Global Activism: SAMS Brings Health Care To Syrians In Need

By Jerome McDonnell
In this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo, displaced Syrian children slide down a hill, above a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. As Syria marks the eighth anniversary of its grinding war, the violence has left a trail of broken lives. What started as peaceful protests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cruelest modern wars. Among the country’s pre-war 23 million population, now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead.
In this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo, displaced Syrian children slide down a hill, above a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. As Syria marks the eighth anniversary of its grinding war, the violence has left a trail of broken lives. What started as peaceful protests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cruelest modern wars. Among the country’s pre-war 23 million population, now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead. Bilal Hussein / AP Photo
In this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo, displaced Syrian children slide down a hill, above a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. As Syria marks the eighth anniversary of its grinding war, the violence has left a trail of broken lives. What started as peaceful protests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cruelest modern wars. Among the country’s pre-war 23 million population, now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead.
In this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo, displaced Syrian children slide down a hill, above a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. As Syria marks the eighth anniversary of its grinding war, the violence has left a trail of broken lives. What started as peaceful protests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cruelest modern wars. Among the country’s pre-war 23 million population, now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead. Bilal Hussein / AP Photo

Global Activism: SAMS Brings Health Care To Syrians In Need

By Jerome McDonnell
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The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) is a professional collaboration of Syrian and Syrian-American health care providers that was on the ground when the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011. SAMS responded to the crisis and transformed into a health care delivery apparatus for Syrians and Syrian refugees. SAMS supports 110 medical facilities and over 3000 medical personnel. The group brings supplies and also ships radiation therapy equipment and CAT scan machines into Syria. We talk with Samer Al-Khudari and Mohammad Al-Khudari, two Chicago-area physicians who went with SAMS to provide surgeries for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.