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WHO / SYRIA EARTHQUAKE TEDROS
STORY: WHO / UKRAINE HEALTH EMERGENCY
TRT: 03:44
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 1 MARCH 2023, NORTH-WEST SYRIA
1.Various shots, supplies
1 MARCH 2023, SEMA EARTHQUAKE RECEPTION CENTRE, BAB AL-HAWA, SYRIA
3. Various shots of the centre, tents and staff
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO has been delivering essential medicines, supplies and equipment for years. As well as on the day the earthquakes struck and we will do more.”
Wide shot, journalists
5. Wide shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We must not close our eyes or turn our backs on the Syrian people. We can not let this be a forgotten crisis.”
7. Wide shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“I call on the international community, governments, philanthropists, individuals, to dig deep, to lift up those who are enduring unimaginable loss, poverty and deprivation.”
9. Various shots, WHO Director-General talking to earthquake survivors inside a large tent
10. SOUNDBITE (English) David Carden, Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. on surge, Bab al-Hawa:
“We’re very grateful for the opportunity to use the additional new crossings and I should say that 450 trucks of assistance have been provided by 6 UN agencies since the earthquake, so the United Nations is really ramping up its response.”
1 MARCH 2023, AAQRABATE SPECIALIZED ORTHOPEDIC HOSPITAL (OUSSM), SYRIA
11. Various shots in the hospital, showing patients and healthcare workers, WHO staff planning and discussing with hospital staff
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Feras Fares, Independent Doctors Association, SEMA earthquake reception centre:
“WHO as an organization, concerned with the health services, they are standing with the Syrian population, especially the most vulnerable population that are being in north-west of Syria and are affected by the earthquake.”
13. Close-up, hands
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Feras Fares, Independent Doctors Association, SEMA earthquake reception centre:
“We are in, like, the year 12, from the crisis of Syria and this is the first time that to have, like, a senior level. This is too late but it’s better than nothing, yeah.”
1 MARCH 2023, AL SHAM HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION PEDIATRIC CLINIC, SARMADA, SYRIA
15. Various shots in the hospital, showing patients and healthcare workers, WHO staff talking with hospital staff
1 MARCH 2023, SUPPLY WAREHOUSE, BAB AL-HAWA, SYRIA
16. Various shots, WHO staff and local colleagues entering the supply warehouse and inspecting its contents
17. Various shots, WHO partners discussing the situation in Syria and future requirements.
The 12-year conflict in Syria caused enormous damage to the health system. The earthquakes stretched it further. Today World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus entered north-west Syria and met health workers and communities to address their health needs.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today visited north-west Syria following the devastating earthquakes that hit northern Syria and southern Türkiye on 6 February 2023.
Tedros is the first UN principal to enter north-west Syria since the beginning of the conflict, 12 years ago.
Tedros met with the partners WHO works with in north-west Syria to deliver essential health care, including specialised orthopaedic care and paediatric care.
Also today, WHO distributed additional life-saving medicines, supplies and equipment to three hospitals in north-west Syria. These are sufficient for over 280,000 treatments, including for the management of trauma, diabetes, and pneumonia, as well as vitally needed anaesthesia drugs and surgical supplies. WHO has sent over 140 tonnes of supplies to north-west Syria, from across the border in Türkiye and across lines within Syria. In the first hours after the earthquakes, WHO distributed 183 metric tonnes of supplies prepositioned inside north-west Syria from warehouses in Azaz and Idlib to more than 200 health facilities.
Dr Tedros spoke at a media briefing following the visits. He said, "WHO is playing our role in supporting the Syrian people, who have responded incredibly with the little that they have. WHO has been delivering essential medicines, supplies, and equipment for years, as well as on the day the earthquakes struck. And we will do more. But the people of northwest Syria need the assistance of the international community to recover and rebuild. Even before the earthquake, more than 90 percent of the Syrian people were living below the poverty line."
He continued, "I call on the international community – governments, philanthropies and individuals – to dig deep to lift up those who are enduring unimaginable loss, poverty and deprivation. At the same time, I call on the leaders of both sides of the Syrian conflict to use the shared suffering of this crisis as a platform for peace."
On 28 February, Tedros met with Turkiye's Minister of Health, health workers and others affected by the earthquake. Earlier in the month, he visited Aleppo, Syria to meet with affected people and officials.
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