Art exhibition for children with thalassemia held in al-Salamiyah
Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Ten-year-old Roha al-Abdullah seems happy to be able to sell a piece of art that she made with her two small hands at the National Hospital in al-Salamiyah City, 30 km east of Hama, in an exhibition featuring handicrafts made by thalassemia patients. The fair was held with the aim of supporting sick children who are receiving medical care.
The girl, who made a vase out of a blank cardboard cup, says she comes from the town of Aqarib every Thursday for blood transfusion. "I hate this disease, but my father says I will recover soon," she says.
During the past week, artists and painters from al-Salamiyah launched the artistic educational project to benefit from the hours of treatment spent by thalassemia-stricken children making art, handicrafts, and paintings in order to alleviate their suffering and give them hope.
Thalassemia is a chronic genetic anemia that affects red blood cells and is also known as "Mediterranean anemia.” Children with thalassemia need to spend long hours in the hospital, up to four hours, for regular blood transfusion and continuous treatment.
Discovering talents
The exhibition supervisor Reem Saqr told North-Press that the idea came as a way to alleviate the long hours children spend suffering in the hospital, especially with more than 30 children attending al-Salamiyah Hospital on a weekly basis for the blood transfusion process.
Saqr explained that the project started by training children to create artistic forms from recycled material, which revealed some of their artistic talents. Professional artists then refine and develop them, while others acquire talent and the spirit of creativity to make them forget illness and hours of pain spent in the hospital.
Eiji Salama, an artist participating in the project, said: "The exhibition that we held at al-Salamiyah Hospital for artworks belonging to children with thalassemia was a special event, not only in Hama, but throughout Syria."
"It is the product of months of hard work, whether from medical staff or artists who have volunteered to train children and equip the exhibition, as well as sick children who have made great efforts to create distinguished handicrafts."
Thalassemia spreads in the villages of Uqayribat, Wadi al-Dahab, Aqrab and other areas of eastern Hama, where cousin marriage is more common in rural societies, according to doctors from the region.
Popular support
The exhibition held in one of the halls of al-Salamiyah Hospital received a remarkable response from residents who came to purchase artistic works in support of the exhibition, especially the owners of commercial shops and oriental artifact halls, after the hospital administration provided facilities for the success of the project, according to the exhibition’s organizers.
The number of thalassemia patients in Syria in general exceeds 6,000, but several factors, most notably the war and the lack of government health control for the disease, makes it difficult to conduct an accurate census, according to Dr. Zuhair Ismail, head of the first health area in Aleppo.
"Previously, I was afraid of coming to the hospital and staying in it, but now I am happy that I am making art that people bought. I got some money and I will buy new colors and materials to do more," Roha says.