Newcastle humanitarian hairdresser Chris Hassan has smashed his fundraising targets and raised enough money to pay for a doctor in a remote Syrian village for at least a year.
Chris, 33, a hairdresser at Green Ginger, in Newcastle city centre, took part in a zip wire across the Tyne to raise £200, bringing his total pot to £2,000 - which he will be sending to help fund the doctor in Maaloula, 37 miles north of capital Damascus, where he spent time on a humanitarian mission in 2017.
"I am really, really pleased with the support I've had," he said. "I had have lost of help and donations from NHS doctors and my colleagues have also been a great support. I am also pleased that people seem to be genuinely interested in the plight Syria is in and want to know more. Syria has fallen from the news agenda somewhat due to the Ukrainian war, but people need to know that there is still suffering in Syria. Getting the word out about this is equally as important as raising the money."
Chris, from Walker, said his zip wire challenge was 'terrifying" and not one he would want to repeat in a hurry, but it paid dividends, for as well as raising money through sponsorship, it brought his fundraising to the attention of an independent charity funding body called Alternative Help Association, which made a large donation to his GoFundMe appeal.
Chris, who believes his family may have links to the Middle East on his mother's side, became interested in the Middle East in 2010 with the start of the Arab spring in Tunisia. He self-studied different terrorist organisations operating around and within the region as the uprising spread to Egypt and Syria. His interest has led him to start a degree in International Relations and Politics at Northumbria University later this month. He plans to return to Syria next year, and revisit the village of Maaloula.
"Currently one doctor and one dentist are providing care for the entire community. These professionals are so committed that the doctor transports any patient requiring urgent care to the hospital in Damascus personally. The fee for the consultation is just 4p, yet many villagers are struggling to find this. The doctor has to take a wage from this, as well as facilitate the running of the clinic.
"The average wage in Syria is around £50 a month, so a relatively small fundraising target really does go a long way. At the start of the war, the Syrian currency was valued at 47 Syrian pounds to one US dollar. Today it fluctuates from 4,200 to 4,300 Syrian pounds to one US dollar."
After his 2017 visit to Maaloula, Chris was invited to speak to Baroness Cox, a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords who also founded an organisation called Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, about the situation on the ground and also to discuss sanctions and how they affect the people in Syria.
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