Syria’s health system is on the brink after 14 years of devastating conflict. But since the fall of the Assad regime in December last year, the country’s borders are now open, which provided a vital opportunity for members of our team to visit and see how we can best support the Syrian people in a surgical capacity as they rebuild.

Last month, our Co-Founder and Senior Advisor Elly Nott travelled to Syria with three of our Lead Faculty members, Ammar Darwish, Mahmoud Hariri and Saladin Sawan.

Over the course of five days, in every major Syrian city – Damascus, Hama, Homs, Aleppo and Idlib, they visited teaching hospitals and cancer hospitals, and had meetings with a wide variety of health directorates including the ministry of health and the UN Health Cluster.

They also had the chance to meet Faculty trained by our Foundation – the first in 2013 in eastern Aleppo, and the most recent in Idlib in November 2024. We have trained over 250 Syrian medical professionals in that period of time.

For Saladin Sawan, Consultant in Gynaecological Oncology, it was the first time he had visited Damascus since 2010. As he explains in his video here.

“The overwhelming happiness to be back in my home country was mixed with emotions of pain about the state of healthcare.”

Shortage of surgical specialisms

Hospitals are dilapidated, dirty and crowded, with constant power cuts. There are very few anaesthetists in the country and there is a shortage of all surgical specialisms. Health care workers are exhausted, and morale is low.

Prior to an operation, patients are given a list and told to buy the syringes, dressings and sutures needed themselves. At the specialist cancer hospital in Damascus, two children share beds meant for one.

“There’s a desperate need for training our specialist colleagues – since over the last 10 -15 years there has been an arrested development. But there’s a wonderful opportunity for the DNF to play its role in helping to rebuild Syria with our expertise in surgical training.”

We have delivered over 10 HEST courses since the conflict began, and Dr Sawan also ran many courses in emergency care and obstetrics for doctors and midwives, including surgical missions to perform gynaecological surgery, and training surgical residents and specialists to screen for and treat women with cervical cancer.

“At the time we were worrying when the next bomb was going to happen, whether I’ll be hit while I’m in the operating theatre. But today was a peaceful day, no such a worry.”

For Elly Nott, it was an opportunity to visit the M1 hospital in Aleppo where her husband and Co-Founder David Nott, together with surgeons including Mahmoud Hariri and Ammar Darwish, risked their lives to save others.

“They spent many, many weeks with the doctors operating alongside them and training lots of them. It’s where the David Nott Foundation was born and when we met, it’s where I got my inspiration to start the charity that is now reaching its 10th birthday.”

“That’s where we come in at the David Nott Foundation, because we’ve been training Syrian doctors in places like this for 14 years, and it’s now time for us to take the next step and move forward with Syria as it seeks to rebuild this beautiful, proud nation.”

We will continue to support the people of Syria with our HEST®, Frontline Obstetrics Courses, surgical missions, HEST UK® and HEST Anaesthesia™

Our Foundation remains committed to supporting Syria in the rebuilding of its health infrastructure at this critical time.

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