Sema Caglar

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) was founded in 1998 in the United States as a professional society to provide networking, educational, cultural, and professional services to medical professionals of Syrian descent. SAMS Foundation, the charitable arm of SAMS, was launched in 2007. Since then, SAMS has become one of the most active and leading medical relief organizations that is working on the front lines of crisis relief in Syria, neighboring countries, and beyond. Since the beginning of the crisis in 2011, SAMS has provided nearly 20 million medical services to those impacted by conflict, delivering over $207 million in humanitarian aid. SAMS has since implemented an integrated model of essential services that emphasizes priority needs, including the delivery of medical education, training, and financial support for physicians and other healthcare workers inside Syria and in neighboring countries. SAMS has established field hospitals, intensive care units, dental and primary care clinics, birth and newborn care facilities, mobile medical units, and dialysis centers. Additionally, SAMS has provided mental health and psychosocial support as well as organized specialized medical missions to Syria’s neighboring countries and beyond. SAMS provides all its programs with the necessary medications, medical devices, supplies, and instruments through procurement and distribution of gifts in kind (GIK). In 2017, SAMS launched its SAMS Community Outreach (SCO) to bring free, quality health care to vulnerable communities in the US.