Health workers saving lives in the Eastern Mediterranean Region are #NotATarget

Maher Hamzeh Abdul Kader is a health worker in the Syrian Emergency Medical System in rural Damascus, Syria. In 2015, Maher was shot twice in the back while on duty distributing blood bags to Eastern Ghouta residents, near Damascus.

"Luckily, I survived," says Maher. "After 22 years as an emergency worker in the national emergency services, and after having undergone surgical operations for five months, I am back doing what I want to do: helping the injured and the misfortunate of this ill-fated conflict."

Yasser Shokri Al-Hussain is a nurse at Al-Qamishli national hospital, Al-Hassakeh, Syria. He has been working in this hospital for 8 years.

“Although I am supposed to work 8 hours per day, I sometimes work for 17 hours per day to fill shortages in nursing staff,” he said. “I often see patients coming to our hospital because they are unable to find the medicines they need in other hospitals. It makes me sad and frustrated. While we get support from WHO-supported NGOs, we sometimes also collect money amongst ourselves to buy these medicines for the patients, despite our difficult financial situation. It’s the humane thing to do” added Yasser.

Ibtisam Salam Alaik is a health worker in Aleppo, Syria.

“I have been vaccinating children in Aleppo for more than 15 years. I continued preforming my duties in different health centres in Aleppo due to escalating violence and intensified fighting in the area affecting the hospitals,” she said. “The recent improvement of the security situation in Aleppo has had a positive impact on the vaccination services, and I feel much safer here now,” Ibtisam added.

Hasan Kassar is a health worker who has been displaced from Al-Bab city in eastern rural Aleppo, Syria, since 2013.

“I fled with my family due to escalating violence in the area and I now deliver vaccines in the main health district in city of Aleppo,” said Hasan. “While eastern Aleppo city was besieged, we did our best to deliver vaccines to health facilities there; however, we failed several times due to intensified fighting, lack of approvals from parties on the ground and the targeting of the health workers on several occasions,” added Hassan.

Nibal Awad is a family doctor working as part of a mobile clinic team in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian terrirtory. The team, run by an Italian non-governmental organization, visits 8-10 communities per week. Most communities the team visits do not have access to main electricity, so the local clinics depend on solar energy and fuel generators to function. Dr Nibal sees around 30-40 patients during her visits. On some occasions, this number goes up to 70 patients in a day in two different mobile clinics. Her patients are mainly women and children. Nibal cares deeply about health education and improving the public health conditions of the communities she works with.

“The work I do is very rewarding, not financially but emotionally. When I do my job, it gives satisfaction because I care about the people here. When I see that my patients are healthy and happy, it makes me happy. We don’t just give patients a health service, but we also provide the communities with a chance to discuss other problems they face as well.”

Ahmad Zia, 40, has worked for Afghanistan’s national vaccination programme for 10 years as a campaign supervisor.

“I joined the vaccination programme because I want to serve our country and to see people protected from infectious diseases. The security situation is good in the area where I work, but unfortunately many provinces still suffer from conflict and insecurity, making immunization efforts more difficult,” he says.

Zahra recently joined Afghanistan’s national vaccination programme and works as a volunteer vaccinator in Kabul. “I like my work and I am proud of what I do. I want to contribute to disease eradication efforts and help Afghan children grow up healthy,” she says.

Mohammad Ferdaus, 23, has worked as a volunteer vaccinator for 5 years. He goes from house to house in his neighbourhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, during campaigns to vaccinate all children under the age of 5 to ensure they are immunized and protected.

“Almost everyone in my area accepts vaccines when we offer them. If someone initially refuses, we convince them to vaccinate their children by giving them more information about the benefits of vaccination and why it’s essential for children’s health.”