- Title: Glad to be helping: refugee Syrian filmmaker turns London hospital cleaner
- Date: 23rd April 2020
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 23, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN REFUGEE, FILMMAKER, AND HOSPITAL CLEANER, HASSAN AKKAD, SAYING: "I am going to keep doing this job until I can physically and mentally be able to, no matter how long it takes. And when this is done... You know, I'm a storyteller and I do want to tell that story. I want to tell the hundr
- Embargoed: 7th May 2020 13:57
- Keywords: COVID-19 Hassan Akkad NHS cleaner coronavirus documentary filmmaker health workers hospital cleaner hospitals outbreak pandemic
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / DAMASCUS, SYRIA / INTERNET
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / DAMASCUS, SYRIA / INTERNET
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA00BCAPOPJB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: On a coronavirus ward in an east London hospital, award-winning film-maker Hassan Akkad, a refugee from Syria, is working as a cleaner, joining the fight against the pandemic in his adopted home.
"I'm so glad to be helping," Akkad said in an interview on Thursday (April 23).
The 32-year old refugee has lived in London for four years. His footage of the journey he made surviving a sinking dinghy from Turkey into Europe and on to the UK, was part of a documentary series which in 2017 won BAFTA and International Emmy awards.
With the outbreak of the disease, he saw a way to thank the community that had welcomed him and become "like home" by becoming a hospital cleaner at Whipps Cross Hospital.
Akkad has been working there for four weeks, five days a week, and says it is one of his toughest challenges yet - a stressful job that can be both physically and mentally demanding.
Every shift, Akkad and his colleagues need to disinfect every inch of a ward treating COVID-19 patients, all while wearing personal protective equipment that can leave him sweating and out of breath.
And there is also an emotional toll watching coronavirus patients suffer - especially without the support of their loved ones due to social distancing rules.
Akkad bemoaned the lack of funding for the state-run National Health Service and said he hoped the crisis would lead to more respect and value to be placed on people such as cleaners and porters, who usually receive lower wages than most.
With colleagues hailing from Nigeria, Jamaica, Ghana, Spain, Thailand and Poland, Akkad is also hoping the situation brings about a sense of global unity, and dispels any hostility directed towards the new arrivals who often occupy low-paid jobs.
When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke of his recent treatment in another London hospital for coronavirus, he thanked two nurses from Portugal and New Zealand for their care.
Akkad says that, however hard it might be, he is going to continue cleaning for as long as it takes to ward off the threat of coronavirus.
Afterwards, he's hoping to turn his attention back to filmmaking and stroytelling.
He says he wants to tell the story of the pandemic in his community, as well as to promote causes he is passionate about - such as better treatment for immigrants and refugees and higher pay for workers at the "bottom of the pyramid."
(Production: Will Russell, Ben Dangerfield) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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