Small victory
Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan’s group delivers medical and lighting aid
The birth of daughter named Shamma makes a happy day for Hannan,
AL MAFRAQ, JORDAN // Hannan Al Darwish smiles as she cradles Shamma, her newborn daughter. Yesterday was one of her happiest days since she fled the violence of Homs.
Although almost everything in her life is uncertain, Ms Al Darwish, 28, will raise her child in a far safer place. Shamma is named after Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan, the founder of Beacon of Hope UAE, which is bringing solar-powered lighting devices to refugee camps in Jordan.
The organisation yesterday visited the UAE Red Crescent Hospital, where the baby girl was born.
At the hospital, Sheikha Shamma greeted Ms Al Darwish and her daughter and wished them well.
Shortly afterwards, the first cries of a newborn boy are heard in the hospital, which provides medical care to Syrian refugees in Amman.
The boy is named Zayed, after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa, Sheikha Shamma’s brother. Sheikha Shamma was on a tour of the hospital in Al Mafraq, 20 kilometres from the Syrian border.
She and her team were looking at ways to improve the lives of the more than 250,000 refugees who have received medical care at the hospital.
Beacon of Hope is providing solar-powered lighting devices to refugee camps that are accustomed to power cuts, and promoting education and new medical technology.
It is introducing technology to help doctors identify newborn babies’ medical problems.
In particular, it aims to distinguish between dangerous heart murmurs and benign ones. Benign heart murmurs occur in more than half of the children born around the world, and they disappear with time. But misdi- agnosis costs hospitals millions of dirhams.
Using a digital stethoscope connected to a smartphone, the technology is able to use algorithm to tell if a heart murmur is benign.
Babies Shamma and Zayed will benefit from the technology , which is still in the testing phase but is being used on patients. “We examined two newborn babies with the technology, Shamma and Zayed,” said Sarah Bawazir, an advisory board member of Beacon of Hope.
“The technology can be hugely effective in areas without specialised doctors, as it can reliably determine if a heart murmur is dangerous.”
‘ The technology can be hugely effective in areas without specialised doctors, as it can reliably determine if a murmur is dangerous Sarah Bawazir Beacon of Hope advisory board member
It was helpful to hospitals because general practitioners often found it hard to determine whether the heart murmur was benign, said Ms Bawazir.
“Right now it’s in research phase, but once it passes we are looking to take it around the world with us and donate it to hospitals,” she added.
The UAE Red Crescent hospital is on the front line of the refugee crisis, treating families who had fled their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing. It ensures that they receive the best health care despite the challenges of operating near the border. The hospital, which has an emergency wing, is often the nearest hospital for wounded Syrians. The Beacon of Hope team has spent the past three days visiting refugee camps in Jordan, and donating thousands of solar-powered lighting devices and books to refugees.
“Even if we prepare for this advance and we think that we know what we’re going to see, it’s still heartbreaking,” said Mohammed Al Ghailani, a Beacon of Hope advisory board member.
“Seeing the extent, and even given all the great work the UAE has done in helping refugees, we want to add to that.”