Due to a lack of funding and a health care system destroyed by war, specialized medical care in Syria has become a luxury. MSF is one of the few medical organizations that offers free health care in the camps, which host millions of people in Idlib and Aleppo governorates. MSF mobile clinics provide basic health care, sexual and reproductive health care, and mental health care, however, for more specialized care people have to travel to major cities.
But it’s not just medical care that is scarce in this mountainous and vast farm country. Water and other basic services have also dwindled, especially since the fall of the Assad regime, as many aid organizations have left for larger cities such as Homs and Aleppo.
For Walid, the lack of specialized care available in the area weighs heavily on the 44-year-old father. Two of his daughters, Raghad and Ghofran, are disabled and bed-ridden, while Jummah Mansour and Hamza remain permanently affected by their injuries.
“Currently, we can barely meet our basic needs,” Walid explains. “The average worker’s daily income is no more than 150 to 200 Syrian pounds, barely enough to buy nine loaves of bread.”
“Previously, the garbage removal process in the camp worked well, and everything was organized,” he adds. “However, after the liberation, we began to face several problems, the first of which was the decrease in the amount of water available, as its supply became extremely limited.”