Events

Our Next Gala Dinner

at the prestigious

Royal Horseguards Hotel

IAIS Visiting Speaker Series – Medical Education & Healthcare in Palestine

There will be talks from Khaled Dawas, FQMS Chairman, and two of our postgraduate trainees, Dr Alaa Al Sayed (paediatric cardiologist) and Dr Assef Jawaada (endocrine surgeon).

They will speak about what it’s like to live and train in Palestine, as well as why they chose to study medicine and what would help future medical students.

The talks will be accompanied by an exhibition on posters from Palestine, as well as information and videos on the work of FQMS.

Event details:

• Date: Thursday 17th November 2022
• Time: 16:45 – 19:00
• Address: Newman Building, Green Lecture Theatre, University of Exeter
• Tea and coffee will be served in the IAIS Common Room at 4:45pm

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Our Annual General Meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday 22nd September over Zoom. We hope to see you there.

The FQMS Annual General Meeting is a vital event at which we discuss our work over the last year and our future plans, including elections to the Trustee Board.

Agenda:

1. To provisionally accept the Report and Accounts of the Trustees for the year ending 31st December 2021
2. To re-elect as a Trustee, Awwad Awwad, who retires by rotation and being eligible, offers himself for re-election
3. To re-elect as a Trustee, Lina Nashef, who retires by rotation and being eligible, offers herself for re-election
4. To re-elect as a Trustee, Naseer Chia, who retires by rotation and being eligible, offers himself for re-election
5. To re-elect newly appointed Trustee, Bob Niven, in accordance with the Articles of Association
6. To re-elect newly appointed Trustee, Emma Keating, in accordance with the Articles of Association
7. To re-appoint auditors Clarkson Hyde for year ending 31st December 2022

For more information and to attend, please contact admin@fqms.org.

If you are a member and you cannot attend, please complete the proxy form and return it to admin@fqms.org before the meeting.

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Thank you to everyone who joined us at the FQMS Gala Dinner on Saturday 18th June 2022 at the Savile Club. The evening was well attended. We are still counting the donations and hope to be able to update you soon.

We decided on a slightly different format this year and there were speeches from two of our trainees Dr Naim Qamhia (Haematopathologist at Southmead Hospital, Bristol) and Dr Nidal Somera (Urologist at Addenbrooks Hospital, Cambridge), who we have been supporting to do their subspeciality training in the UK.

We also had two wonderful performance. Firstly during the reception from Elise Trio (students from the Royal Academy of Music). The night ended with Syrian Masters (Hamsa Mounif, Bassef Seaf, Mohamad Salah, Khaldoun AlNajjad and Walid Zaido).

As with previous years, we had a fantastic selection of items on our sale table and in our raffle. We also had beautiful floral centrepieces donated by Rima Abboushi, which were sold at the end of the night.

The beautiful photos of the event were taken by James Gifford-Mead.

Please contact us if you would like your photo to be removed.

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Thank you to everyone who was able to join us on Thursday 19th May in Battersea. It was a wonderful afternoon. Guests were able to drop off your garments and homeware to be hand-embroidered by LVPx. Neil Serougi, one of our trustees, spoke about our work in Palestine.

LVPx is a upcycling initiative that provides sustainable income to artisan refugees in Lebanon. We work with a network of highly-skilled women to transform your favourite clothing and homeware with beautiful fine embroidery.

During this event, LVPx provided individual design consultations and guests could browse the new Prêt-à-Porter collection, of which part of the proceeds was donated to FQMS to support our vital work.

We were also graced by wonderful performances by Lina Shahin, Walid Zaido and Sanaa Wahab.

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Want to learn more about the history of Palestinian villages which were destroyed or evacuated in 1948?

Dr Thabet Abu Rass

Dr Thabet Abu Rass is Co-Executive Director of The Abraham Initiatives, an NGO that promotes equality and Jewish-Arab partnership in Israel’s society.

Dr Abu Rass obtained his Ph.D. in the field of Regional Development and Middle East Studies from the University of Arizona, 1997. He is a political geographer and a former lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Development at Ben Gurion University as well as the Sapir College. Dr Abu Pass taught courses on ethnic relations, land, planning, and regional development.

Dr Abu Rass is an expert in Palestinian citizens of Israel and Arab-Jewish relations. He took a central role in the process of creating the “Future Visions” of Palestinian citizens of Israel and co-authored three of the future vision documents which have provided a road map for the status, engagement, and demands of Arab society in Israel. He is a prominent voice in promoting the rights of the Bedouins of the Negev and teaching of the Nakba in all Israeli schools.

Dr Abu Rass continues to publish articles regularly in the Hebrew and Arabic press.

As a result of the Nakba, his family split between Gaza refugee camps and the town of Kalanswa inside Israel where he lives. He will be talking about the pre 1948 Palestinian villagers and the destructive effect of the Nakba.

Dr Hala Qasrawi

We were also joined by Dr Hala Qasrawi, a recent graduate from An Najah National University Medical School.

As one of the top graduates, she was selected as one of the first candidates for a FQMS funded teaching fellowship.

She spoke about her experience training at An Najah and how this teaching fellowship has helped her.

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Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our exhibition in Bristol, A History of Palestine Through Posters at the Palestinian Museum, Bristol. It was an enjoyable afternoon. Many of you came to see our special historical posters, focusing on the occupation, resistance, solidarity and culture, and learn more about our work.

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Our Annual General Meeting was held at 7pm on Thursday 23rd September. As social distancing measures have only just started to lift the AGM was be held online again this year. 

The FQMS Annual General Meeting is a vital event at which we discuss our work over the last year and the future, including motions and elections to the Trustee Board.

Here is a summary of what was discussed:

• The Chairman summarised his statement on FQMS’s activity in 2020 as provided in the 2020 annual return.
• Accept the Report and Accounts of the Trustees for the year ending 31st December 2020 – agreed.
• Reappoint auditors Clarkson Hyde to assess our accounts for the year ending 31st December 2021 – agreed.
• Retire and reappoint the following trustees:
  • Khaled Dawas – agreed.
  • Ahmed Massoud – agreed.
  • Neil Serougi – agreed.
• Re-elect newly appointed trustees:
  • Yasmin Tabbakh – agreed.
  • Electra Simon – agreed.
  • Naseer Chia – agreed.
• Special resolutions:
  • Officially change the name of the charity to “Al Quds Foundation for Medical Schools in Palestine” – agreed.
  • Amend the Articles of Association to expand the scope of support – agreed.

For the full details of the resolutions that were passed, please read the minutes.

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To coincide with our live event on 26th June 2021, we had a beautiful acrylic on canvas inspired by the recent events in Gaza by artist William McDermid.

William McDermid is a Scottish artist living/working on a houseboat near Richmond. He enjoys using colour and texture, filling his work with emotion which his audience can interact with. 

This piece is called “Gaza – A Life in Rubble” and is 60 x 60 cm. The canvas is stretched on a wooden frame. 

The auction was live between Saturday 26th June and Saturday 3rd July 2021.

The auction raised £260 towards our programmes.

Click here for more information and to bid

Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in our webinar on 26th June.

Speakers included students and doctors we support on their journey to specialism. They talked about their experience living, studying and working in Palestine.

More information on our speakers:

Dr Najib Salameh

In partnership with Juzoor, we supported Najib during his laparoscopic gynaecological surgery training at University College Hospital London. He has been back in Palestine for the last two years. He’s been working as a consultant OBGYN at Beit Jala Government Hospital (referral centre for the district of Bethlehem), as well as teaching Al Quds University medical students.

Dr Khubaib Ayoub

In partnership with Juzoor, we are supporting Khubaib as a Clinical Fellow in Diabetes in Endocrinology at King’s College Hospital, London. He has the Palestinian and Arab Boards in Internal Medicine. He was a Internist and part time Lecturer at An-Najah National University.

Dr Saleh Eleiwa

Saleh graduated from Islamic University of Gaza Medical School. As a top graduate he was offered a teaching position there, which is FQMS funded.  

We were also joined by 2 medical students Alaa Sharawneh (Al Quds University, Jerusalem) and Angham Marea (An Najah University, Nablus)

Here’s the full recording of the June webinar:

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