Waad al-Kateab Delivers STOP BOMBING HOSPITALS message at UN
Today, Waad al-Kateab took her STOP BOMBING HOSPITALS message straight to UN HQ in NYC. While touring her Oscar-nominated film ‘For Sama’, Waad joined forces with a coalition of NGOs to deliver a critical message about the international community’s failure to act to stop the killing in Syria.
The scenes captured in ‘For Sama’ in Aleppo are still happening today in Idlib: hospitals are being targeted, entire families killed and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes. And the world remains silent.
Set against the backdrop of UN HQ, Waad stood in front of billboard trucks “STOP” “BOMBING” “HOSPITALS,” (rotating in English, Russian, and Arabic), to share poignant, powerful messages from doctors on the ground in Syria...
“My brother’s house was targeted and hit directly by three back-to-back airstrikes. He and his wife Salem, injured in the attacks, lost their children: five-year-old Jenna, three-year-old Safaa, and one-and-a-half-year old Mohammed. Salem was in her first trimester when the attack happened and lost her unborn child. First responders worked for two hours to evacuate my brother and his wife from the devastated remains of the house. Both of them had sustained severe injuries all over their bodies. My brother was taken to one of the border hospitals for treatment to his spinal cord.”
““I hope in 2020, when I wake up in the morning and read the news, I don’t read about dismembered children. I hope our children will go back to school and live a normal childhood like any other child.” ”
““Being a medical worker in Syria is extremely challenging. I’ll never forget the day our hospital was targeted twice in one day. That day I was in the hospital. We had to pull ourselves together and keep going to save as many lives as possible.” ”
““When we treat the displaced during one of our response efforts, we have mixed emotions. On the one hand, we are happy to provide medical services to our patients, but at the same time we are saddened by the fact that they were forced to leave their homes.” ”
“ For Sama is not just a film for me. It is my life. I survived for a reason, and through my filmmaking, I was able to give a platform to Syrian civilians being killed silently.” said Waad. “I am here to remind the international community that hospitals are not targets, children should be protected and no-one should have to flee their home.” #stopbombinghospitals #actionforsama