While world estimates vary hugely, some assert that there are over 40 million refugees and displaced persons. This has been called the greatest human problem of these last decades of the century. For many young people with a desire to serve—college students, medical students, house staff, nurses, and others—this is a population of which they should be very much aware, one that needs their services.
Leila Richards, MD, has written an exciting and often moving account of a nearly two-year experience among Palestinians and Lebanese in South Lebanon, largely refugees and displaced persons. This patient, brave, determined, and compassionate physician tells of the ordeal of setting up, staffing, and operating a small hospital financed by the International Rescue Committee with funds from the US State Department. The hospital is located on the outskirts of Ein-el-Hilweh, a large Palestinian refugee camp near the port city of Sidon.
This is a human