We are Hand in Hand for Aid and Development (HIHFAD) - a Syrian-led charity delivering humanitarian aid in Syria and neighbouring countries.
We are training 80 students - who are displaced and living in camps - at the Atmeh Midwife School. One of them is Crystal, who told us:
“My dearest friend and neighbour, Amira*, was pregnant and went into labour during an air raid. It was too dangerous to move her to the hospital, so her family called for help. We waited through the night, as the airstrikes fell, praying for good news in the middle of war. But it was not to be. When morning came, we found out that Amira had died, leaving her newborn son without a mother. Amira died as the woman attending had no proper training or qualifications. I vowed I would honour Amira’s memory by saving others from her terrible fate, so I signed up for the three-year training programme at Atmeh Hospital Midwife School. I am in my second year now and close to reaching my dreams. But now the university is threatened with closure due to lack of funding.”
After over seven years of civil war, the healthcare system in Syria is decimated. Facilities have been systematically destroyed in targeted attacks and many qualified medical staff have been forced to flee abroad. The World Health Organisation estimates that 41% of General Hospitals in Syria don’t have a midwife on staff. Shelling, roadblocks and safety concerns make it difficult for people to move freely, so even where hospitals are available, pregnant women often can’t get to them, leaving them forced to give birth at home. In many instances ‘home’ is a tent or other form of makeshift accommodation. In these situations, mobile, qualified midwives save lives.
If we don’t raise the money needed now, students like Crystal will not be able to complete the training they need to save the lives of mothers and their babies. Not only will your contribution make labour safer for women and children in Syria, it will also provide livelihoods and purpose to young women like Crystal, whose own lives have been devastated by war.
Please contribute to our campaign to keep the school open, so that Crystal and her fellow students can save women like Amira.
*Name has been changed to protect identity.
#MidwivesSaveLives
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Hi CanDoers. What a year it has been. We have been so proud of the progress our students and staff made this year, and are ever grateful for your contributions that kept them all going! Our team endeavour to spend wisely in every aspect of our projects to make sure the best outcomes are reached whilst taking care of our staff... Amazingly, we managed to underspend on this project, and the remaining funds were used to sustain internships for some of our students in two clinics, one situated in Atmeh and the other in Armanaz. Incredibly, the little funds we had stretched to both clinics, and in Armanaz, supported the running of a GP clinic, a neurology clinic, as well as otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology and dermatology clinics. 4463 patients were seen, with 1136 of these being children, and we are amazed at our teams efforts. Thank you all once again for the lasting impact you have given to.
Dear CanDoers -thanks to your support, 75 midwives-in-training have just successfully completed 6 months of study. In fact, the project has been so successful and efficient that we've actually saved some money and are discussing with CanDo how this could best be put to use - watch this space! For now, we encourage you to read the impact report on our campaign page so you can see the huge impact you have had by supporting this important campaign. And as always, thank you so much for your support!”
Hi CanDoers! Thanks to your support, 75 students have managed to move from one year of study to the next after Ramadan, and even with the turbulence of war affecting neighbouring districts, the student Midwives of Atmeh have continued to turn up and learn. The hospital itself has seen an increase of almost double the cases within the maternity wing, and our students are learning plenty in their clinical hours. The support CanDo offered these students has been great. Next week I'll update you all with one last case study, but between now and then please know your influence has been GREAT and our students are extremely grateful!
Our students spent the majority of May writing exams, and so had June off for a much deserved break from academics and practicals. This break coincided with the escalations of violence in northern Idlib and southern Hama however, and many of our students will have been affected in some way. Atmeh hospital alone - where the midwifery school is based - has seen an increase in patients by 70%.
Astonishingly, this hasn't put our students off. Rather, they are excited to come back and return to their studies. Rahaf, 18, wasn't too sure about the programme when she started but now says, "I have begun to love my studies and now understand the importance in helping people's lives. I would like to thank all of the amazing teaching staff and all the supporters for encouraging me". For others like Walaa, who has come to studies a little later at 29, she has loved her studies from the start, "I thoroughly enjoy my course, and hope to continue working in the centre [after graduation] to fulfil my dreams and the dreams of all the women studying with me".
Courses will resume this week, so we should have more updates for you soon. Thank you for your continued support for these women and their dreams, Syria's future will be brighter with them in it!
We’ve received further updates from our team in Atmeh, which is in northern Idlib, where hospitals are still being targeted and communities are taking strain.
One of our team said “work continues in the midwifery centre as had been planned from the start of the project until now, despite the circumstances facing it. The teaching staff still endeavour to improve and develop the project and have now completed the second semester curriculum. They have started theoretical and practical exams with both the first- and second-year midwifery students. Since the attacks on the villages of Hama and Idlib countryside by the regime however, the students’ psychological states and academic levels have been negatively affected. These attacks came as the students began preparing for their second semester exams and has caused them to decline in their levels of submission.”
As far as we are aware however, students are still attending, and professors are still teaching. We will share an update from one of our students soon, but in the meantime, thank you for continuing to support Syrians and standing with the people of Idlib.
With instability spreading across Northwestern Syria, you may expect less students turning up to class... Thanks to your support however, many of our midwives in training are able to live on site, allowing them to focus on their studies and relieving them of the stress and danger of travelling during these difficult times. Give our video a watch to see how your support has allowed so many women to realise their dreams and potential whilst studying for such a crucial field within primary health care. Thank you again for making this possible! - the Hand in Hand team
Since we received the funding to keep the Atmeh Midwifery school open, HiHFAD has been checking in with some of the trainees to see how their studies are progressing now they know their studies are secured. Their reactions have been phenomenal as not only can they continue to learn, but their trainers, specialists and doctors are able to pass on crucial knowledge without the stress of financial insecurity.
Speaking to Barra, she explained how the funding from fellow midwives and generous CanDoers through the @CanDo Campaign has affected her.
“I am a trainee at the midwifery institution in Atmeh. Prior to the current support, we faced many challenges that were impeding the continuation of the internship, but now we are very thankful for HIHFAD and the “CanDo” initiative for their support since that will help us advance through the planned internship. The knowledge and the technical capacities acquired during the internship will be invested properly when we practice the midwifery within our communities” -Barra, current Midwife in training.
Thank you CanDoers, the results of your kindness will be felt for generations to come!
“After 5 months of uncertainty, 75 students at Atmeh Midwife School have resumed their studies confident that their funding has been secured by generous CanDoers. When their previous funding for their midwife training school ran out in September 2018 the staff at the centre believed so much in the importance of their work that all of them, teachers, directors and support staff continued their work on a voluntary basis, working for free for 5 months in the hope that funding could be secured. Due to the successful Can Do campaign with HIHFAD, that funding has been secured and the midwife students can continue their studies safe in the knowledge their funding has been secured.
As the trainee Raniyah says
The more we are optimistic about our lives, the better for us. We started our internship so full of hope that it would empower us to improve the quality of our lives not to mention that of the women in our communities. I will always remember those moments when a deep feeling of anxiety when the lack of funding might have led to the suspension of our training programme. Today, we extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to HIHFAD and the CanDo Community for supporting our dreams, which will hopefully now become true thanks to your kind efforts”
We are delighted and honoured to share that our #MidwivesSaveLives campaign has been shortlisted for the prestigious Ockenden International Awards. These annual awards recognise work done to promote self reliance and independence of refugees and displaced persons to reduce their dependence on aid. A philosophy at the core of all of our work. Rebuilding livelihoods is the essence of the MidwivesSaveLives programme, which trains young women living in a Camp inside Syria to learn a valued profession and so support themselves and their families while rebuilding the healthcare system in their communities to ensure women in Syria don't have to go through childbirth without a trained attendant. The four prize winners, each worth £25,000 will be announced at the end of March.
We are beyond delighted to hear that our campaign has reached its target and we will be able to keep Atmeh Midwife School open. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all the generous CanDoers and the amazing team at Can Do for keeping Crystal, Hadeel's and all of the midwife students' dreams alive, allowing them to rebuild their own lives by helping the new mothers and babies of Syria. Together we will work towards no woman in Syria having to give birth alone.
The moment her husband died is etched in Hadeel’s memory.
He died in one of the many airstrikes they had endured, leaving the teenage Hadeel alone with a baby daughter, Bara, to support.
Despite having been forced to drop out of high school two years earlier, Hadeel passed the baccalaureate exam with distinction after her husband’s death. With her family’s encouragement and support, Hadeel then enrolled at the Atmeh midwife school where she is now in her second year of a three year programme.
“I chose this course, not only because the specialisation allows me to help other Syrian women, but because it also gives me the opportunity to support Bara with a decent life” Hadeel explained.
Hadeel is now constantly worried and unsettled as the Atmeh Midwife school is threatened with closure due to lack of funding. “Its not just me, there are 80 students here and I worry all our work may be in vain if we don’t get the opportunity to finish our training programme if the college is shut down”
Wow. We are only 2 weeks into our #midwivessavelives campaign and we have already reached over 52% of our target. Thank you so much to the generous support of 37 Candoers. We are working really hard to continue this amazing start and still need your support to reach the all important 100% target to keep Atmeh midwife school open.
What I love about this campaign is that it is providing skills and livelihoods to young Syrian women to support themselves and their families while they work to save the lives of other Syrian women and babies.
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