Hundreds of Syrians from Istanbul’s different regions visit the clinic for free treatment and medication six days a week, in a project initiated early this year by the nongovernmental organization "Yeryüzü Doktorları" (Doctors Worldwide) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
A group of volunteer physicians, nearly all of whom fled the brutal war with their families, have been employed to offer primary care to refugees as most of them feel uncomfortable at other hospitals due to the language barrier. With the support of nurses and interpreters, six departments including psychosocial support, gynecology, internal medicine and paediatrics, have treated more than 20,000 refugees so far and TL 250,000 (,925) has been spent on medication alone.
On weekdays, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., the clinic swarms with more than 200 refugee patients of all age groups and the long corridor of the clinic was bursting at the seams the day Daily Sabah paid a visit.
From Syria’s Aleppo city, Ahmed Seyhahmed of Doctors Worldwide has been assigned as administrative supervisor for the last couple of months. With his fluent Turkish, Ahmed was constantly running around to manage the patient flow and help out as a medical interpreter whenever the need arose. With his company, we first headed toward the physicians’ rooms, each one blocked with a small crowd.
Osama Alabdullah, a Syrian physician, was listening to a young patient’s complaints. Mostly treating injuries, chronic pain and other common diseases, Alabdullah told Daily Sabah that they get on well with the patients and have not come up against any significant trouble, leaving aside the clinic’s everyday flock.
"Family problems are high among refugees as they are still adapting themselves into new social conditions," Bouzdani said. "In the past, they used to have a male-supported family structure. Now women also have to work, leading to conflicts between couples. They want to divorce and children are stuck in the middle. They are the biggest victims of the war," he said.
Recalling that their lives have literally been reduced to "zero" and they have nothing to do but to start anew, Bouzdani explains the main reasons behind why the war has struck them so harshly, pointing to three socially important matters: "Refugees have lost their social status and spiritual and economic support with the war."
Algerian psychologist Ibrahim Bouzdani helps Syrian children, many of whom suffer from mental trauma.
The Doctors Worldwide initiative at Bezmialem Hospital’s clinic will expand in upcoming days as the team is strenuously working to reach more refugees, both in Istanbul and other cities. In the near future, similar health services including psychosocial support and primary care will be offered in Sultangazi and the Basmane district of coastal İzmir province, two other regions with high refugee populations.
Before leaving the clinic, I met a Syrian woman named Fouzia. Visiting a gynecologist for an infection; Fouzia said that she is residing in Sultangazi, a rural neighborhood, with her children. "I lost my husband in the war and my children now work to look after our family," she said. Instead of staying in a refugee camp, her family fled to Istanbul two years ago. Fouzia has no clue about her future and merely laughed when asked about whether one day she wants to go back to Syria or not. "Alhamdulillah," she uttered, simply.
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