Amani Ballour

Amani Ballour (born 1987) is a Syrian pediatrician and an advocate of women's and children's rights. Her story is portrayed in the Oscar-nominated documentary The Cave which tells of the struggles of running an underground hospital during the Syrian civil war.

Early life and education Ballour was born and grew up in the east of Ghuta, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. She is the youngest among two brothers and three sisters. Her sisters married and became homemakers at a young age; the eldest was 15. Ballour, on the other hand, persisted on completing her education.

Work in underground hospital At age 24, Ballour was prompted to abandon her studies when she was summoned by neighbors to treat a 12-year-old wounded boy. The boy was a victim of the government's attempt to crush rallies. He was a bystander during the protest and was shot with a bullet in his head. The boy's family was worried that the authorities would seize them if they went to the hospital, so they came to Ballour instead. When they arrived, the boy was already dead.

Ballour started as a volunteer in a nearby hospital held by anti-government rebels in Ghouta. There were only a few doctors with not more than two full-time physicians like her. At times, the staff were able to use smuggled medical stocks from international and local NGOs and equipment taken from destroyed hospitals.

In 2016, at age 29, Ballour was elected to become the hospital director. She became the first and only woman to manage a hospital in Syria. She ran the hospital until the Assad regime quelled the last resistance in 2018. Since then, Ballour has been living in exile. She was forced to flee Syria and spent some time living in a refugee camp in Turkey.