Dr. Mery Deeb is 26. As a student at Brown she is doing her residency program at Kent Hospital. Her heart is heavy for her fellow Syrians who have lived through 12 years of war and now have lost family and their homes to a series of earthquakes that have killed more than 48,000 in Turkey and Syria.

“We’re used to bad news,” she said in an interview Friday. “Nobody is at fault. The people who took the hit were just rebuilding (their) life … in a few moments they lost people and everything they own.”

Providing aid to the region has been extremely difficult. It was a couple of days before the first rescue and medical teams were able to reach the area hardest hit by the earthquake and even then they weren’t in sufficient numbers to provide much help, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal.

Deeb wanted to help. She turned to her connections in Syria and her colleague at Kent, Dr.  Jinen Thakkar. Deeb, Thakkar and doctors Laura Forman and Hadeel Zainah have come together over the last two weeks to mount an appeal for monetary and in-kind donations to help earthquake victims. The online appeal  (foundation.kentri.org/donate-earthquake-crisis) was activated Friday.

Deeb grew up in Damascus. Her father is from a “tiny village” – Deeb didn’t attempt spelling the name – in the Wadi-Al-Nasara section of the country not too far from the Lebanese border. She has been in touch with her father, relatives and friends by email, What’sApp and by telephone.

The situation is not good and the need is great.

“Really all they have is each other,” she said of those living in the war-torn area. “And now they don’t have that.”

Dr. Thakkar and Dr. Forman have been in the forefront of organizing relief campaigns.

They launched an India relief effort when that country was being ravaged by COVID-19. Through their efforts the hospital collected $2 million of in-kind medical supplies and $85,000 in cash donations to support the packaging and transfer of items to India for COVID relief. They also understand it can be difficult ensuring donations to those who need it without having them diverted to individuals or groups that would sell or take them for their own use.

Deeb is keenly aware of that possibility. With her father’s help the group was able to get contact information for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (GOPA), in the Patriarchal Holy Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand. GOPA operates the Patriarchate Relief Authority Taskforce.

“Once we collect desperately needed supplies, the humanitarian aid will be flown via cargo jet to Beirut airport, after which it will be delivered to Archimandrite Meletius Shattahi, who is the director of the Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development (DERD) in Syria,” Thakkar said in the release issued by the hospital.

To Deeb’s knowledge this is the largest local Syrian relief effort outside of those mounted by churches and smaller organizations.

She said shortages of basic needs including baby formula and diapers have been exacerbated by the earthquake. The group is collecting medical supplies in addition to listing the need for baby formula for term and preterm neonates, sheets, tents, sanitary products, canned food, and air mattresses.

Reached by phone Thakkar said individual or small group donation can be dropped off at the hospital’s main entrance. He said arrangements can be made for the collection of larger donations, or their drop off, at a warehouse where they would be packed and shrink wrapped on pallets for delivery to “our airline partner.”

He has learned the collection of donations is “actually the easiest part” of a drive like this and that transportation and on-the-ground delivery often prove more complicated. He is confident of support and free transport from his airline partners. He has talked with GOPA and believes they are a good ground team.

In the effort to deliver COVID medical supplies to India including ventilators, IV fluids, PPE, by-passes and medications, Thakkar and Forman collected four plane loads.

Thakkar is hopeful that by the end of this week he’ll have a picture of collections and within another three weeks the first plane load will be off to Beirut.

For more information about making a donation of in-kind supplies, contact Kate Wishart, Major Gifts Officer, Kent Hospital, at 401-737-7010 (x31134) or KWishart@CareNE.org to arrange a drop-off. Or conveniently donate online by visiting  https://foundation.kentri.org/donate-earthquake-crisis. Thakkar also suggested people contact him directly at jthakkar@kentri.org for additional information.