Angel Sightings: February 11, 2008

Two receive humanitarian awards from medical society

Dr. Basheer Ahmed, a psychiatrist and chairman and director of the Muslim Community Center for Human Services, received a humanitarian award from the Tarrant County Medical Society, Fort Worth, Texas, for founding and working at the Al-Shifa clinic, a free clinic held every Saturday for those who don’t have health insurance.
Fort Worth Business Press, TX - Jan 28

Nepal's poor the focus for local medical student

Robert Silverwood, a medical student at the University of Aberdeen, is part of a group of seven medical students who are travelling to Kathmandu, Nepal to begin a five-week volunteering project. The initiative has been set up through the university's HELP (humanitarian educational long-term projects) Society -– a student-run, non-profit organisation which allows members to travel to developing countries and work on projects ranging from construction to childcare.
John O'Groat Journal, UK - Feb 6

Doctors meet urgent needs in Iran

Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Dr. Mohammad Mazaheri is among those who are upgrading emergency health care in Iran. The Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic physician has revisited his native country frequently since 1995 to treat cleft patients and teach native doctors how to operate on them. In 2000, at the behest of the University of Tehran, he and other doctors began giving first aid to Iran's emergency medicine system.
Lancaster Newspapers, PA - Jan 19

Doctors start medical school in Africa

The East-African nation of Eritrea, a country bordered by Sudan and Ethiopia with a population of more than four million, has only five pediatricians. On Jan. 2, with help from George Washington University doctors and Physicians for Peace, six general practitioners without post-graduate training started as the first class in the pediatric residency program at Eritrea's first medical school.
The GW Hatchet, DC - Jan 22

Iraqi Nurses Struggle Against Medical Shortages, Violence, and Disease

Working as a nurse in Baghdad today is becoming increasingly complicated. Baghdad’s hospitals are admitting more patients because of an increase in water-borne diseases and war-related injuries. The escalating number of patients is compounded by the shortages in basic medications, equipment, and supplies.
Nurse.com, VA - Jan 28

"We don't know where else we would go"

Medair began supporting Abu Zuruj clinic in 2002 before the current conflict in West Darfur had even begun. In the current environment of conflict and insecurity, its continued presence is crucial for the affected community. Medair supplies the clinic with drugs, trains the staff, provides the clinic with an important link to the Ministry of Health, and conducts regular supervision visits – as they are doing on this day.
ReliefWeb - Jan 31