When Healthcare Cannot Wait: AUBMC Care Clinic’s Response to Displacement

With the escalation of the war in 2026, countless displaced individuals required essential healthcare attention. Care Clinic, one of several student-led initiatives under AUBMCares, quickly and effectively adapted its work to meet those rising needs.

Care Clinic is an initiative established by AUB medical students in 2021 with the goal of providing free primary healthcare to underserved populations regardless of age or gender. Before the escalation, these medical students held a clinic every two Saturdays all year long at the AUBMC Family Medicine Department. Medical students in their third and fourth years usually conduct initial consultations, with residents and attending physicians finalizing care. Nursing students and first- and second-year medical students support the clinic’s operations, patient recruitment, education, and follow-ups.

AUBMCares serves as an umbrella for other clinics, each of them targeting a certain population: Heal for migrant workers, Humblebee Clinic for the pediatric population, OGIG for obstetrics and gynecology, and many others. In normal times, before the escalation, these different clinics often work alongside each other, and together, they organize themed clinics, health awareness activities, and outreach events targeting specific health needs.

Bring Care to Displaced Communities

With the beginning of the escalation in 2026, many Care Clinic volunteers were themselves displaced and could no longer participate as service providers in clinics as they normally would. At the same time, the need for basic healthcare was growing exponentially. Countless displaced people had to leave their homes in a rush with little more than basic items, not including certain medications they relied on for chronic conditions. 

AUBMCares clinics, including the Care Clinic, were approached by the Family Medicine Department of AUBMC about expanding their response to displacement in March 2026. During the previous escalation in 2024, the department had conducted an emergency response in school shelters for displaced communities. During the repeated escalation of 2026, they deemed it necessary to take it a step further: rather than exclusively visiting shelters, the initiative began bringing in displaced people from nearby schools to AUBMC for more comprehensive care.

Family Medicine staff and administrators visited schools where they would coordinate with the shelter directors to identify the healthcare needs of displaced individuals. They would identify patients who needed care, and on the day of the clinics, these patients arrived at AUBMC where they were seen by teams from the Family Medicine Department and the Care Clinic.  

In their first emergency clinic, 84 patients were examined over four hours. In their second clinic, they managed to see 154 patients over the same time span. Volunteers included medical and nursing students, residents, attending physicians, and nurses.

Many of the patients needed medication but could not afford it. AUBMCares responded to these needs and coordinated with the hospital to provide free medications for the displaced communities.

Beyond the Consultation

For Care Clinics, providing medical consultations was not enough. Patients who needed medical imaging, laboratory tests, medications, or specialist consultations had their care covered through the initiative’s funds. A follow-up team of doctors then reviewed the assessments, ordered tests, and then arranged the necessary appointments, also free of charge. Patients were then contacted with details about the date and time of their follow-up tests and appointments.

This approach was built with the aim of preventing patients from being left with a diagnosis but no way to act on it. “It is not enough to simply see a large number of patients in one day. Our goal is to have enough funding and staff to be able to follow up with these patients and make sure they receive the care they were referred for”, Lynn Moghrabi, a fourth-year medical student and the President of the Care Clinic (2025-2026), stated.

Invisible Needs

In crowded shelters, communicable diseases and hygiene became grave concerns, prompting health education around wound care, hygiene, and precautions. But some issues were less visible, such as medication interruption.

Some people living with chronic conditions had been displaced without their regular medications, while others could no longer afford them. For someone living with diabetes, hypertension, or other chronic illnesses, cutting off medication is dangerous and can lead to serious and sometimes fatal consequences.

At the same time, patients who were seen by the Care Clinic did not represent everyone in need of healthcare. Countless patients could not walk or find transportation to AUBMC. Others may have been too sick, too far, or unable to make it to the clinics for innumerable reasons. “Everyone who came was seen”, Lynn said, “but reaching everyone who needed care requires a response on a much larger scale”.

Making Care Accessible

Running a humanitarian response is often really challenging and draining. Yet there are moments that make the effort worthwhile:

After being examined, patients may be told they need further testing, laboratory tests, imaging, or follow-ups. Their immediate response is often to ask how much it would cost.

Then comes the answer: nothing. The clinic will cover it.

Lynn recalled many patients asking repeatedly, “Are you sure I don’t have to pay anything?” Some have cried and hugged the volunteers in disbelief after hearing their care would be covered.

For the team, these moments are their motivation to keep going through the countless challenges they face.

As the clinic continues its regular work, its experience revolves around a very important principle: healthcare should be available to everyone and should not depend on whether someone can afford to access it.

How To Help

For another way to donate, you can also find their account on WHISH by searching “Care Clinic Donate”.

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