Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The project contributes to the right to health and a dignified life for people with reduced mobility and victims in northern and eastern Syria. It makes a broad-based contribution to environmental rights.

The first prosthetics centre has been built to provide care for people with disabilities and victims of firearms and mines from the armed conflict.

The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is providing support for the centre to ensure an adequate system for water, waste management and drainage, which can fully comply with hygienic and medical standards, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Solar panels have also been installed to ensure a sustainable energy supply.

The prosthetics centre in Qamishli opened in February 2022.

The beneficiaries are the following:

• People injured by mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and all types of explosive weapons. There is a particular focus on providing care for people who lost limbs during the war (women, the elderly, children and minors, ex-combatants) and need a prosthesis.
• Displaced people from other areas of Syria who suffered trauma or lost limbs during or before the war.
• People who have lost limbs due to common illnesses or incorrect treatment by unqualified medical personnel.
• People in need of physiotherapy or psychosocial support or any of the support services provided by the centre.

When fully operational, the centre has the capacity to deal with an average of 60 people per month. Estimates suggest that when it opened, there were at least 5,700 people in northern and eastern Syria in need of support from one or more of the services provided by the centre. Patients from other areas of Syria are also expected to come to the centre for medical treatment.