Crisis and Conflict in Syria

“The border between Syria and Türkiye is closed in both directions,” said Janine Lietmeyer, Malteser International’s Middle East Manager. “The people there have to assume that they will need to remain on the Syrian side of the border.” To ensure that at least a basic level of medical care is available to these displaced people and locals, we rapidly deployed two mobile clinics to the camps that have sprung up along the border since February, and procured additional supplies of essential medication. We are also planning to expand secondary health care facilities at the field hospital, which we constructed in the area with our partners in 2014. To cope with rising patient numbers, the present structure will be expanded to include five operating theatres, a larger maternity ward with two delivery rooms, as well as facilities to provide inpatient treatment and intensive care of forty patients. This will be supplemented by the creation of an additional mobile emergency unit for surgical interventions. “These mobile solutions are especially important in a warzone with permanently moving fronts,” said Lietmeyer. The four basic health facilities manned by doctors from our local partner organization are primarily employed treating patients with infectious diseases and war wounds. However, mother and child health is another important focus.

We are also expanding our aid for refugees, displaced people and locals in the countries neighboring Syria. We will begin operating a basic health unit from the premises of our rehabilitation center in Kilis, Türkiye, while our mobile medical teams in Lebanon are set to grow further. The repair and reconstruction of additional health centers and the establishment of mobile medical teams is planned in northern Iraq, where Malteser International already provides medical treatment in the region’s refugee camps.

(Last updates: May 2016)