The American University of Beirut Medical Center inaugurated on January 20, 2014, the Wassef and Souad Sawwaf Building, the new home of the University Health Services and Family Medicine clinics and a diagnostic unit that will be a major resource for patients who wish to benefit from the most advanced diagnostic tools for cancer, heart disease, and certain neurological conditions.
Located on Clemenceau Street, the new four-story facility and state-of-the-art PET/CT Unit with its high-tech diagnostic equipment are gifts by AUB alumnus, Mu’taz Sawwaf (B. Arch ’74), a philanthropist and leading construction developer in the region, and his family. It is named after Sawwaf’s parents, Wassef and Souad Sawwaf.
"This very generous donation by the Sawwaf family has provided a major new facility and leading scientific equipment, key priorities of the AUBMC 2020 Vision,” said Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and vice president for medical affairs. “These will give AUBMC a critical edge in diagnosing and treating patients confronting scourges of our region, including cancer and mental illness."
Among the tools acquired by AUBMC for use in the building are a PET/CT scanner and a cyclotron. PET/CT is a non-invasive nuclear medicine procedure that can identify disease earlier and in higher definition than with other tools by visualizing both metabolic processes and structural abnormalities occurring in the body. The cyclotron, which is being acquired with the help of another donor, will allow AUBMC specialists to produce radiopharmaceuticals that can specifically target cancer cells or mental diseases, allowing physicians to better design treatment interventions.
When VP Sayegh told the Sawwaf family about the far-reaching benefits of a PET-CT scanner, the family immediately offered to make a donation to AUBMC towards the purchase of this unit. With Mu’taz Sawwaf’s extensive experience building hospitals in Saudi Arabia, he also agreed to build a new structure to house it. In an exceptionally generous gesture, he and his family also created a fund to help cover the costs of needy patients who could benefit from PET scans.
“AUB will always be a dear institution to me: It educated and trained me and inculcated the values of civic responsibility in me for which I will always be grateful,” Sawwaf said. “I am where I am today because of AUB, and most importantly because of God and my parents who instilled in me the values of kindness, generosity, and self-respect. My parents taught me to help those in need—family members and friends. That is why I wanted to honor them by naming this building after them.”
The Sawwaf family has been a generous friend and champion of AUBMC. Touched by the lifesaving care and treatment of their newborn daughter, provided by AUBMC in 2010, Mu’taz Sawwaf and his wife Rada co-founded and support The Neonate Fund at AUBMC, a volunteer-led initiative that offers financial assistance to the parents of babies being treated at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In addition, they established a neonatology research fund in the name of their daughter, Maymouna.
“We are extremely grateful to Mu’taz Sawwaf and the Sawwaf family for their tremendous gifts and their ongoing support for the highly skilled physicians and staff of AUBMC. It allows us to continue our important service to Lebanon and the region.” said AUB President Peter Dorman. “Time and again, Mu’taz and Rada Sawwaf have demonstrated their profound dedication to the mission of AUB and AUBMC,”
Mu’taz Sawwaf has maintained a close relationship with his alma mater and has been a generous donor for many years. In addition to his latest donations to AUBMC, Sawwaf has helped establish the Al Mu'allim Moh'd Awad Binladin Chair in Architecture in Islamic Societies and the Saudi Binladin Group Scholarship for students of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. Sawwaf is providing AUBMC with engineering advice for the AUBMC 2020 project, as he has significant experience in hospital construction in Saudi Arabia. Both he and his wife are helping the fundraising activities for AUBMC 2020
An architect by training, Sawwaf is the executive director and chief architect of the Saudi Binladin Group. In 1977, he established Saudi-based Arabian Roots, which specializes in construction and trading in building materials. Sawwaf is the chairman of Mimar Trading Group, which provides basic raw materials for building as well as sophisticated machinery and textiles. He is also the chairman of the board of United Foodstuffs and Catering Co. in Lebanon.
In addition, Sawwaf is passionate about comics and is a talented cartoonist. He held two cartoons exhibitions in 2011, one in Beirut and the second in Jeddah. Sawwaf is the author of three cartoon books: “Maymouna, A Memoir" a book that chronicles the first thoughts of baby Maymouna; “Tosh Fesh” and “Chellet Ezzo” (both in Arabic): Chellet Izzo i.e. Izzo's Friends, a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the lives of Sawwaf and his friends.
AUBMC 2020 VISION
Launched in 2010, after the recruitment of VP Sayegh from Harvard in 2009, the AUBMC 2020 Vision is an ambitious and comprehensive $400 million initiative that will reaffirm AUBMC’s position as the leading medical center and healthcare institution in the region. The AUBMC 2020 Vision is transforming medical education, research and practice, and most importantly, medical care in the region, bringing them to new levels of excellence. It consists of major new medical (clinical and academic) facilities, the establishment of clinical and research centers of excellence, investment in state-of-the-art equipment, recruitment of talented physicians and nurses, and regional and international partnerships.
Since 1902, the American University of Beirut Medical Center has been the most trusted and respected healthcare provider in Lebanon and the region, handling more than 300,000 patient visits annually. AUB is building on its strong foundations in medical education and health care through the AUBMC 2020 Vision. In addition to improving facilities and capacity, the AUBMC 2020 Vision will establish centers of excellence that will provide new medical options for the treatment of illnesses endemic in the Arab world, and it will expand access to the quality of care that families in Lebanon have depended on for generations.
