria’s election.
Over the past 10 years in Syria, there were 598 attacks on health care facilities and personnel, 350 health care facilities were targeted, and 930 medical professionals were killed, according to Physicians For Human Rights.
WE DARED TO DREAM: THE STORY OF SALEM'S PAINTINGS
“We dared to dream and we will not regret dignity” - this was our message for the 10 Year anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.
ACTION FOR SAMA FACEBOOK FRAME
The first time part of this phrase was shared, was on wall graffiti in Daraa, Syria in March 2019. The words spoke to Waad, who was inspired by its meaning, describing the fight and hope of each revolutionary who has been using their voice for the past 10 years for Syria.
In February 2020, Waad adapted the phrase and it was embroidered in Arabic on a bespoke dress for the Oscars last year and then, to mark the 10 year milestone of the revolution, these words were spread far and wide through Action For Sama’s campaign. A Facebook Frame was specially designed by Mohamad Bwedany, which is being used by over 35,000 people to date.
Sharing of the phrase did not stop there. Salem al-Atrash, who you will recognise from For Sama film with Afraa and their children, took paintbrush to paper for a very special project for some of our supporters.
These supporters have been with us since the beginning, using their global platforms to shine a light on For Sama film and the work we are doing at Action For Sama.
Salem created beautiful, bespoke paintings with a special message from Waad, which were posted to friends of the campaign: Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington, Alec Baldwin, Josh O’Connor, Annie Mac, Stacey Dooley, Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt.
Salem shares his thoughts about this project:
““The idea of the paintings is derived from Waad’s dress at the Oscars Ceremony and the phrase that was written on it which for me summarizes our story, the story of the revolution, the story of a people who defied injustice and stood up to the oppressor in order to reach freedom and dignity at all costs of sacrifices.
The drawing renewed my sense of pride and belonging to this great revolution that will change the world, painting was and still is the means of peaceful protest against the silence of the world towards the crimes of the Syrian regime.”Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
For Salem, using his art and creativity is more than second nature, it is part of him, and he has been at the heart of the Syrian revolution art since the very beginning.
Salem used calligraphy and illustration on banners for peaceful demonstrations, he painted graffiti on the walls of Aleppo, expressing thoughts of the revolution and also through painting on the remnants of war and bombs.
““The paint brush and pen have always been my peaceful weapon, through which I reflect the face of our civilisation and the most important principles of our revolution in the right to express opinions freely.””
We have been overwhelmed with the amazing support from our Action For Sama community through the month of the anniversary and beyond.
Many people have asked if they could be part of this special project and to receive one of these beautiful creations. We are so excited to tell you that soon this will be possible, as we are launching a new way to share and support the work of Syrian artists, including Salem.
‘We dared to dream and we will not regret our dignity’ is much more than a phrase - this is the story of Syrian people who have been at the heart of the revolution for ten years; a people with a hope for change and a determination to keep moving forward for a future Free Syria.
We are looking to the decision makers, the activists, the fighters and the future generations to stand with us and help us make change.
#wedaredtodream and we will not stop.
The Washington Post: Denmark faces criticism after pushing to send refugees back to Syria
Syrians seeking asylum are led away by police in Padborg, Denmark, conducting passport checks on Denmark's border with Germany in 2016. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The Danish government “is destroying the country by trying to follow these voters that they expect would agree with this policy,” said Michala Bendixen, head of Refugees Welcome Denmark. “It’s ruining our reputation around the world. And it’s ruining integration for those [refugees] who are already here.”
About 500 Syrians have been stuck in limbo since Denmark said it is reassessing temporary residency permits for refugees from Damascus, the capital, and Rif Damascus province, both controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A 2019 report by the Danish Immigration Service classified these areas as safe, citing a decline in fighting there since 2015. But on Monday, some of the experts and organizations interviewed for the report denounced the government’s conclusion.
“Damascus may not have seen active conflict hostilities since May 2018 — but that does not mean that it has become safe for refugees to return to the Syrian capital,” they wrote in a letter published by New York-based Human Rights Watch. “Many of the key drivers of displacement from Syria remain, as the majority of refugees fled, and continue to fear, the government’s security apparatus, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, military conscription, and harassment and discrimination.”
The European Parliament, the United Nations’ refugee agency and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, among others, have rejected forcible returns to Syria.
“It’s not in the interest of the Syrian people to pressure Syrian refugees to return to Syria, including to regime-held areas, where many fear they will be arbitrarily detained, tortured or even killed by Assad’s security forces in retaliation for fleeing,” Blinken told the U.N. Security Council in March.
Charlotte Slente, secretary general of the Danish Refugee Council, said in an email to The Post, “As long as the situation in Syria is not conducive for returns, we think that it is pointless to remove people from the life they are trying to build in Denmark and put them in a waiting position without an end date, after they have fled the horrible conflict in their homeland.”
Since 2019, the Danish Immigration Service has revoked or refused to renew the residency permits of about 200 Syrians from Damascus and Rif Damascus, according to figures it provided to The Washington Post.
Covid-19 in Syria: Marwan’s message from the frontline of the pandemic response
My name is Marwan Durra, I’m a high school graduate and I’m planning on continuing my education. Right now, I am a volunteer with Violet Organisation. Here’s my story from Idlib, as we try to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic.
My work with Violet Organisation involves transporting patients, which means I am in direct contact with people who have been diagnosed with Coronavirus. I also help with coordination. I receive word about Covid-19 patients - some that need to be transferred from a hospital to an isolation centre or some patients in isolation centres who need to get to the hospital as they have deteriorated. I obtain all of the necessary information and send it out to the team.
The idea behind the isolation centres is to assist the hospitals and reduce the pressure on them. In each isolation centre there is an on-call doctor, nurses, and infection control officers. The centres’ main purpose is to receive the mild and non-critical cases of Covid-19; for example, a patient with non-dangerously low oxygen levels, or a patient with fatigue. By providing care for these cases, the hospitals can be dedicated to the critical ones that need ventilators or intensive care. One of the other roles these centre play is providing a place for Covid-19 patients to isolate themselves at these centres if they can’t isolate themselves at home for whatever reason.
On one very difficult day, we received word about a patient showing symptoms of Covid-19. He needed a swab test and then to be admitted to an isolation centre, so after coordinating with Violet’s isolation centre and communicating all of the information, we transferred the patient there. After a couple of days the results came in confirming he has Covid-19. He started to deteriorate quickly, which left him in need for a ventilator and better care. We needed to transfer him to a hospital. Usually, we don’t transfer patients without coordinating, but this time we had to make an exception. The situation was urgent. During that period of time hospitals were full of patients, so started wandering with the patient from one hospital to another, hoping that one would be able to take him. Because there were no empty beds in any hospital, we had to keep moving the patient in the ambulance for about two hours until one hospital made ends meet and accepted him. This situation caused the patient’s health to deteriorate.
At one point during the Covid-19 crisis the daily infected cases were around 500, and if only half of that number needed hospital care, the hospitals would get completely swamped and become unable to provide care for any more people. So many loved ones - so many elderly people - have been lost due to the lack of available ventilators. This is a huge difference between us and other countries, where the medical capacity is a lot higher.
In general, the aid that was provided for northern parts of Syria to fight Covid-19 haven’t covered the needs. Not only that but some countries have already been able to acquire the vaccine that has a 98% success rate. We know that it is going to take a long time to reach us.
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The situation in Syria is shocking. Lack of medical care, equipment and space is creating an almost impossible task for the responders on the pandemic frontline.
Please follow our friends at Violet Organisation, read about the life-saving work they do and make a donation if you can.
Violet Team - you have our support, always.
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