Beyond the Curriculum

The Palestinian Medical Forum-Student Branch is a branched commission from the Palestinian Medical Forum, which was founded in 2006 as a non-governmental organisation registered in the Ministry of Interior Affairs under license number 7931.

The Palestinian Medical Forum-Student Branch works within the Islamic University’s Faculty of Medicine, focusing mainly on developing medical students’ abilities in the Gaza Strip. It takes care of the medical student from day one until graduation. This is achieved through continuous activities and events to build future leader doctors.

Target groups:

• The medical students’ community in Gaza, by concentrating on creating a suitable educational environment, including scientific, practical, cultural, and entertainment aspects, through holding different activities, scientific courses, cultural gatherings, and entertainment events.

• Society-oriented services, including awareness initiatives, health education, and services offered to fellow students from outside the medical field.

General objectives:

1. Building medical students with influential and strong characters

2. Developing the scientific and practical skills of medical students

3. Encouraging and developing medical students’ scientific research skills

4. Facilitating the social responsibility roles of medical students

5. Helping medical students in the different scientific, practical, financial, and social aspects.

6. Strengthening the relations between medical students within the community provided by the Palestinian Medical Forum as a student body.

Subcommittees of the Palestinian Medical Forum-Student Branch

The Palestinian Medical Forum consists of four subcommittees representing the beating heart of the Forum. Those are the scientific committee, culture and advocacy committee, entertainment committee, and media committee.

Students may join their committee of preference at the beginning of each academic year based on preference, abilities, and intellectual and creative skills.

1. Scientific committee:

The Forum’s scientific committee offers different courses, workshops, and partnerships with local and international community organizations. These include first aid courses, scientific research courses, time management courses, mentoring courses for freshmen students, competitions, CV writing workshops, and after-graduation meetings, as well as other activities aimed at improving students’ academic skills.

2. Culture and advocacy committee:

The purpose of this committee is to cultivate an educated Muslim doctor who is well versed in his religion and national identity. This is achieved through seminars, literary discussions, and mental and cultural competitions. It includes the Abu Bakar Quran memorization centre, which is mentored and run by committee members. The committee also runs a literature salon, where student literary writings are presented and discussed. Students may also compete in different cultural and religious competitions; for example, memorizing a chapter in the Quran or a number of Hadiths, regular seminars and contests, debate courses, and book discussions.

3. Entertainment committee:

This committee aims to provide students with healthy means to relieve the academic and psychological pressures accumulated due to medical education’s immense requirements and stresses. This is brought into fruition through events such as field trips, camps, football leagues, chess competitions, poetry competitions, video games leagues, cake making and decoration courses, Henna inscription, and others.

4. Media and publicity committee:

The Media and publicity committee is concerned with advertising the activities of the Forum, running the Forum’s social media pages and website, and photographing, designing, and montaging the Forum’s promotions and brochures with a high level of professionalism.

Additionally, this committee offers a platform for improving the media design and video montage skills for students by holding courses that teach photography and photo and video editing courses.