Alice Fordham

Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Alice Fordham is an NPR International Correspondent based in Beirut, Lebanon.

In this role, she reports on Lebanon, Syria and many of the countries throughout the Middle East.

Before joining NPR in 2014, Fordham covered the Middle East for five years, reporting for The Washington Post, the Economist, The Times and other publications. She has worked in wars and political turmoil but also amid beauty, resilience and fun.

In 2011, Fordham was a Stern Fellow at the Washington Post. That same year she won the Next Century Foundation's Breakaway award, in part for an investigation into Iraqi prisons.

Fordham graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics.

Syrian Refugees In Lebanon Fear Deportation For Seeking Coronavirus Test Or Care

By Alice Fordham • Apr 6, 2020

Lebanon is a small, cash-strapped country in the Middle East, but its government estimates it hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees — the highest per-capita ratio in the world. About a third of them live in tents or in places like farm buildings or garages, in conditions that make regular hand-washing and physical distancing all but impossible.

In Lebanon, Some Turn To Beloved Local Saint For Solace And Protection From COVID-19

By Alice Fordham • Mar 31, 2020

High above the Mediterranean Sea, up a mountain wreathed in springtime mist and drizzle, is the monastery where the beloved Lebanese St. Charbel is buried.

Syria Confirms 1st Case Of COVID-19

By Alice Fordham • Mar 23, 2020

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Syria, having faced a war for years that has killed or displaced millions, now has announced its first case of coronavirus. Health care workers are preparing to fight a pandemic in one of the most challenging parts of the world. NPR's Alice Fordham reports.

Ireland Votes To Legalize Abortion

By Alice Fordham • May 26, 2018

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Ireland's Abortion Referendum Is Proving Deeply Divisive

By Alice Fordham • May 24, 2018

On a bright afternoon outside the elegant facade of Trinity College Dublin, students hand out flyers to passers-by urging them to vote in Friday's referendum to lift Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion in most circumstances.

"Please vote yes on Friday! Thank you! Please vote yes," chirp the students, who have big smiles and colored sweaters with "REPEAL" emblazoned across the front.

No One Was Prepared To Care For So Many Wounded In Mosul

By Alice Fordham • Mar 5, 2017

In a pink-painted village clinic converted into a field hospital a few miles from the Mosul front lines, there is no emergency care facility, so wounded Iraqi troops are just wheeled into the foyer for treatment.

Over the crackle of walkie-talkies, one of two men arriving with shrapnel wounds from a car bomb calls out, "Mohammad Jassim, my brother, where is he?"