The People's Convoy: Building the children's hospital

As part of the blog series we would like to pay tribute to the people and organisations behind the People’s Convoy campaign, starting with the Independent Doctors Association (IDA) who are the organisation responsible for rehabilitating a bombed building into a fully operational children’s hospital in Aleppo.

With an incredible number of donations from over 4,400 people across the world, the People’s Convoy sent an array of medical supplies and equipment from Incubators, Infant ventilators, children’s beds and mattress. via convoy from London on Saturday 17th December.

Who are IDA?

Established in in June 2012 by Syrian doctors from Aleppo in response to the humanitarian needs, the IDA’s mission is to rehabilitate the healthcare system and ensure good health for all persons affected by conflict, natural disasters and epidemics, regardless of religion, ethnicity, background or political affiliation.

The stats

Over the last 4 years the IDA have worked on 11 projects, delivered 12 primary healthcare centres and 2 hospitals which includes 512 medical staff.

During the 12 month period from February 2015 to January 2016, IDA provided health services to 500,000 beneficiaries in 75% of Aleppo governorate.

Towards the end of 2016, IDA has expanded its area of coverage in Aleppo governorate and is soon to reach 1 million beneficiaries.

In addition to establishing and managing health projects, the IDA also detects violations of human rights and infringement of civilian protection, and advocates for an increased protection of medical professionals.

IDA and the People’s Convoy

On November 18th during the intense airstrike campaign against health facilities in Aleppo, the IDA-supported children’s hospital was bombed out of operation. This attack meant the last specialised pediatric facility in eastern Aleppo was destroyed.

Watch their video detailing the devastation of these bombings

Eastern Aleppo continues to be under bombardment, with the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the area, IDA have identified a safer area to reopen the children's hospital where humanitarian needs are also extremely high.

This area of Aleppo outside of the city has recently been liberated from ISIS and have been suffering from a particularly high influx of internally displaced people since the beginning of this year. Not only is there a lack of healthcare in this area but there is also no specialised paediatric facility at all.
The purchased hospital equipment, travelling from the UK to Syria, will help to build and supply the children’s hospital.

Who will benefit?

The hospital will be located in free access area, with a catchment population of approximately 185,000 people, an estimated 61,050 children will benefit from the care. Treating 5,087 per month but with further displacement likely to happen this numbers is set to increase everyday.

The People’s Convoy international appeal compliments Syrian’s efforts to ensure those fleeing violence receive vital health care and emergency supplies.

Timeline

The timeline to get the hospital patient-ready will be approximately 1-2 months, expected to open and treat the first patient on 1st March 2017 if not sooner.

To ensure the safe journey of our drivers and doctors travelling to Syria, real-time updates from the convoy will not be made public as they approach Syria.

From IDA

“This unity of Syrian doctors and people around the world to help us deliver life-saving assistance to our fellow citizens is one of the largest displays of solidarity that the Syrian medical community has seen. After 6 years of war, the humanitarian situation in Syria has been going on for far too long, and we thank you for standing with us in saying that attacks on hospitals and civilians must stop, and to international governments who have not done enough to act urgently to protect civilians and ensure they can get the aid they need”.

What's been achieved

How you can help

We are still encouraging donations with the fundraising page open until 1st January 2017 as any money raised over the target will go towards the ongoing operational costs of the children’s hospital in Aleppo.

Please continue to share the appeal via social media (links below) and donate via www.PeoplesConvoy.com to help us raise as much money as we can before the campaign comes to an end.

Thursday 22 December 2016

Building the children's hospital