One night while working late at my desk, I received a phone call from a woman named Gina Panzieri. She told me she was making an effort to try to help the people in Syria who have been the victims of a bloody, two year conflict between the government and rebels resisting Bashar al-Assad's rule.

I introduced her to Loren Bonner, our online editor. Loren spoke to Gina and one of the doctors who runs the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a nonprofit humanitarian organization that has been providing health care and medical supplies to Syrian refugees. You can read her story here.

Gina, a consultant to small businesses around the United States, has been volunteering with SAMS from her home in western Massachusetts. In November, she went with her son to Jordan to volunteer with a SAMS doctor in a refugee camp. She also brought a suitcase of medical supplies with her.
When she returned, she called me to tell me the trip was successful and that there's a desperate need for arterial blood gas analyzers for the volunteer doctors who are in Syria and the surrounding region.

If anyone has one to donate, please contact SAMS through their website: http://sams-usa.net/foundation/

Gina also told me that she'd like to go back as soon as she can because the need for help is so overwhelming.

More Jacobus Reports