Syrian medical doctor Mohammed Alhammadi has been involved in the Syrian crisis from its beginning in 2011, first as a doctor in hot spots around his war-torn country and then leading an alliance of nonprofit organizations to help Syrian refugees around the globe.
Alhammadi used to work in hospitals in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo as a surgeon. Now, however, he switched from operating rooms to meeting rooms, representing international and national NGOs to bring peace to Syrian people, including refugees.
Currently, he spearheads Syrian NGO Alliance, a coalition of 20 Syrian groups that work inside Syria and neighboring countries to provide humanitarian assistance in non-government controlled areas around Syria, some of the world’s most dangerous places now.
Fed up with atrocities in his homeland, Alhammadi says that while the world is wasting time looking for a way to help Syrian people, there’s already a perfect one — to end the war and let Syrians go home.
“The main solution for the Syrian refugees is to go back to their homes, safely and voluntarily,” Alhammadi told the Kyiv Post after his participation in a panel discussion “Averting Humanitarian Catastrophe” at the newspaper’s “Bringing Peace to Syria & Ukraine” conference at the Intercontinental hotel in Kyiv on June 18.
“Will that be feasible soon, I don’t know?” he added. “It’s up to politicians, for sure.”
Helping Syrians
One part of Alhammadi’s job is to find funding for Syrian refugees. And international organizations help Syrians by sending financial help. However, money can’t solve all the problems.
The NGO Alliance “aims to find durable solutions for refugees, not just quick fixes,” he said. “It’s not all about money and direct assistance, it’s also about the other issues like resettlement, integration with the communities they co-exist now.”
Alhammadi particularly stresses the importance of an organized resettlement process to ease the burden carried by countries neighboring Syria.
According to him, one of the biggest issues of the Syrian refugee crisis is that a huge number of people fleeing from Syria to neighboring countries — Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey — need schools, workplaces, homes and human rights — not just shelter and food.
“But of course, one cannot immediately rebuild existing systems from zero and build new ones,” Alhammadi said. “So resettlement is important: take these people, distribute them elsewhere, help them integrate.”
Another important step to help Syrians, according to Alhammadi, is to start working on awareness programs to persuade nations to accept refugees.
“They are… we are just normal people who were forced to leave. There are a lot of doctors, engineers, very well-educated, academics among us,” he said. “Yes, helping is not only giving refugees money… it’s also standing for these people.”
International apathy
There’s a lack of interest in Syria’s problems internationally. The Russian propaganda is partly to blame.
“Globally, people are just used to seeing the suffering of Syrian people, no one reacts, no one’s trying to say something,” he said. “It’s all in the hands of politicians, and the politicians are not doing anything.”
In order the situation to change, “to move again,” there has to be more pressure for the international community “to act, to stop these atrocities, and to end the suffering” of the Syrians, Alhammadi said.
“Otherwise, money is being provided, resolutions are issued from time to time. But what else can we do? We need more pressure, we need to feel this unity — we’re human beings, so it’s not only our problems, it’s a humanity issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian propaganda sends wrong, fake messages about the war in Syria.
The most common messages that Russians spread, according to Alhammadi, are that the war in Syria is a very complicated civil war; that it’s easy to pick the “wrong side” of “extremists, terrorists;” and that one should keep away from Syria.
“And the Russians have played it very well,” Alhammadi said. “If you tweet about Syria and you’re a public figure, you’ll find hundreds of disturbing comments under your tweet. Russia has armies of trolls. It’s really a media war now as well.”
Ukrainians can help
And propaganda may be something Ukrainians can help Syria fight with, Alhammadi said. Ukrainians also suffer from Russia’s powerful propaganda, something Alhammadi calls the main similarity in both wars in Ukraine and in Syria.
“We are suffering from the same external major actor. And our countries can help each other by being allies,” he said.
Ukraine is a bigger and more stable country than Syria and, therefore, has more to offer.
“We are unable to reach out to international community alone,” he said.
But there’s another factor — the language.
“Ukrainians speak the Russian language. And we’re desperate to deliver our messages to the Russian people, who are hugely affected by the propaganda. So far, we have zero communication with the Russian people.”
