Dr. Adnan Hammad (pictured above), Senior Director of the ACCESS Community Health and Research Center, recently visited two refugee camps on the border of Syria and Turkey. Some excerpts from his experience are below, and his full account can be read here.
“I recently had the opportunity to visit the Islahyaa and Kilis refugee camps on the border of Antakya, Turkey, and Aleppo, Syria, where we are working collaboratively with Gaziantep University Medical School of Turkey on a mental health research assessment and intervention program. When I first arrived at the camps, I was overwhelmed by the sea of white tents, which house more than 10,000 refugees.”
“A majority of the camp residents (about 82 percent) are children and women, many of whom suffer from PTSD and acute trauma. I saw hundreds of children lining up for school, which is basically a tent classroom. Two hours later, we could hear shelling from a roaring fighter jet attacking those who were trying to escape to safety. This caused panic among the children in the camp school as they left their classrooms, fleeing and running about aimlessly.
The refugees have adapted to living here but always hope to return home, beyond the high mountains. As of Feb. 23, the day before my visit, 500 babies had been born in the Kilis camp. We can only hope that these little ones will have better memories than their traumatized brothers and sisters.”
“My visits to these camps raised immense concerns, not only about the mental and physical health of the Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, but also about their security and vulnerability. ACCESS, in partnership with Gaziantep and Wayne State universities, will be further exploring these concerns through a PTSD assessment of refugees in three camps. We will need a lot of help from our partners to make our impact across all the camps.”
Earlier this year, CAAP raised more than $65,000 for Syrian refugee relief. Although our campaign is over, the need is still great. Visit our website to see our list of recommended NGOs for donors looking to support Syrians in refugee camps across the Middle East.