LuganoPhotoDays 2017
LuganoPhotoDays
Alessio Mamo
The Hospital of all the Wars
Asma puts on her favourite dress before going out from her room at the 4th floor. Khawla, the nurse, runs from a room to another, visiting the patients. Aisha’s father is waiting his daughter (7 years old), who is undergoing a surgery operation, outside the operation theatre. Children study in the morning and play in the afternoon. Mohannad, the Iraqi plastic surgery doctor, prays after accomplishing his duty.
This is everyday life at MSF (Doctors without Borders) Reconstructive Surgery Hospital in Amman, Jordan. 148 beds, almost 200 patients treated every month, and many other hundreds of war wounded in the waiting list. The effects of the bloody wars and attacks all around the Middle East are particularly evident here. Children and adults from Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Gaza badly injured by bombs, car explosions and accidents live in the hospital with a relative or a friend, surrounded by very supportive medical staff.
The insight view of the photographer, going everyday for two months, tries to look at war in its bloody effects, building relationships and friendships with the patients- the war wounded. While conflicts continue to destroy lives in the Middle East, this everyday window at MSF hospital shows resilience, strenght but also pain and frustration: doctors take eight hours to rebuild a finger, while a bomb kills many hundreds in one second.