The current situation in Syria remains very difficult, with the local population struggling to access healthcare services and an estimated 492 attacks on medical facilities since the beginning of the war.
To address this challenge, 14 medical centres, 12 of which in the Idlib region, are currently connected thanks to TSF’s operations, enhancing the impact and facilitating the coordination of the medical teams’ interventions. TSF also provided 5 satellite phones to the centres to support the activities of their mobile clinics. In the first half of 2018, the medical centres connected by TSF were able to welcome over 230,000 beneficiaries with more than 320,000 consultations. In this period over 3 TB of data were exchanged, reaching a total of 35 TB since the beginning of the project.
In a few months the Syrian conflict will enter its eighth year. Over half of the population has been uprooted from their homes, with more than 5.5 million refugees who have left the country since the beginning of the war in April 2011 and over 6.6 million who have been internally displaced. The agreement reached between the presidents of Russia and Turkey last September on the establishment of a demilitarised zone in the Idlib region, last stronghold controlled by different armed forces, averted the risk of a potential humanitarian disaster. However, the ceasefire remains fragile with a risk of violations and escalations of violence that would endanger the lives of the 3 million civilians living in the region.
For this reason, since 2012 TSF has been continuing its operations in the country, and in the Idlib region in particular, to support medical actions through satellite connections in partnership with the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM).
In addition, TSF is still active in the country with its mLearning activities providing children affected by the war with education opportunities through information and communication technologies.