Dr. Asraa El-Darahali (DDS’13) and Dr. Asile El-Darahali (BSc’03, DDS’08) found a particularly impactful way of giving back at the end of 2015 – they traveled to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan to provide free dental care.

The dentists – and sisters – traveled from the Halifax Regional  Municipality to Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, which is home to 80,000 Syrian refugees.

Together, they provided care for 30 to 40 patients per day for a week. Although the pair worked each day until they had seen every patient in their clinic’s waiting room, Dr. Asraa El-Darahali explains that “unfortunately [they] could’ve worked all day and all night and the need would’ve continued.”

Their main objective was to alleviate dental pain, but the dentists also contributed a significant donation of supplies to the refugee camp.

Through less than a month of donation collection, the Drs. El-Darahali collected $10,000 worth of supplies donated by dental companies for the refugee community. They also left the community with a dental chair, which they described as a “symbol of Haligonian, Nova Scotian hospitality.”

Both sisters are graduates of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Dentistry, and Dr. Asile El-Darahali is also an alumna of the Faculty of Science.

Read more in “Bedford dentist volunteers in Syrian refugee camp in Jordan” on cbc.ca.