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 The 33-year-old could not find help for her toothache even after she
fled Islamic State rule and took refuge in northwest Syria. But a
dentist in a mobile clinic has now arrived at the Rayyan camp where
she lives with her husband and four children in a tent among the
trees.
"We kept getting uprooted, so we were cut off from doctors," said
Abdelaziz, whose family was smuggled out of Raqqa city some three
years ago.
They wound up in Syria's northwest corner, the country's last major
rebel stronghold. The camps are overflowing, the doctors are too
few, and many hospitals have collapsed under government bombing.
In the camps along the Turkish border, often the only healthcare for
people like Abdelaziz comes from mobile doctors and makeshift
clinics in tents.
"Many just take pills and stay silent about the pain," said Bassel
Maarawi, 57, the dentist who goes around seven camps in the border
strip held by Turkey-backed rebels.
The dental mobile clinic stays at each camp a few months at a time,
treating dozens of patients every day who can not go into town to
see a doctor.
It belongs to the Independent Doctors Association, a Turkey-based
Syrian group also running a free camp facility including a clinic
for women, children, and internal medicine as well as a pharmacy.
Maarawi himself was uprooted in late 2016 from his city of Aleppo,
where the army crushed rebels with Russia and Iran's help after a
bitter siege.
The children he treats now, living in the dirt and drinking filthy
water, often suffer from malnutrition. "Many people were displaced
recently which really affected them mentally, you can see it when
they come in," he said.
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A new wave of fighting has sparked yet another exodus, with hundreds
of thousands of people fleeing an army offensive in northwest Syria
since April.
At a camp for some 14,000 people in the border village of Shamarin,
Ammar al-Omar runs a physiotherapy clinic inside a large tent.
The staff - a medical professional and three volunteers he trained -
made most of the equipment themselves and get by on just a few
donations. They treat everything from back pain to battle wounds for
patients including rebel fighters and paralyzed children.
"There are many injuries because of the fierce bombing," Omar said.
"The patients can't afford food let alone transportation."
Um Mhamad, 29, has carried her son from another camp nearby and
walked to the tent clinic for more than two years. An injury at
birth had crippled the six-year-old boy, whose family was shuttled
out of Aleppo in 2016.
"He used to not move at all," she said. "Today, he can crawl and
turn on both sides and stand up."
(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi in Azaz; Editing by Louise Heavens)
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