São Paulo – This Thursday (1st) in São Paulo, the Syrian president Bashar Al Assad visited the premises of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, where he paved the way to a cooperation agreement. He was accompanied by first lady Asma Al Assad and was welcomed by the hospital’s clinical director, Riad Younes, the chairwoman of the hospital’s Women’s Beneficent Society (SBS, in the Portuguese acronym), Ivete Riskallah, the lifetime chairwoman of the SBS, Violeta Jafet, other hospital doctors and directors, and representatives of the Arab community in Brazil.
Assad watched a presentation on the history and establishment of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, Latin America’s largest oncology centre. The Syrian president visited the hospital’s surgery and training rooms, and the memorial hall, where he was paid tributes, and also granted Ivete Riskallah a sash and a medal as tokens of appreciation for "welcoming Arabs into Brazilian society," he stated.
The visit paid by president Assad to the institution should lead to the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital and the Syrian Ministry of Health, for young Arab surgeons to undergo training in Brazil. "We may even manage to grant them fellowships here," Riad Younes said to ANBA.
To the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Salim Taufic Schahin, president Assad’s visit to the institution is "an acknowledgement of Syrian-Lebanese Hospital’s importance and excellence, and of how it may contribute to the progress in the situation of hospitals in Syria." Schahin also believes that the coming of the Syrian head of state of Brazil is going to lead to strong growth in cultural, trade-related, and touristic relations between the two countries.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
