Thank you for visiting the FIFTH year of our campaign!

Four 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. Still, he 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 13+ years of war, a pandemic, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and an economic crisis, education for Syrian youth has been severely disrupted. Over 2.1 million children in Syria have dropped out from schools and two out of three of the students in northern Syria are no longer receiving a formal education . 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 of Northern Syria
Provide students with monthly stipend to help cover schooling expenses and 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 (22 total graduates so far)
Supported 28 medical, dental, and pharmacy students in 2023/2024
One third of the students were women in 2023/2024
For full scholarship report for the past year (Arabic) please see here. (More than happy to translate it if anybody is interested :p)

Finances & Transparency:

Our campaign target is $10,000, which will sponsor at least 28 students for the coming school year (10 months) with stipends, and extracurricular activities. This means that on average, $35 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 2025 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 annual reports, and accepted students names can all be found here for 2020, here for 2021, here for 2022, and here for 2023.

Over the past four 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 & Family

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 FIVE!

Team Members