SYRIA: Cancer charity Basma makes sick children smile

Record ID: 279833

  • Title: SYRIA: Cancer charity Basma makes sick children smile
  • Date: 22nd November 2007
  • Summary: BASMA FINANCIAL OFFICER SOUHAIR BOULAD TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SOUHAIR BOULAD, BASMA FINANCIAL OFFICER, SAYING: "When they first hear the news, it is of course very difficult. But we try to explain to them that there are many cases of people being cured, and we try to support them and show them that we are always by their side, always present at the hosp
  • Embargoed: 7th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA99DDRUAZJWA1EO47NFG5EGK0I
  • Story Text: Basma, a non-governmental charity in Syria, puts a smile on the faces of children with cancer.
    Putting a smile on children's faces is what the cancer support association known as Basma (Arabic for "Smile") tries to do.
    The charity organises volunteer visits to children with cancer and their parents, offers financial assistance and organises cancer awareness campaigns across the country.
    "When they first hear the news, it is of course very difficult.
    But we try to explain to them that there are many cases of people being cured, and we try to support them and show them that we are always by their side, always present at the hospital," says financial officer Souhair Boulad.
    Basma is one of many non-governmental organisations working in Syria, filling in the gaps in an overstretched healthcare system that provides near universal coverage for all Syrians but has limited resources.
    Established in 2006, Basma relies on funding from wealthy Syrian philanthropists and the bulk of its operational work is carried out by volunteers.
    "Sometimes your role is to be with a child who has just arrived at the hospital, to show them the place and comfort them, to say: don't worry, your parents may have left but they will be coming back soon, and you have your friends here'. That's different from when you have to deal with a child who is in pain, who doesn't want to play, who just needs someone to stroke their hand and be by their side," says volunteer Carine Ain.
    Demographic shifts, increased international and regional isolation, and an influx of some 2 million Iraqi refugees are putting the Baathist country's public health sector under severe strain, leading to a decline in the quality of its service.
    Cancer estimates in Syria are unreliable because of the lack of a national cancer control programme or comprehensive cancer register.
    According to the 2006 World Cancer Congress, one of the few existing studies that was conducted in Aleppo in 2004 revealed 1835 cancer incidents over a population of 3.9 million.
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