RIYADH: The Saudi aid agency KSrelief has launched a $2.7 million project and laid the foundation stone for a medical training center in the Syrian city of Hama, with the aim of training about 3,150 health workers by 2028. Attending the ceremony at the Center for Continuing Medical and Health Education was Dr. Naif Al-Shammari, the director of the KSrelief office in Jordan and Syria, and several other officials, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic Ghazi Al-Enezi told the SPA the project would help improve healthcare across Syria’s governorates. Construction and outfitting are expected to take about six months. The finished center will have simulation rooms and surgical training facilities for doctors, nurses and other health workers. The center will also seek to attract healthcare professionals from across Syria, and support hospitals and other medical institutions by providing them with qualified personnel. The work is being carried out by the Al-Ber Charity and Social Welfare Association in Hama under the supervision of Syria’s Ministry of Health. The project comes as Syria’s health system struggles to recover from the war that began in 2011. The World Health Organization estimates that 16.5 million people in the country will need humanitarian aid in 2026. “This center is not an isolated project,” a KSrelief spokesperson told Arab News, describing it as part of a wider effort to rebuild Syria’s health sector. KSrelief has supported 83 dialysis centers in the country and a new pediatric cardiac surgery unit in Aleppo this year, according to the SPA. The WHO said in June that KSrelief funding had enabled about 475,000 medical consultations in four governorates.