W PROJECT

FINAL REPORT
CONTENT

1. Executive Summary

3. AHL Syria Platform

3.1 Idea
3.2 Development
3.2.1 Marketing
3.2.2 Content
3.3 Achivements
3.3.1 Selection
3.3.2 Audiance
3.3.3 Learning
3.3.4 Success Stories

4. The Way Forward

4.1 Vision
4.2 Needs
4.3 From PoC to Scale up
4.4 Sustainability
4.5 Enhancements

5. Management Approach
5.1 Philosophy
 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report presents the outcomes of developing AHL Syria platform, a space for Syrian
healthcare practitioners to exchange expertise, knowledge and consultations to
improve healthcare services in Syria, using provided opportunities for capacity
development and discussions, availed through a digital platform that facilitates its
access from anywhere inside Syria, as well as neighboring countries and diaspora.

A deep reflection over the platform is presented, from its unique idea as a game
changer in bonding and bridging Syrian communities, to its development, branding,
marketing, and reach to both audience and knowledge content providing partners, then
most importantly concluded with its achievements in figures, the audience
disaggregation and satisfaction, the learning process and a glance on some inspiring
success stories.

Starting from this point, the report then builds on the long-term vision of the platform
as a technical and social catalyst, and how it scales up from this established foundation
to reach higher-level frontiers, and address rising needs, into a scheme of sustainability
factors and foreseen enhancements, as the challenging start up stage is already passed,
the growth stage of the platform is yet to come building on the established basis
achieved so far

1
 5,773 Followers

Pharmacy Nursing Midwifery Medicine

Health Since Health Technician Dentistry Other

3,929 Applicants
1,438 Female 14 Governorate
in Syria

2,491 Male 13 Other

Country

732 Students
213 Female
419 Male

490
12 Courses Course
3 Universities Videos

92% Improved
Students Rate 68% Knowledge
Increment Rate

86% 82%
Dialogue Satisfaction
and Knowledge
Sharing Rate Rate

2
 2. AHL SYRIA PLAFTFORM

2.1. IDEA
The idea of the platform emerged from the need to build connections among Syrian
healthcare practitioners, by the utilization of digital means and social network's theme,
as it's a portal to a common space for Syrian healthcare workers to exchange to
connect, beyond the valuable healthcare knowledge content, which serves in the first
place leveraging the quality of health services, the content serves as a means to bridge
participating healthcare workers on both personal and professional levels.

Market research for possible similar platforms that encompassed other four platforms
of medical development, it turned the idea of AHL Syria Platform excels over them in
terms of the following:

• Joining Possibility: it is targeted mainly to a specific community from a certain

country (Syria)
• Costs: The learning free (especially in the early stages)
• Possibility of Joint Work: The platform allows the building of working groups and
dialogues between the participants in order to strengthen the ties between them
• Diversity of Content Formats: It allows attending courses / continuous learning /
lectures / panel discussions, presentations, access to scientific journals, internal
mechanisms for establishing telemedicine collaborations (in line with GDPR … etc.)
• Language: It is available in Arabic and can in future add other local language in
Syrian geographies (i.e., Kurdish and Turkish)

The scientific, quality content that was methodologically assessed, and developed by
technical non-partisan parties, is offered on this platform, It resembles a cross-border /
cross-line space, to bring the three geographies of Syrian (NES/NWS/GoS) together, in
addition to neighboring countries and diaspora, this (360 Degrees Mentality) was a big
challenge to overcome, and the platform is meant to be a (Market Penetration) factor,
that is later will turn to be a (Social Capital & Peacebuilding Fostering) Catalyst.

5
In response to this unique status, an established branding for this platform is essential
to its success, it cannot be attributed to any entity but its own identity! So, the platform
doesn't include any indication to any NGO, nor a political /ideological preference, and
identity that's accepted by all Syrians, as it aims strategically to leverage exchange
among the Syrian healthcare practitioners in both technical matters, and later on social
matters.

2.2. DEVELOPEMNT
2.2.1 Marketing

Logo
Breakdown
Islamic Ornament Medical Symbol S Letter refer Unity = AHL
“Rod of Asclepius” to SYRIA S = SYRIA

First of its kind, not in the healthcare domain, but further to the Syrian social domain,
as it's a portal to a common space for Syrian healthcare workers to exchange to
connect,

• Beyond the valuable healthcare knowledge content, which serves in the first place
leveraging the quality of health services, the content serves as a means to bridge
participating healthcare workers on both personal and professional levels.

• The scientific, quality content that was methodologically assessed, and developed
by technical non-partisan parties, is offered on this platform

• It resembles a cross-border / cross-line space, to bring the three geographies of

Syrian (NES/NWS/GoS) together, in addition to neighboring countries and
diaspora.

• In response to this unique status, an established branding for this platform is

essential to its success, it can not be attributed to any entity but its own identity! So
the platform doesn't include any indication to any NGO, nor a political /ideological
preference, and identity that's accepted by all Syrians

6
The platform is active and eligible to provide the content, regarding marketing, we have
launched a Facebook page to promote the platform through it, and by the end of
October 2022 we have 5,773 followers on this page

Also, we have used the branding guideline in the platform and on the Facebook page as
well as in the videos that have been recorded for each course and uploaded to AHL
Syria YouTube channel, it i worth mentioning that we have recorded and prepared 490
videos, all of them are now available exclusively for the platform users

For promoting the platform, we have launched many campaigns via the Facebook
platform to reach a much more Syrian Healthcare Practitioners, and because Facebook
campaigns are panned in Syria, we have hired field marketers to reach the people inside
Syria

And also, to reach people in NES we have contacted the health working group
coordinator in NES to introduce AHL Syria platform and we shared with him links for all
courses on the platform to circulate them among the active health NGOs and INGOs in
that area

Also, regarding promoting the platform in GOS we have conducted a meeting with
doctors who work in local CBO inside Damascus to promote the platform

The numbers show that we could reach all the Syrian governorates and we have
applicants to the platform from all 14 governorates inside Syria, and regarding the reach
outside Syria we have reached the applicants in 13 countries in MENA and European
countries

2.2.2 Content
The course’s content on the platform have been chosen based on scientific
methodology, this methodology included the following steps:

4 Preparing the content

by suppliers 1 Training Need
Assessment

5 Providing the content to

accepted students

3 Tender & Agreements

with suppliers 2 Training Programs
ToRs

7
1- KIIs, and FGDs with the stakeholders inside Syria: these FGDs and KIIs, have been
conducted with representatives of NGOs, Private sector, and public sector inside and
outside Syria, we have conducted 10 KIIs, and three FGDs

The findings of theses qualitative method focused on the gaps that have not been filled
during the last years, also the findings of theses FGDs and KIIs focused on the
importance of providing specializations or in other words long courses

On the other hands the participants in these FGDS and KIIs mentioned the source of
education and it should be accepted and accredited in all Syrian areas.

2- Generalization phase, although we have obtained valuable information from KIIs and
FGDs we want to avoid the bias risk in the information, thus we designed qualitative
and quantitative data collection methods that targeted the Healthcare Practitioners
inside and outside Syria.

A research methodology for this purpose was set which included but not limited to
literature review, study design, sampling strategy, data collection methods and ethics,
data analyzing, and reporting

İn this stage we have conducted 242 questionnaires, 13 KIIs, and Five FGDs, and the
findinges are :

• Continuous Medical Education was the most frequent educational type to be

mentioned by participants from Northwest and Northeast. In terms of topics for
training, Occupational diplomas for physicians, through residency, and for nurses
and technicians, through long term education were among the most needed
approaches to compensate for the continuous loss of human resources and to
bridge the gap in qualified human resources.

• It was also flagged by participants, the importance of including practical training in

any capacity-building activities, which was mentioned by participants from north
and south Syria.

• Other topics for capacity building that were mentioned by participants included:
Outbreak investigations, Infection control, soft skills and administrative skills, ToT,
Medical English terminologies, research methods, community health and public
awareness, physiotherapy, Psychosocial support, computer skills and scientific
searching, patient transfer and admission, medical protocols, and emergency
procedures.

8
• Participants in FGDs and KIIs insisted on the importance of having qualified trainers
delivering the trainings and to spend extra effort designing the training materials
and selecting the participants to increase their motivation to participate.

• Most participants were in favor of long-term and medium-term training courses,

while they criticized short-term courses and questioned their quality and impact
unless performed as a follow-up or as part of CME strategy.

• Health professions who were mostly in need for capacity building were technicians
and nurses followed by physicians and pharmacists.

• When analyzing the code co-occurrence, it was recommended that any

occupational diploma programs should be accompanied by continuous medical
education and constant follow-ups and updates.

• According to the participants, there is a clear need to add more nurses and
technicians to the workforce, which should be done strategically to avoid
overwhelming the labor market with some specialties while at the same time not
adding other highly needed specialties.

Preparing TORs for each course

After selecting the supposed courses based on the results of the generalization, we
have set a TOR for each course, this TOR includes, the outlines, methods, number of
hours, timeline, deliverables, and the obligations of the providers

Searching for qualified providers for the supposed courses

In this phase we have prepared the TORs for each course taking into consideration the
need for accredited and accepted providers for the courses, thus we have searched for
accredited universities from countries that are not involved the conflict in Syria, so we
make an international BID announcement,

9
Another consideration when searching the providers was the ability to provide the
courses in Arabic, this made more focus on the universities in Arabic country, so
Eventually we could either in direct or in indirect way to contract with three universities
to provide the courses, the following table shows the universities and courses

The table of courses

Course name University

Emergency nursing Israa University / Jordan

Healthcare facility management Israa University / Jordan

Outbreak investigation Israa University / Jordan

Community Pharmacy Alhashemia University / Jordan

Sales and marketing in pharmacy Alhashemia University / Jordan

Quality management system Alhashemia University / Jordan

Health technology applications Alhashemia University / Jordan

OTC module Alhashemia University / Jordan

English A2 AUL University / Lebanon

English B1 AUL University / Lebanon

English B2 AUL University / Lebanon

English OET Medical AUL University / Lebanon

English OET nursing AUL University / Lebanon

10
2.3. ACHIEVEMENTS
2.3.1. Selection
We have set criteria for accepting the students in the courses, these criteria include:

• The nationality

• The profession/ appropriateness of the profession

• Eligibility/ from compliance perspective

We started the selection process by announcing the courses via Facebook page as well
as contacting the UOSSM staff in both NWS and, NES

Another meeting with health working group coordinator in NES has been conducted to
promote the courses and we asked him to circulate the registration link with the active
INGOs, NGOs, and CBOs in NES to grant them the chance to be part of AHL Syria
learning community.

On the other hand, for NWS we have conducted a meeting with Idlib health directorate
(with Dr. Salem Abdan) to introduce and advocate AHL Syria Platform, and also, we
asked him to circulate the registration link among the healthcare providers in Idlib.

Also, another meeting for NWS has been conducted with Ph. Abdulkadir Dewihi who is
representative of the pharmacy syndicates in Al Bab to introduce and advocate AHL
Syria Platform, and also, we asked him to circulate the registration link among the
healthcare providers in norther countryside of Aleppo.

Regarding the reach to NWS also, we have contacted with the head of nursing
syndicate, the head of pharmacy syndicate in Idlib, the head of pharmacy syndicate in
Aleppo, and the head of physician syndicates in Idlib, and we have introduced AHL
Syria to them and shared the links with them

Regarding reach to GOS, we decided not contact with health directorates or syndicates
there, because this is not fit to the compliance restrictions that we are following in this
project, so we have contacted with doctors who work in Local CBOs in Damascus, and
also, we have indirectly contacted with doctor working in CBO based in Aleppo to
circulate the registration link with the Healthcare Practitioners based in GOS.

Also, regarding the reach to GOS, we have hired a field marketer for two months to
contact with Healthcare Practitioners and introduce and circulate the link with
Healthcare Practitioners based in GOS.

Generally, we have also used our personal relations to reach Healthcare Practitioners in
NWS, NES, and GOs

11
As a result of our reach, we get 3,929 applicants from 14 governorate inside Syria,
and from 13 countries outside Syria, then we have made shortlist based on the
following:

1. The nationality, who are not Syrians have been excluded

2. The profession, based on the course requirement and target group

3. The interest of the applicants, to which course the applicant has registered

4. The response to our invitation wither via email or WhatsApp, the applicants who
did not response to our invitation has been excluded as well

5. Passing the vetting process

6. Not working in public sector in GOS.

Finally, we made a list of 600 eligible student for the courses, they were planned to be
disaggregated as follows:

1. Healthcare facility management (50 students)

2. Emergency nursing (50 students)

3. Outbreak investigation (50 students)

4. Sales and marketing in pharmacy (50 students)

5. OTC module (50 students)

6. Health technology solutions (50 students)

7. Quality management system (50 students)

8. Community pharmacy (50 students)

9. English A2 level (140 students)

10. English B1 level (20 students)

11. OET medicine (20 students)

12. OET nurses (20 students)

And also, we keep other students to invite them if there any student who withdraw
from the course, then we later added 120 students in English package.

12
 2.3.2. Audiance
Based on UNFPA study that has been published in 2018, and with taking into
consideration the growth rate of Syrian population, we estimated the current Syria
healthcare practitioners is approximately 140,000

TURKEY

Worlwide

140k* Targeted

Outside Syria Inside Syria

ON SYRIA
AN

ME, EU, & Other: NW, NE, & GoS:

Targeted: 56k Targeted: 84k
LEB

IRAQ

* According to UNFPA study on syrian health ministry

EGYPT JORDAN K.S.A

1000

800

600
Medicine

Pharmacy

Health techn.

Health techn.

400
Health Since
Nursing

Health Since

Pharmacy
Medicine
Midwifery

Midwifery
Nursing

Dentist
Dentist

200
Other

Accepted Students Applicants Reached

13
Students
from Syria

625
Total
Students

734

14
Applicants
from Syria

2,275
Total
Applıcants

3,929

15
2.3.3. Learning
As we mentioned we have provided 12 courses to 732 students, these courses are

Students

Students
Course name Course name

Community Pharmacy 66 OET Doctors 48

Emergency Nursing 81 OET Nursing 18

English A2 212 OTC Module 49

English B1 17 Outbreak Investigation 55

Health Technology 53 Pharma. Sales & Marketing 41

Healthcare Facility Mngmt. 61 Quality Mngmt. System 31

The courses have been delivered via online and recorded sessions and in Arabic
language, the students have been provided with schedule of live sessions and also have
been granted access to the course content on the platform.

After finishing the courses, we have conducted final evaluation to evaluate the
following criteria:

1. The overall satisfaction with the platform

2. The dialogue and information exchange among the Healthcare Practitioners from
multiple areas

3. The improvement of the students based on the courses.

4. And we found the following results:

5. The overall satisfaction with the platform is 82%

6. The dialogue and information exchange among the Healthcare Practitioners from
multiple areas is 68%

7. The improvement of the students based on the courses, 92% of the students
mentioned that their level has increases due to course, and the average of the
improvement rate is 32%

16
2.3.4. Success Stories

Takamul Project /UOSSM

Mrs. Julie Harboe has contacted with us, we have introduced the platform to her, and
she was impressed in the platform, and she asked us if we can provide English course
similar to what we are providing now with small modification to fit the mental health
workers, and now we are in negotiation with them.

NES workshop

the workshop in NES was challengeable activity, because we have invited the
healthcare practitioners in NES as AHL Syria Platform to check to which extent we
have credibility and trust, and to which extent we can be a part of the health
community in Syria in the future.

We have invited 45 persons under the name of AHL Syria, and 35 of them attend
physically and three of them attended online, that was amazing result.

Damascus Based Doctor asked offers his help

after providing the courses on the platform, a doctor form Damascus who is working in
medical training contacted us and expressed his appreciation to this project, and
informed us that he will be happy if he could be part of this project.

Business Skills training center

the head of the business skills center has contacted to AHL Syria Staff to express his
interest in building partnership with AHL Syria platform. It worth mentioning that
Business Skills Center is targeting the Syrian students, in Iraq and Lebanon.

Then based on this connection we asked the center to nominate Syrian student from
health background to attend English courses, and they have nominated 10 students fro
English courses.

Final sessions Medical and pharmaceutical courses

In cooperation with Israa University and AlHashemia University, we have conducted

feedback session for each course, where all students, all instructors, and the project
team have been invited to share with each other how the students applied the acquired
knowledge in their work and in their areas.

In all sessions the students mentioned that they have applied what they have learned
in their work, and they talked about their experience fro all areas NWS, NES, and GOS,
additionally they mention that some advices the provided in the courses were live
saving especially in the emergency nursing course and it increased the quality of
healthcare that they provide.

17
 3. THE WAY FORWARD

3.1. VISION
The platform is envisioned to be an important space to develop the healthcare
professions in the Syrian context, and (1) to set an example for FCAS situations, (2)
provide the Syrian healthcare practitioners as well as beneficiaries with tools for
mapping and evaluating health services, (3) professionally connect, find jobs, and
endorse merits and achievements (i.e., like LinkedIn), (4) provide a space of Syrian
healthcare practitioners and NGOs to engage with Syrian communities, (5) set a basis
for Syrian accredited CME commission, and (6) engage third party entities like
universities, NGOs and Private sector, syndicates ..etc. with the Syrian healthcare
practitioners and Syrian communities, this is achieved through adopting initiatives of:

• Continuous platform features enhancement

• Content development, diversification, and evolution in accordance with social

context evolution

• Collaboration with different parties for the community to grow and spread its effect

• Relentless support from international health agencies (WHO, EU Health Programs

...etc.) to spread the idea and grow the legitimacy

Health An instance
Directory for for replication
health service in our situations
Mapping & inside/outside
Referral Syria
3rd Party
Organizations
engagement 5 Syrian Healthcare
Practitioners
Professional
(Universities,
NGOs, Private YEARS Network
sector, VISION ( LinkedIn )
Syndicates)
Space for Syrian
Accredited
Healthcare
Syrian
Practitioners to
Commission to
engage with
issue CME
Community

18
3.2. NEEDS
After finishing the first stage and building the platform, the following indicators shows
the need to go to the next step with the platform

1. The need assessment that has been conducted in NWS, NES, and GOS showed the
need to such platform and content

2. The large number of applicants for the courses in only 3 months (3,929 applicants),
show how this platform is important and reflect real need

3. The feedback from the students in the final evaluation questionnaire shows their
appreciation to the platform, and their interesting in any upcoming courses or
events on the platform

3.3. FROM PROOF OF CONCEPT TO SCALE-UP

The importance of the platform lies in being the place where Syrian health workers
from different specializations and geographies meet with each other which means that
there are people from different orientations, cultural backgrounds, and possibly
different political backgrounds. This makes this platform the first of its kind that works
to link the process of community integration with a real benefit for the participants,
namely scientific courses, knowledge, and scientific news, in a way that ensures their
increased connection to this platform and thus achieving the sustainability of the
community integration process.

From the health perspective

the platform is the space where Syrian healthcare practitioners would meet in the
courses, events (webinars, workshops), articles revision, and blogging, in an
environment of participation, people would be able to comment, review, connect and
chat to discuss the knowledge content in the platform, and engage in common
activities and exchange while participating in workgroups.

19
All this would resemble the solid ground to build further bonding relationships between
those Syrian healthcare practitioners, in a way that promotes opportunities to support
each other in consultations, access to expertise, and continual development of career,
which goes to two ways of benefits;

(1) the Syrian healthcare practitioners who are living inside Syrian would have the
opportunities to stay connected and updated with the most recent knowledge and
practice in the healthcare domain, and therefore be able to reflect this into better
healthcare services inside Syria in terms of accessibility and more importantly in terms
of quality, lots of healthcare cases would have been better administered if expertise
from more advanced countries (e.g. Europe, UK, USA) were engaged and contributing
to the provision of advice and connection with specialized healthcare personnel in
academia and healthcare centers,
(2) On the other side, Syrian healthcare practitioners in diaspora, are seeking
opportunities to participate and contribute to their country by supporting their
professional colleagues and having an impact on the healthcare cases in Syria who
suffer from the weak healthcare infrastructure inside Syria, and the lack of some
specialized expertise needed for the difficult cases, moreover, these connections would
contribute to the scientific society of healthcare by being more engaged with the
healthcare status inside Syria, a country that has been suffering since a decade from a
conflict that utterly affected all life aspects of citizens, women, and children, and
healthcare service coverage, access, and quality was not an exception

From social cohesion perspective

it provides a scientific health benefit that is reflected in the quality of health services,
as well as being a unique experience in community cohesion and peace-building, and
what increases its importance is that the audience of the platform, especially doctors
and pharmacists, are collective leaders in the Syrian context, and therefore the impact
of the dialogue and societal cohesion and the idea of peacebuilding will extend beyond
health workers to a very large segment of the Syrian population.

To sum things up; the challenging steps have been already overcome, with a sound
foundation of technology, content as well as credible branding, is ready to scale up to
larger numbers of beneficiaries.

20
4.4. SUSTAINABILITY
The life of the platform and its sustainable impact is not limited to the life of the project,
but it can extend for many years. Therefore, building this platform with a high-quality
software structure, as well as with attractive content for health workers and accredited
certificates from universities neutral in relation to the Syrian conflict, is the basis for the
success of this platform, moreover, in real practice the participants have acceptable
reception to the platform, in content perspective, as well as the perspective of
engagement of Syrians from different geographies in the same course / activity. Thus,
the platform is considered a very prominent opportunity to achieve those results, we
are expecting to have a long-term effect on both levels of healthcare and social
dialogue and cohesion.

Taking the resources perspective, the platform is ready now to outreach to universities,
research centers, NGOs interested in funding both healthcare capacity development
and/or studies and research, as well as NGOs interested in social capital and
peace-building to collaborate with the Syrian healthcare practitioners through the
platform via introducing funded courses, webinars, scholarships,
surveys/studies/research. Also, scaling to a partially paid content for non-Syrian
healthcare practitioners, or Syrian healthcare practitioners who want to contribute to
the healthcare services can be used a cost recovery scheme.

Finally adding third party organizations (especially private sector), who can advertise
for their activities/services/products using ads, webinars, or publishing surveys ...etc.
which all would be chargeable for the benefit of the platform cost coverage

3.5. ENHANCEMENTS
Possible coming enhancement to the platform would include, but not limited to:

• Profiles Enrichment – this adds several fields and options to identify practitioner’s
achievements, courses, skills, expertise … etc. that are searchable and locatable
(shall profile is set to be public by the user)

• Third Party Organizations Portal – here NGOs, companies, and universities can
create profiles and engage with platform users for contacting, recruiting,
volunteering, or targeting with promotion activities, or participation in studies

• Healthcare Services Mapping & Evaluation – here healthcare providers can build
profiles for their entities and activities, that enables beneficiaries to search, locate
and then rate upon experience.

21
 4. MANAGEMENT APPROACH

4.1. PHILOSOPHY
The platform is managed by the continuous collaboration, that is also continuously
changing in terms of social interaction and evolution (Relations/ Values /Codes
/Demand /Supply /Connectors /Dividers /Opportunities /Risks / Resources … etc.). It
encompasses the following Elements/Actors:

• Participants – here are the individuals currently targeted by the content, and later
on by engaging organizations and institutions.

• Content – provided by universities, conferences, publishers, and individual

professionals, that supplies the content used in the platform to leverage capacities,
and open channels and opportunities for exchange.

• Promotion – conducted by volunteering adopters and advocates who spread the

word and maximize the visibility of the brand and its value through different
channels and venues.

• AHL Syria Platform Team – that coordinates the interaction and collaboration
among the three aforementioned elements/actors

Participants

Healthcare
Practitioners
Organization
& Institutions

Social Interaction & Evolution

( Relations / Values / Codes /
AHL Syria Demand / Supply ... )
Platform
Team

AHL Syria
Learning
Adaptors
Institutions
& Advocators
& Providers
(Volunteers)

Promotion Content

22
 www.ahlsyria.com

facebook.com/ahlsyriamed