Syrian doctor's mobile clinic a lifeline in Lebanon

STORY: Driving through the vast Bekaa Valley, Syrian doctor Feras Alghadban spends his days treating refugees and Lebanese citizens in his mobile clinic, offering medical help to those hardest-hit by the economic crisis.

Alghadban was trained as a family physician in Syria but fled the war in his homeland in 2017 to neighboring Lebanon.

Noticing how poor the health services were in the Syrian refugee camps, he decided to put his medical expertise to work.

He teamed up with another medical practitioner, a team of volunteers and a local organization to launch the Endless Medical Advantage project.

"My time is taken up by all the phone calls, diagnosis over the phone - sometimes emergencies during the night. I am always available. I sometimes also feel that my whole family is volunteering with me, many patients visit me at home, many know where I live and come when there are ambulances (emergencies). I have to answer to people, I can't turn off my phone, I feel guilty if I turn my mobile off and an emergency happens. I have to be always present and helping people."

The mobile clinic, launched in 2018, now covers around 40 camps around the Bekaa valley, offering refugees and Lebanese medical services for free or in return of symbolic fees.

"Most of our patients are Syrian refugee children and elderly people, as well as Lebanese people from the host community. In general, the number of Lebanese people (that we treat) has increased in the recent period, especially in the last year and half due to the economic crisis that the country is going through. The number of patients differ from one camp to the other, depending on the calls we receive..."

Alghadban wishes to expand the project to the hundreds of camps in Lebanon's Bekaa and beyond, to help people living in harsh conditions and sometimes lacking clean drinking water.

"The mobile clinic is important and also the doctors working in it, as well as the medication being given and the number of patients being treated. I think it is very important, even sometimes more than bigger clinics and hospitals because of the lack (of such initiatives) and the services it provides."