HEALTH
Medical Aid Keeps Beirut Health Clinics Open
Donated medicines and medical supplies allow charitable healthcare providers to continue to serve the vulnerable
Dr. Marwan Ghazzawi heads the medical department at Ibad Al Rahman Association, a nonprofit based in Beirut, Lebanon. Normally, he says, the center doesn’t offer emergency medical services, “but after the Beirut blast, we were receiving all kinds of cases due to the large numbers of injured.”
“Other hospitals could not handle the huge numbers [of patients] that arrived.”
Thanks to a generous medical donation from International Health Partners, Anera recently distributed medical supplies and medical supplements to the organization’s medical clinic.
The medical center has been forced, due to the poor economy, to move from offering completely free health screenings to the public to charging a nominal fee of about $3. With support from organizations like Anera and IHP, they can provide medicines to patients free of charge.
Most of the doctors at Ibad Al Rahman work pro bono. But, Ghazzawi says, even they are now experiencing hardship due to the skyrocketing prices of nearly everything. “The pandemic has greatly affected the lives of the medical staff.”
As for the clinic, Ghazzawi says,
“We have serious shortages of all kinds of medicines, especially those for chronic diseases like blood pressure, diabetes, antibiotics and others.”
Yazyi, a Syrian refugee living in the Achrafiye neighborhood of Beirut, is one of the patients at the clinic today. She tells us,
“We live in very difficult conditions. My daughter is paraplegic and has serious health problems. Her condition has deteriorated and we need a lot of money to get her treated.”
She expresses her gratitude to IHP, Ibad Al Rahman Association and Anera for their support, and the need for more medical and financial aid for families like hers.
Thanks to a generous medical donation from IHP, with transportation for the shipment provided by Airlink, Anera distributed medicines and medical supplies to health facilities across Lebanon. The donated items include antifungal medication, iron supplements, a beta blocker medicine for high blood pressure and other treatments, and post-operative gauze dressings for wound care.
