A Tour of the Child Welfare Institution — Where the Generations of the Future Live

Damascus — Abla Khoury

I gazed long at the entrance before going in, and several feelings stirred within me; the most insistent of them called to me from my depths:

Go forward! For you stand before the treasure of the world, before the little house from which this beloved homeland of yours is formed.

I entered, neither hesitant nor timid, but with a look in my eye — the look of the examiner — and a question in my head — the question of the inquiring stranger. And I found myself in a room radiating deep faith: the faith of a man sure of his step, sure of what surrounds him, a believer in the lofty principle to which he has devoted himself and his repose; the faith of a father keeping watch over his sons, the pillars of the future.

"...I spent two full years in one of the hospitals of America, devoted to this branch of medical work, and afterward I traveled to England for half a year to finish what I had begun: specialization in the care of childhood and motherhood. I toured the whole of Europe examining its institutions with this aim in view, and at last here I am, among my own kin and my own people!"

Thus spoke to me the head of the Childhood and Motherhood Welfare Institution and head of the training center in Syria, the young Dr. Ghassan al-Jallad — in his eyes the radiance of a victor, victor over disease and its scourges, and on his lips the smile of the great hope he sets upon this new institution...

I snatched a few moments from his constant work and his precious time — indeed, from the time of the women waiting before his room — to learn how the daily work proceeds. The answers came to me in quick succession, testifying to success in the work, to concentration in the system, and finally to a deep faith. And I believed at that hour that woman — that effective part in the life of society — had gathered every feeling in her soul and every tenderness in her heart to pour them into the breast of Dr. Ghassan al-Jallad...

And here I am, endeavoring to convey some of what I heard and saw, that I may reveal to the dear reader at least a part of this institution, which was officially founded a few years ago — no more than five — and which Dr. Ghassan al-Jallad has headed for only two years. It is now moving with firm, steady steps toward rapid progress, drawing its support from the Ministry of Health and from the two world organizations, the World Health Organization and UNICEF: the Ministry of Health supplies it with staff and equipment, and the two world organizations with women experts, foodstuffs, clothing, and medicines.

Three Women Doctors

I thought I would picture something of the activity of those who work there for my gracious reader, that he may realize that Syria is on the march, and that thanks to its working youth — and youth alone — it will shortly be able to hold its head high before all the peoples of the world; especially since at the main center — Damascus — there are three women doctors, one for dentistry, another for general examination, and a third for the chemical laboratory. After them come the licensed midwives, numbering more than fifteen, along with some of the health assistants and the women of the working staff. And here I must pass on to the nature of the work and its course:

Caring for the Coming Generations

The institution receives the expectant mother from the first month until delivery.

She is examined by the women doctors, each in her own specialty; her blood is analyzed in the institution's laboratory; the history of disease in her family is ascertained; she is weighed; then she is referred to the official bureau, where an official report is drawn up on her circumstances — her material situation, her means, and her dwelling — so that the "health section" may visit her monthly or weekly, as need requires, in her home until the time of delivery. It should be known that the expectant mother comes to the center once a month at the beginning of pregnancy and then twice a month until delivery; and in return the "staff worker" visits her at home to observe closely how the instructions given her are being carried out, and her domestic and material circumstances, and so forth.

The Chief Aim

The conversation between Dr. Ghassan and myself passes on to what follows delivery. He says: Our sole aim is to bring the child into this world sound of body, free of every ailment... For this reason the midwife is sent to deliver the expectant mother in her own home if her condition calls for it; and if the delivery is not normal, she is sent to the maternity home.

As for her home, she is cared for by us there as though she were in a private hospital: the midwife visits her every day until the eighth day after delivery, giving her the nourishment necessary for herself and for the child. Note, too, that we give the expectant mother milk from the first month until delivery, after making certain of her need for it.

Everything for the Child

Here Dr. Ghassan began to explain to me how the institution accompanies the child. He said:

"The scales, the analytical laboratory, and the examinations — all this stands ever ready to receive the child from his first week until his fifth year."

I found myself drawn on and eager to learn more, so I said: May I know something about the situation of the health assistants who have newly entered the institution? Dr. Jallad answered me, saying:

"We now have nearly twenty assistants, come from all the provinces for a year's training, as the statute of the institution provides. It is required that the assistant be between eighteen and twenty-five years of age and unmarried; she is then sent back as an employee to the center from which she came, because in my belief that is more useful, since she knows a great deal about the district and about the mothers in it — her own district, that is — under a contract with us for two years after graduation." And he went on:

"As for the doctors, their period of training does not exceed three weeks; likewise the licensed midwives, whose training lasts six months before they enter the institution officially."

The Foreign Experts

At this moment one of the foreign women experts asked leave to enter, carrying a bundle of papers and documents, and I asked, in the spirit of one seeking information, about the work of such a lady, who had passed the age of youth. He answered me in words full of admiration for the expert and her foreign colleagues, for the activity they carry on — activity that is beyond doubt fruitful and effective.

Amid the Ceaseless Movement

And now I must carry the reader into the various halls, where the work and the ceaseless movement go on.

I passed by intent faces and saw the complete attention of the mothers and of those listening to the lessons that one of the women doctors was giving them; and I was taken with the simplicity of expression, the ease of the explanation, and the effect that everyday speech produces in their souls.

There, in another hall, I found myself before a white screen, and I learned that the center shows certain motion-picture films weekly to expectant mothers and mothers, with ample explanation of every situation shown them; and sometimes the screen is carried out into the quarters of the city for the same purpose.

In another room is the "milk kitchen," where I found before me a group of young ladies all in the same uniform, white in color, each one absorbed in the work assigned to her. There, at the entrance of the milk kitchen, stand many mothers and expectant mothers, each to receive her allotted share of sterilized milk in clean, sealed bottles.

A Mother's Feeling

We moved on to another part of the place, and I found before me the dentistry room, equipped with the most modern instruments, and over it a woman doctor of its own. I was told that the teeth are often a source of misery for the child if some disease lurks in them; therefore we leave no part of the expectant mother's body unexamined, for the sake of the rising generation.

As for the pharmacy, it pleases me to say that a mother of four children, one of the licensed midwives, has been entrusted with the work there.

I stood before her, and she did not notice me, for she was wholly engrossed in preparing some medicine. For a mother such as she, perhaps her own child lay in a dangerous condition — she is female and mother at once; how beautiful this is.

And in the weighing room I saw another mother, herself a licensed midwife, cradling a child in the first weeks of his life to record his weight in his permanent report.

There are also the bureau, the three clinics, the teaching hall, the cinema hall, the rooms of the women doctors and the secretary's room, and then the general registers.

In every one of them I was astonished by the cleanliness and the perfection of order — which shows that wherever the female is found, there are beauty, perfection, and devotion, so that you almost feel something saying: it is woman who works, and none other, in every field.

A Constant Father

Here I felt that my visit had grown long, and I wished to end it with a single question put to Dr. Jallad, having seen the abundance of his labors. Behind the question I was aiming at something that had crossed my mind as I watched the many callers, most of them mothers. I said: Have you children? And I noticed that he understood my intent — my feeling that he had not time enough to look after his own children. He said: Three, and... and I am at once their teacher in their lessons and their doctor.

A thought gleamed in his eyes, before which I felt my own shame, and it pointed to a deep meaning: I wish I could examine them while they sleep, and at every moment, that they may be worthy to build this dear homeland, and worthy of life. Then Dr. Jallad remembered a question I had put to him earlier, and said:

The medicines given by the institution and the foodstuffs are all free, and everything offered here — examinations, analyses, and all the rest — is free.

As for your question about the number of centers in Syria, it has not yet reached the figure I want for it, for we have founded centers in Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, and Deraa, besides, of course, the main center in Damascus. And I hope that in the near future we shall have a similar center in every Syrian town.

And concerning your last question, about the training course, I say:

It is the first of its kind in Syria; we established it in 1954, and it is making tangible progress.

An Appeal

There, then, is a glimpse of the life of this rising institution, a glimpse of the life of the women who work in it — with Dr. Ghassan al-Jallad at their head — and a glimpse of the activity of the working woman in this tender atmosphere, the atmosphere of childhood and motherhood joined together.

And since I am one of the women of this society, I come forward in all sincerity, in the name of the many daughters of my sex whom the fates have denied the material and moral capacity to raise their children — I come forward in their name to thank all who work in this institution, hoping that the Ministry of Health will labor to develop it by every possible means and to spread it into every town and every corner of the land of Syria, that we may remain, as we have always been, in the vanguard of the constructive peoples and at their head.

Finally, I address my appeal to every Syrian mother: to draw ever more upon the experience of this institution and the experience of its energetic head, Dr. Ghassan al-Jallad.