Thank you for visiting the fourth year of our campaign! We hit our original target and all additional funds will go towards sponsoring additional students!!!

We <3 Education

Three years ago, with the support of friends and family, we launched a scholarship in my late father's name: Dr. Sakher Hallak.

Sakher was a beloved physician, son, brother, husband, and father. Before the war, he was one of the most well-known and respected physicians in Syria. But he still devoted a large portion of his time to charity and education. Specializing in eating and nutritional disorders, he was invited to attend the AED (Academy for Eating Disorders) conference in Florida in 2011, where he shared some of his successful experiences treating thousands of patients. Soon after returning home, he was kidnapped, tortured and killed by the Al-Assad regime, becoming the first of the tens of thousands of civilians who lost their lives in Aleppo.

Please see here and here for more details.

After 12+ years of war, a pandemic, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and an economic crisis, education for Syrian youth has been severely disrupted, leaving more than 2.4 million out of school. Sakher’s sacrifice, coupled with the pressing need for educators and skilled labor in Syria, has inspired us to create and continue this collegiate scholarship.

Scholarship summary and goals:

Focus on STEM degrees from universities in Turkish-administered regions
Provide students with tuition support or monthly stipend to help cover schooling expenses
Provide access to academic & advisory resources, mentorship and support (including group extracurricular activities like cultural and business lectures and workshops, outdoor skills, and volunteering)
Be open to any starting year, continue indefinitely, and support recipients until graduation (17 total graduates so far)
Supported 25 students for both 2020 & 2021, and 21 students this past year 2022
Three students this past year were in the top 3 of their respective majors
More than half of the students for 2022 were women
For full scholarship report for the past year (Arabic) and English summary of the past three years, please see here

Finances & Transparency:

Our campaign target is $6,400, which will sponsor at least 20 students for the coming school year with tuition, stipends, and extracurricular activities. This means that on average, $25 helps sponsor one student for one month.

All donations are ultimately routed to Midad, an education-focused nonprofit in Syria and Turkey. All funds (from this campaign and direct donations) will be sent in one lump sum the first week of 2024 from the U.S. via Mercy Without Limits, a nonprofit 501(C)(3) organization registered in the United States under Tax ID: 45-5297608.

The tracking of donations, annual reports, and accepted students names can all be found here for 2020, here for 2021, and here for 2022, and will be here for 2023.

Over the past three years, our fundraising efforts helped so many students attend and graduate from college. Potentially changing their lives and their communities for the better. With your support, we can continue this for years to come.
From the bottom of my heart: Thank you :)
-Mahmoud Sakher Hallak

Please reach out with any questions or for additional details/translations to Mahmoud Hallak at: mahmoudshallak@gmail.com

Dr. Sakher Hallak Scholarship Fund

By Mahmoud Hallak

Dr. Sakher Hallak Scholarship Fund

Year FOUR!

Team Members