(13 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++CLIENTS NOTE: THIS DIGITAL VIDEO WAS UPDATED ON FEB. 13, AT 13:00 GMT, TO REMOVE AN EXTRA ON-SCREEN SENTENCE AT THE END OF THE SECOND SOUNDBITE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sarmada, Syria – 9 February 2025
1. Various of closed clinic run by the aid organization Doctors of the World
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Fares, Head of Medical Programs at Doctors of the World: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
"More than 15 centers have had their work frozen or stopped. We have three clinics in Jinderis and Afrin, and six clinics in al-Bab, in addition to medical furnaces used for burning medical waste in Syria’s northern liberated areas. The suspension of this work resulted in about 175 (currently 184) people losing their jobs and having their contracts frozen. They are now unemployed, in addition to the extensive damage to the clinics, which are located in camps — areas with the highest number of people who are most affected, the poorest and most in need of medical care."
3. Wide of shelves of clinic pharmacy left mostly empty after USAID cuts
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Fares, head of medical programs at Doctors of the World: ++PARTLY COVERED BY SHOTS 6 AND 7++
"If the support is not resumed, there will be a major disaster and serious harm to (vulnerable) groups, considering that the operating costs of clinics are much lower than those of hospitals. The cessation of work in these clinics will put increased pressure on emergency hospitals and other healthcare facilities, which will reduce the quality of medical services as they become overwhelmed."
5. Shelves of clinic pharmacy left mostly empty after USAID cuts
6. Various of man locking the doors of the clinic
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdelkareem Khaled, Head of Kawkaba camp in northern Syria: ++PARTLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 8++
"People’s conditions are very difficult, and poverty is a harsh reality. Patients, especially those who need medicine every month, can no longer afford it at the pharmacy. This clinic used to provide medical services and medication for free. We were surprised when it was shut down. People with chronic diseases — those with heart conditions and diabetes — are suffering greatly. Medicines are expensive at the pharmacy, and they cannot afford them at all."
8. Children playing in the streets of Kawkaba
STORYLINE:
In the town of Sarmada in northern Syria, Dr. Mohammad Fares unlocked a clinic that once bustled with patients.
Now it’s empty, and shelves of medicine have dwindled to a few boxes of bandages and expired drugs.
This is what it looks like after the Trump administration halted U.S. foreign assistance last month.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, issued stop-work orders during a 90-day review for what the administration has alleged is wasteful spending.
Fares had been working in three clinics run by Médecins du Monde, or Doctors of the World, offering free health care to the displaced population in northern Syria, which until the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December had been the country’s main rebel-held enclave.
It sheltered millions of people who had fled years of civil war.
Their often grim camps swelled again in 2023 after a deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey and northern Syria.
Since the fall of Assad, some displaced Syrians have begun to return home, but many have no homes left.
Fares’ clinic in Sarmada used to support 16 camps in the region, assisting approximately 35,000 people.
“If the support is not resumed, there will be a major disaster,” said Fares, who heads the organization’s medical programs.
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