Thank you! With your help the second part in our trio of fundraising webinars was a great success and we are close to being able to fund all of our programmes for the year.
We still need your help raising funds for our programmes in the West Bank and Gaza. Please donate now if you can. The level of poverty across all of Palestine has become more critical and every day counts.
More information on our speakers:
Mr Sabih Al Masri
Our keynote speaker Mr Sabih Taher Darwish Al-Masri is a Businessman of Palestinian origin, born in Nablus.
Mr Al-Masri’s early education and formative years were in Nablus. Since then, has had an illustrious career as Businessman, Investor and Banker in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Palestine. Mr Al-Masri is Founder and Chairman of Arab Supply and Trading Company, and is also the Chairman of the Arab Bank, Zara Investment Holding Company and Palestine Telecommunication Group (PALTEL), amongst others.
Mr Al-Masri is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of An-Najah National University and is thus the ideal person to give our keynote address.
Dr Umaiyeh Khammash
Dr Umaiyeh Khammash is a doctor and senior public health specialist with over 35 years of experience in all aspects of primary health care, from practicing medicine in West Bank hospitals to running different local and international health programs. Dr Khammash currently serves as the director of national NGO; Juzoor for Health & Social Development.
Dr Khammash will talk about the challenges facing health care services in Palestine.
Dr Khalil Issa
Dr Khalil Ibrahim Issa; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Senior Orthopaedic Consultant at An Najah National University and its Hospital in Palestine. He specialised in reconstructive and spine surgery. He is currently a member of Palestinian Supreme Health Council, Palestinian Medical Council and the Orthopaedic Scientific Committee. He was an establishing member and former CEO and CMO of An Najah University Hospital. He has been supervising medical students’ electives courses for 10 years.
Dr Naim Qamhia
Dr Naim Qamhia graduated from An-Najah National University Medical School in 2011. He then specialised in histopathology in Jordan. After he completed a fellowship in oncologic surgical pathology at King Hussein Cancer Center, Jordan and then worked as a histopathologist at An-Najah National University Hospital. Dr Qamhia is currently doing a haematopathology sub-specialty training at North Bristol NHS Trust.
Here is the full recording of our February webinar:
We auctioned 2 beautiful watercolour and ink on watercolour paper pieces by artist Mollie Turner.
Mollie Turner is a 26-year-old artist originally from Lincolnshire and now based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She works mainly in a semi-realistic style, using a range of media including graphite, ink and watercolour. Mollie loves to travel and her recent work is influenced by her time living in France and Germany. She is inspired by urban landscape and architecture and loves capturing the detail and beauty of everyday scenes.
The auction was live between 25th February and 3rd March. The starting price for each is £300 plus postage and packing.
The auction is complete and helped us raise £800 towards our programmes.
Thank you! With your help our third webinar was our best yet!
The webinar focused on Gaza, in particular Al Azhar and Islamic University of Gaza Medical Schools, as well as our undergraduate scholarship programme.
Short clip from our March webinar
We still need your help raising funds for our programmes in the West Bank and Gaza. Please donate now if you can. The level of poverty across all of Palestine has become more critical and every day counts.
For more information on our speakers:
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a British-Palestinian Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. He completed his medical education at University of Glasgow in the UK.
In 2012, he became Head of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre and in 2015 co-founded and became director of the Conflict Medicine Programme at Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut.
Dr Abu-Sittah returned to the UK in 2020 and continues his in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College University of London. He has published extensively on war injuries including a medical textbook, “Reconstructing the War Injured Patient” and has a forthcoming book, “Treating the War Injured Child.”
Dr Abu-Sittah has worked as a war surgeon in Iraq, South Lebanon and during the 3 wars in the Gaza Strip. His work was featured by numerous newspapers and media outlets notably La Monde, The Independent, Telegraph, BBC and CNN.
Mr David Nott OBE
Mr David Nott is a world renowned war surgeon. He is a Consultant at St Mary’s Hospital where he specialises in vascular and trauma surgery and also performs cancer surgery at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
For the past 25 years, Mr Nott has taken unpaid leave each year to work for the aid agencies Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syria Relief. He has provided surgical treatment to patients in a range of conflict and catastrophe zones in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Chad, Darfur, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Central African Republic, Gaza and Nepal.
As well as treating patients affected by conflict and catastrophe and raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charitable causes, Mr Nott teaches advanced surgical skills to local medics and surgeons when he is abroad. In Britain, he teaches the Surgical Training for the Austere Environment (STAE) course at the Royal College of Surgeons.
In 2015, Mr Nott established the David Nott Foundation with his wife Elly. The Foundation supports surgeons in developing their operating skills for war-zones and austere environments. In 2019, Picador published David’s bestselling memoir, War Doctor.
Mr Nott will tell us about his vast experience of working in war zones such as in Gaza.
Mr Imran Yusuf
Imran Yusuf is a Kenyan-born British stand-up comedian of Indian Muslim descent. He is renowned as a skilful raconteur who seamlessly weaves socio-political satire with heartfelt introspection in his charmingly endearing trademark styling. Languid, punchy, cheeky and utterly loveable, Imran has established himself as a truly unique voice in the world of comedy.
Imran came to notice following rave reviews and a Best Newcomer nomination for the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010 and appearing on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, both in the summer of 2010.
In January 2017, Imran went out to the occupied territories with MAP and the late Jeremy Hardy. They made a short film about the condition of health under occupation.
In 2015, Imran hosted the first ever “HaLOL” comedy night to celebrate the growing talent of British Muslim comedy in the UK, after which along with CEO of Unitas Communications; Muddassar Ahmed, Imran became a Director of HaLOL Entertainment, a non-profit organisation seeking to encourage participation in the arts amongst minority communities.
Imran’s latest solo show “Saint, Sinner, Sufi”, proved to be his deepest work yet, observing and acknowledging his journey towards middle-age maturity. The show debuted at The Edinburgh Festival in 2018.
Dr Fadel Naim
Dr Fadel Naim studied medicine at Friedrich Alexander University, Germany and went on to get his PhD in Orthopaedics and Traumatology from Gazi University, Turkey. He was Medical Director of El Wafa Rehab Hospital in Gaza. Dr Naim has been Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza since 2015. Since 2003, Dr Naim has been Consultant of Orthopaedic Surgery at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. He is also Chairman of the Palestinian Physician Syndicate in Southern Governorates.
Dr Anwar Al-Shaikh Khalil
Dr Anwar Al-Shaikh Khalil has been Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of Gaza since 2009. He is a Senior Consultant Paediatrician; Head of the Higher committee and Paediatric Scientific Committee in the Palestinian Medical Council. He was the former director of the Al-Nassr Paediatric Hospital, MOH. He has been Coordinator and Supervisor of the students’ elective courses and external relations for the past 11 years.
The Q&A will be with the following students:
Ms Asmaa Abu Hamada is currently studying medicine at Al Azhar University, Gaza. She is due to graduate next summer.
Dr Haytham Shuhaiber graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza in 2017. He started his residency programme in paediatrics at Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar last year.
Mr Hisham Abuamro is currently studying medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza. He is due to graduate this summer.
Thank you! With your help our first ever webinar in January 2021 was a success. We are £15,000 away from reaching our target for all 3 events!
Short clip from our January webinar
We still need your help raising funds for our programmes in the West Bank and Gaza. Please donate if you can.
For more information about our line up:
Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS is a physicist, author and broadcaster and one of the best-known science communicators in the world. He has written many books on popular science and the history of science, translated into over 26 languages, including Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science, which was shortlisted for the Warwick Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries that have been shown around the world, such as the BAFTA nominated Chemistry: A Volatile History and Science and Islam.
For the past ten years he has presented the popular BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. Jim is a past president of the British Science Association, trustee of the Institute of Physics and member of the judging panel of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He is a recipient of the Royal Society Faraday medal and Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin medal and the Stephen Hawking medal.
Professor Hani Abdeen is the Dean of Al-Quds Medical School in Jerusalem, Palestine. He qualified from Southampton University in 1979 and specialised in internal medicine and pulmonary diseases in hospitals in Wessex. Professor Abdeen was Palestinian Minister of Health between 2011 and 2013. He is Head of Internal Medicine Specialty Committee at the Palestinian Medical Council and member of of the PMC Higher council. His main interest is in medical education and development of the Palestinian health sector.
Professor Hani Abdeen spoke about FQMS funded programmes and the high standard of Al Quds medical graduates and was available for the Q&A.
Ambassador Husam Said Zomlot is a Palestinian diplomat, academic and economist. He was appointed Head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom in October 2018. Before coming to the UK, he served as head of the PLO mission to the United States that was closed by the President Donald Trump’s administration.
Dr Majd Dabbour (recent graduate from Al Quds) joined us to talk about her experience study medicine and was available for the Q&A.
Dr Haya Tahboub (recent graduate from Al Quds) joined us to talk about her experience study medicine and was available for the Q&A.
Here is the full recording of our January webinar:
2020 was an extraordinary year and this has continued into 2021. In a normal year, we would be telling you about the plans for our gala dinner. We have adapted to circumstances and this year we have arranged a trio of fundraising webinars. We hope you’ll join us.
Each webinar highlights a particular medical school and will include a question and answer section at the end.
We hope to raise £75,000 through donations. Please donate now if you can. The level of poverty across all of Palestine has become more critical and every day counts.
Tickets: £40 donation for one event OR £100 donation for all three. Your donation can be increased by 25% if you claim Gift Aid.
Auction / Sale
To help our fundraising efforts, we are currently selling a small range of items, including limited edition signed prints of the Dome of the Rock. Click here for more information.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the FQMS Annual General Meeting 2020 on 23rd September. Due to the pandemic and the social distancing measures that are still in place, we held the meeting online.
Here is a summary of the items that were discussed:
The Chairman summarised his statement on FQMS’s activity in 2019 as provided in the annual report.
Accept the Report and Accounts of the Trustees for the year ending 31st December 2019 – agreed.
Reappoint auditors Clarkson Hyde to assess our accounts for the year ending 31st December 2020 – agreed.
Retire and reappoint the following trustees:
Rawya Charif – agreed.
Anjum Misbahuddin – agreed.
Mahmud Al Bustami decided to retire. He feels FQMS needs new blood and to diversify.
Trustees are sad that MB is retiring and are thankful for all of his hard work over the years.
MB has committed to helping FQMS in the future and completing tasks outside of the role of trustee.
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the FQMS Gala Dinner on Saturday 7th March 2020 at the InterContinental Hotel Park Lane. We didn’t realise it at the time, but the date proved to be quite lucky as the whole UK started to shutdown the following week due to the Covid-19 virus. We raised around £100,000.
Many of you commented that FQMS Gala Dinner 2020 was a highly enjoyable evening with speeches that were both enjoyable and touching from Laila el-Haddad (Author), Imran Yusuf (Comedian) His Excellency Ambassador Husam Zomlot and Dr Hani Abdeen (Dean of Al Quds Medical School) .
His Excellency Ambassador Husam Zomlot
Dr Hani Abdeen
Laila el-Haddad
Imran Yusuf
As well as performances by Hawiyya Dabke Company (Palestinian folk dance), Saied Silbak on the oud, Iba Abu Khalaf on percussion and Ramsay Nashed on guitar.
Hawiyya performance
Saied Silbak
Hawiyya workshop
As with previous years, we had a fantastic selection of items in our raffle, sale table and our auction.
With Rima’s help, we had a sale table and a tombola with lots of high-quality prizes. Altogether we raised over £1,500.
We were lucky enough to have Dr Khamis Elessi, a Consultant in Neurorehabilitation and Pain Medicine in Gaza, attend our Garden Party. FQMS had supported his attendance at a conference in Oxford. Although problems with crossing at Rafah meant he missed all but the last day of the conference, he has talks scheduled at various hospitals before he returns to Gaza.
Our guests also got to talk with one of our trainees, Dr Maha Akkawi, and her family attend. For the last 2.5 years, Maha was training in haemato-oncopathology in Southmead Hospital, Bristol. She is about to return to Nablus, where she will be teaching and practising medicine at An Najah University.
To see more photos of our event by Antony Bennison, please go to our Facebook page. Please contact us, if you would like your photo to be removed.
