Dear Friends,

We first stood together in 2016 when my hospital in Aleppo was bombed out of existence by the Syrian regime and Russia. Myself, my wife and our daughter Sama were forced to flee. 

Since then my wife Waad made a documentary about the siege of Aleppo called ‘For Sama’ to explain to our daughter all we lived through. On Sunday it won a BAFTA Award. At the ceremony, Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge told Waad “I was heartbroken. My boy is a similar age to Sama.” 

This is what we hoped the film would do -- help people to realise that children everywhere deserve protection and that when a bomb drops on a hospital it should not matter whether it’s Great Ormond Street, London or Ariha Hospital, Idlib. 

People in Idlib are now facing the same attacks we faced in Aleppo: daily attacks with barrel bombs, cluster bombs and missiles raining down. Yesterday three medical points were bombed in 12 hours. More than half a million people have been forced to flee their homes in two months.

While politicians are refusing to act to save lives, I am asking you to send a message directly to the Syrian people through social media. So please hold a sign with the name of a child in your life and share on the hashtags #ForSama #ProtectKids. 

Thank you for standing with me and my family for all these years. I hope you feel like you’re a part of our story,

Dr. Hamza

PS. You can watch and share Waad, Sama and I on stage accepting the BAFTA here.