“Oh God, please save us from war“

An academic presentation was written by MERCY Humanitarian UK’s volunteer and trustee.

“Oh God, please save us from war “: An ethnography study of impact of war on health among Syrian children refugees in Lebanon and their experience living with health problems.

Dr Zulkhairul Naim (MMUK’s Volunteer Doctor to Lebanon) ¹, Dr Burhanudin Busu (Trustee, MMUK) ²

1)      Department Community and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan Universiti, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

2)      Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, King’s College Hospital, SE5 9RS, London, United Kingdom

 ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND – In nearly six years of armed conflict, more than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives and there were over 1 million Syrian refugees who had been registered in Lebanon in 2016. It has been reported that exposure to war causes injury, illness and breakdown in the health care structures, especially to children.

OBJECTIVES- This paper attempts to evaluate the impact of war on health in children and to explore their experience living with health problems.

METHODS – A qualitative data from the semi-structured interview was conducted among mothers in a refugee camp in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon Participants were purposefully sampled and asked to share their impact on war to the health of their children. All interviews were written manually and analysed thematically.

RESULT – Ten participants were involved in this study. There were three main themes were identified, each of which led to health risks for the children; antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum. There was a variety of health problems reported ranging from neurological, musculoskeletal disorder to ocular problems.  The experience living with health problems were understood through the construction of three thematic categories emerged; psychological burden, disruption of daily living and economic effect. In addition, the participants also highlighted the intergenerational impact of war on health predominantly mental disorder, congenital abnormalities, infectious disease and complication in pregnancy.

CONCLUSION – In general, this paper provides an important understanding of the impact of wars on health among the vulnerable group which is children. The effects of wars on health and health care services are substantial. All these issues should be explored more to ensure the children received adequate health care. The results generated from this study can inspire new collaboration with many authorities in the design and implementation intervention to improve health status in a war zone.

For full article, please click here.