The prices of medicines are constantly increasing and many patients are unable to buy them, putting their possibility of treatment and recovery at risk. This is just one aspect of the serious crisis and poverty in Syria. AMU, with the program Seeds of Hope , provides assistance for health protection.
Health is one of the primary needs that easily takes a back seat when other needs, such as food or housing, have to be met first. It is not easy to get medical care in Syria, this is because the economic situation in the country is in severe recession and the unemployment rate is high . Moreover, those who work have a very low income, often occasional, and most of the time the cost of medical treatment is prohibitive compared to the economic conditions of the Syrians.
The health sector has also been hit hard by the war: around 50 percent of facilities have been destroyed and 70 percent of health workers have fled the country for safety reasons, increasing the workload and psychological pressure for those who remain. Added to this is the continuous increase in drug prices. For example, Nihad, a 52-year-old woman who needs treatment for breast cancer, paid 150,000 Syrian pounds (SYP) for the four doses of drugs needed to treat her. In 2022, the same doses cost her 450,000 Syrian pounds (SYP) (150,000 Syrian pounds is 0.06 euros / 450,000 is 0.18 euros). She and her family are unable to pay for the full cost of treatment, even though they all have jobs.
Many are in the same situation as Nihad. Even through lack of care, poverty kills.
With the Seeds of Hope project, AMU supports Syrian citizens who have health problems, participating in the purchase of necessary drugs and treatments or supporting part of the costs of the interventions. Trying to give back to an exhausted population what poverty inexorably takes away, that is, the confidence in the possibility of recovery.