Canadian medical aid group sets up solar powered hospital after years of work
TORONTO — The Canadian branch of an international humanitarian organization is celebrating the success of a multi-year effort to set up a solar powered hospital in Syria, and is now setting its sights on other conflicts where it can help people.
The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) is an international medical aid organization that was set up in 2012 to provide medical care for the Syrian crisis, and currently has 2,000 people working in the country.
In 2013, Talal Al Do, an engineer who had just graduated from the University of Toronto, started working with UOSSM to introduce solar energy to the country’s hospitals after Syria’s crippled electricity system started causing problems with aid efforts.
Parts of Syria that the government doesn’t control relied entirely on diesel generators to keep their hospitals running. But Al Do says using diesel was troubling because armed groups like ISIL had seized the pipelines and were profiting from the sales of diesel.