After more than 11 years of war in Syria, almost half of all health facilities in Syria are either partly operational or completely out of service, so there’s not enough resources to help everyone needing care. Medical care at private clinics and hospitals is very expensive, leaving many displaced people unable to afford basic healthcare.
These issues make it very difficult to get urgently needed medical treatments, increasing the risk of death from illness.
Al Imaan Hospital in Sarmada, Idlib, is the only maternal and paediatric hospital of its kind and provides displaced people – particularly women and children – with essential healthcare free of charge, 24 hours a day.
Yet the challenges that come with running a free medical centre are many. Simply put, it takes money (lots of it) to keep Al Imaan Hospital running. The hospital also has to regularly contend with shortages of medicines, supplies and sometimes staff.
We are proud and grateful that Al Imaan Hospital continues to freely serve the most vulnerable mothers and babies in Idlib. Al Imaan Hospital is centrally located, close to camps for displaced people as well as being close to the Turkish border. The hospital provides clinical and community education services to the surrounding area.
Thanks to your mercy we treat about 4,500 patients per month via the hospital and associated mobile clinic. Following the earthquake in February 2023, Al Imaan Hospital helped more than 7,000 people with urgently needed medical care within the first 2 weeks of this emergency alone. By providing trauma care, oxygen cylinders and other vital health services, we were there to help displaced Syrians survive this catastrophe within a catastrophe.
We have worked to overcome many of the challenges that come with operating a free hospital. We focus on maintaining open communication with supporters, as well as cultivating and supplementing resources with other global non-governmental organisations like the WHO, UN and others.
We have also worked closely with the Idlib Health Directorate to facilitate our staffing requirements. We always prioritise the well-being of our medical staff and maintain a duty of care policy.
Between 2019 - 2023, Al Imaan Hospital served 228,341 patients. We've delivered over 19,205 babies, including 11 sets of triplets, two sets of quadruplets and 74 pairs of twins. Through our mobile clinics that serve 16 displacement camps, we’re helping 7,739 people every month. Al Imaan alone provides 4,473 treatments each month and 53,682 annually.
Al Imaan Hospital efficiently delivers your mercy so that mothers and their babies have a chance to survive and thrive.
As you’d expect with Human Appeal, we’re on the ground in theses hard-to-reach places to help identify and better serve the needs of vulnerable people. We don’t let the volatility of Syria’s long-running war limit our commitment to delivering your mercy and serving the most vulnerable mothers and babies in Idlib.
We are now able to reach 1 million internally-displaced people. Our mobile clinic, operational since 2017, and our central hospital location keeps medical care accessible to the people who need it urgently, especially in areas where no other organisation is operating.
We’re hands-on when we deliver and administer aid so that we ensure your mercy gets precisely where it’s intended, exactly as it’s intended. We maintain a roster of efficient and highly experienced medical and administrative staff to conduct rigorous checks and risk assessments to assess those most in need of mercy.
Our operational expertise gives us a global advantage in using our experienced teams to bring relief where it’s most needed. We also choose to integrate our services for reproductive health and paediatric care to maintain continuity of health services from pregnancy, birth and early childhood. We also provide nutrition, vaccination and other medical services in addition to the necessary medical care for maternal and child health.
Human Appeal ensures that your mercy brings immediate relief and lasts for the long term to break the cycle of poverty. Despite being targeted and bombed on several occasions, we have remained resolute in maintaining the services Al Imaan Hospital provides. We rebuilt after the first bombing and, after the second more severe attack, we evacuated and reopened our current hospital in Idlib. We continue to operate following the earthquake disaster.
You’ve entrusted us with your donation so that we can make the most of your mercy. Let’s hear from Rama, Midwife at Al Imaan Hospital, as she explains how your mercy saves some of the most vulnerable mothers and babies in the world.
My name is Rama Al Khatib; I am 47 years old. I work as a midwife at Al Imaan hospital. I have been working in the field of midwifery for twenty-five years, and I have now been in Al Imaan hospital for seven years.
The services provided by Al Imaan hospital are primary care for pregnant women, natural deliveries, incubators, and cesarean deliveries.
Al Imaan Hospital has between 15 to 20 natural births daily, and about 500 cases every month. As for cesarean births, there are approximately 500 births every month.
The types of treatment provided by the hospital to patients are pregnancy monitoring, treatment of gynecological infections, abortions, and [pre-natal] bleeding.
Most of the patients we receive are from the camps surrounding Al Imaan Hospital, which is located in a strategic area. Without this hospital, people are at risk of many dangers, especially pregnant women who would have been at risk of premature births or [pre-natal] bleeding due to the lack of free services at the rest of the hospitals in this area.
A short time ago a patient, Enas Haboush, who was nine months pregnant came to us and was very fearful of giving birth and of not having an incubator. She was very afraid for her babies, so we reassured her.
I was responsible for her birth. She was healthy throughout ; as for her babies, we put them in an incubator to monitor them. They were evaluated by the doctor and were in good health, so they were discharged.
Keeping this hospital free helps those most vulnerable, especially those displaced in the camps who have no money. It helps those most vulnerable by providing primary care for pregnant women, incubators for newborns and a 24-hour pediatrician.
Whenever a sick infant is born, they are evaluated by the doctor and put in the incubator. The presence of Al Imaan hospital greatly reduces the mortality rate for mothers and newborns with the incubators on site.
Any infant born here is sent to the incubation department for an evaluation. If a mother gives birth in the camp, she could lose the baby because of the distance from area medical centers. The presence of this hospital is very important for the residents of the camps here.
Al Imaan hospital provides primary care and family planning. There is also a laboratory for medical tests as well as a nutrition department. Everything is available here in Al Imaan hospital.
I want to thank the supporters who contribute to provide continuous support to this hospital. Not having the hospital would be disastrous and cost human lives.
“Those who are merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One above the heavens will have mercy upon you.”
Source - Tirmidhi
I am Enas Salaa Habboush from Keferzita. I have been displaced for nine years in Wadi Abbas camp. I have four daughters.
I suffered a lot at the beginning of my pregnancy. Every day I went to the medical centre here and that they gave me some medicine.
What I suffer from during pregnancy is vomiting and eclampsia. I went to Al Imaan Hospital twice, and they treated us well in terms of administering and providing their services.
When I went, they provided me with psychological support and never made me feel afraid. My eldest daughter is four years old and the youngest is two years old and these twins are less than a month old.
I don't have the ability to pay for diapers for my children. Milk is also very expensive, and I can't provide it for the twins. I have to use formula most of the time instead of milk.
I recommend all patients, especially pregnant women to go to Al Imaan hospital, because the medical care is good and they make the patient feel comfortable, rather than afraid.
When I went to the hospital for my due date, I was very scared, but they offered me psychological support to help with my fears. Even my husband's mother and sister were also afraid, but the nurses comforted us.
After I gave birth to the twins, I went to visit the centre again to treat my daughters because one of them was jaundiced and had to stay in the incubator for four hours. The doctor asked us to see her again for a follow up. He said that their health condition is good. The twins have been vaccinated since the first day they were born.
When I was pregnant, my leg was broken, so when I used to go to the hospital, they gave me a walking stool and helped me moving around so that I would not feel fatigue or pain. The nurses helped me to walk all the time and asked me if I needed anything
One of my neighbors gave birth at Al Imaan hospital a month ago. She recommended I give birth there too because of the good care. She told me that the services in the hospital are available to everyone.
When I went to the hospital for the birth, they put me in the care room so that I would not wait long outside, and they also allowed my husband's mother and his sister to accompany me inside.
What we suffer from now is providing heating for the children, especially as lighting firewood inside the tent is harmful for them. We live in a tent that doesn't protect us from the cold. What I need most for the babies is milk, but I am unable to afford it.
Most of the time, when it rains, the tent gets wet with water, as the rain pours in from all sides.
When it rained a week ago, all our things got wet.
My husband works as a laborer, but he doesn't go to work everyday. When he works, we can take care of our needs, but when he doesn't work, Allah is the one who provides for us.
I was so scared for my due date that I asked the doctor to perform a caesarean section for me so I wouldn’t suffer the pain of childbirth. The midwife told me that I didn't need a caesarean section and that I would give birth naturally without surgery.
What we eat most are eggs, potatoes and what we have at home.
We don't know how to afford the price of bread and milk for our children. We only buy them diapers because we can't afford anything else.
My husband's brothers and sisters gave us some money for my twin daughters, so I bought them milk because it is the thing they need the most.
I hope the supporters will help us to meet all our basic needs, especially milk for the children. I hope that our living conditions will improve and that we will live in a house instead of a tent. What I wish is to obtain income, heating, firewood and milk for my children.
The most difficult thing a pregnant woman faces is her inability to go to a private doctor to monitor her pregnancy, so the presence of free hospitals like Al Imaan makes it easier for us. The doctor’s fee in private hospitals is very expensive. Pregnant women can't pay this. Therefore, they are forced not to monitor their pregnancy at the medical clinic every month.
During my pregnancy, I only went to the doctor twice although I have to monitor my pregnancy every month especially since I was pregnant with twins.
I wasn’t able to go to a private doctor and pay money, so I went to the free hospital. Free hospitals help us a lot. I recommend that pregnant women visit Al Imaan hospital because there is a lot of care there. When I gave birth, all the staff supported me, not just the doctor and midwife.
The midwife told me that she treats me like she treats her own daughter; she took very good care of me. When my twin girls were born, I felt so beautiful and so happy and I forgot all my pain.
I thank Allah for that.
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