乱伦强奸

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GLOBAL ROCHESTER: SYRIA乱伦强奸 and Syria A 乱伦强奸 junior organizes support for victims of his homeland鈥檚 civil war.
globalHELPING HAND: Omar Soufan 鈥17 (above), with roommate Ibrahim Mohammad 鈥17, has organized a rehabilitation center in Lebanon to help wounded Syrian refugees. Soufan was raised in Syria. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Omar Soufan 鈥17 has spent the past two years helping his fellow Syrians recover from the trauma of his homeland鈥檚 internecine civil war.

Along with roommate and friend Ibrahim Mohammad 鈥17, the biomedical engineering major from Syria has organized a rehabilitation center in Lebanon. The facility, sponsored by the Syrian American Medical Society, tends to wounded Syrian refugees, many suffering from paralysis and amputation as a result of injuries suffered in the war.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need a reason to help your people,鈥 says Soufan, a Renaissance and Global Scholarship recipient. 鈥淲hen your country is literally burning to the ground in front of you, don鈥檛 expect other people to help if you don鈥檛 do something about it yourself.鈥

So far, Soufan and Mohammad have raised $3,700, along with $2,200 in donated equipment from a defunct medical facility. According to the Syrian Medical Society, which also provides some financial support for the initiative, more than 1.4 million Syrians needed medical treatment in 2014 alone. With one physical therapist and four doctors, Soufan鈥檚 clinic receives about 15 patients per day.

Last August, Soufan traveled to Lebanon to supervise the installment of the equipment. He also served as a translator between a psychiatrist visiting from the United Kingdom and patients suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and he traveled briefly to Syria.

Soufan was born in Chicago in 1994, when his mother was visiting her brother, an anesthesiologist. His entire family is from Syria, and that鈥檚 where he grew up, along with his younger brother and sister.

He returned to America in 2011 and enrolled at the College of DuPage outside of Chicago. After two years, he enrolled at 乱伦强奸.

There, he met Mohammad, a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon. Together, they are doing what they can to help strangers in need more than 5,000 miles away.

鈥淚t鈥檚 our job to find the solution,鈥 Soufan said. 鈥淣ot someone else鈥檚.鈥

鈥擩im Mandelaro

乱伦强奸 and Syria

People

3 alumni living in Syria in fall 2015

4 students from Syria in fall 2015

Syria Consortium

The University has identified and supported students from Syria as part of the Institute for International Education鈥檚 Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis. 乱伦强奸 has been one of the few research universities from the Association of American Universities to participate since the consortium鈥檚 launch. The first two Syrian refugee students enrolled in August 2012.

Historical Journey

Henry Augustus Ward (1834鈥1906)鈥攁 professor of natural sciences at 乱伦强奸 from 1861 to 1875鈥攖raveled through the Middle East, including the Syrian Desert, in 1855. He chronicled his experiences in a diary that鈥檚 now held by Special Collections in Rush Rhees Library. In the pencil-written journal, Ward describes the people, historical sites, and鈥攆ittingly鈥攖he natural phenomena that he found, writing in one instance that the Syrian 鈥渄esert spreads out like an ocean on either side while we pass from hill to hill.鈥濓豢锘