A Turkish businessperson liquidated his hospital in the eastern Turkish province of Van and donated medical equipment to Idlib University Hospital in Syria’s war-ravaged province, where access to health care is limited. Among the donated items are patient beds, surgical kits, operating tables and stretchers.

Idlib University Hospital contains hundreds of medical students at all levels and an academic team in various professions.

"We knew the Idlib faculty requires medical equipment and we also had a liquidated hospital. Together with my partner, we decided to donate the equipment of our hospital," said donor businessperson Zulfikar Cabbaroğlu. All the equipment delivered was an outcome of the collaboration of the Turkish associations of Özgür-Der, Fetihder and the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH). "We have provided many devices such as patient beds, mammography devices, gynecology units and operating room equipment," Cabbaroğlu said. The financial side of the donation is not of importance, what matters is to be able to help those in need, Cabbaroğlu added. "I also participated in different works such as houses and food aid for needy people in Idlib before, but the hospital work was more important because it required a serious financial burden of 5 - 6 million liras ($650,000). From now on, we will do our best to heal the wounds in Idlib." Cabbaroğlu said. "We visited Idlib University Hospital in the last Ramadan (May), and we saw it requires several types of medical equipment. We talked to the people for meeting requirements and Cabbaroglu contacted us about donating the materials in his hospital." said Dr. Murat Koc.

Operating tables, gynecology units, halogen lamps, gas systems, patient beds, rustproof equipment, surgical kits, stretchers, mammography and scopy devices, computers, power supplies, printers, kitchen and cleaning equipment are among the donated equipment, Koç added. The equipment were delivered on seven trucks from Van to Idlib, Koç said. The faculty trains doctors and provides services to 4 million people in Idlib, said Koç, highlighting the importance of the faculty to the region. The faculty also requires medical equipment and drugs, especially anesthetic and basic medical imaging devices.