We, at FQMS, hope you had a good Christmas. On a personal, light hearted, note I remain a sceptic of the New Year celebrations but was amazed by the number of firework displays and the volume of people out watching it at midnight when the London temperatures were 13 degrees. I also wish you a happy new year.
FQMS was very successful in maintaining its support of Palestinian medical schools last year. After the impressive series of webinars in the winter and spring we ran 2 further online events. One highlighted the plight of doctors and students working in Gaza during the Israeli attack of May 2021 and the other only a few weeks ago when our main guest, Dr Thabet Abu Rass gave a very interesting talk about the fate of some of the Palestinian villages depopulated during the 1948 war. In both events we heard from newly graduated doctors working as teachers in their universities with FQMS funded posts. We are very proud of these excelling doctors and their dedication and ambition.
We also welcomed 2 new trustees, Emma Keating and Bob Niven, who join us with a lot of unique attributes and verve. They have already contributed much to the eclectic mix of trustees we have. The FQMS board values the diversity, skills and integrity that its members possess.
We are now focused on the coming year and the planning of our fund raising strategy. The latter is usually planned much earlier but we are learning to adapt to the constantly changing pandemic environment. We do feel that there is webinar fatigue now. Please do continue to support FQMS. We may not be able to deliver many big landmark events but we do promise a high level of transparency, honesty, diligence and financial governance. We have close links with the Deans and plan site visits as soon as circumstances allow. We would like to expand our ability to support surgeons and physicians working in Palestine to learn from the UK NHS clinical experience. These doctors spend 2-3 years in the UK and return to Palestine with an invaluable insight.
We hope you will continue to trust us with you donations, however big or small.
