On September 7^th, a delegation from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) visited the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as the Forensic Medicine Institute at An-Najah University. The delegation included: Sarah Donnelly from the UNODC’s office in Vienna, Kholoud Najem and Elaine Harvey from the UNODC’s office in Jerusalem, as well as Khaled Rajab from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) the principal donor of the Forensic Medicine Project in Palestine.

The delegation was also accompanied by a delegation from the Palestinian Ministry of Justice that included: Dr. Ziyad Al-Ashhab, Dr. Saber Al-Aloul and Dr. Sameer Abu Za’rour. The delegation was received by Dr. Rami Al-Zagha, Assistant Dean for Basic Biomedical Sciences Phase, and Dr. Rayyan Al-Ali, Director of the Forensic Medicine Institute at An-Najah. The guests were introduced to the advanced level that the Faculty of Medicine and the Forensic Medicine Institute have attained with respect to the educational and professional levels. They were also introduced to the kind of services that the Institute and the Faculty offer to medical students and the local society.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed the Institute’s need for a training program to train physicians on histological diagnosis of autopsy cases. The delegation also visited the different sections of the Institute which they described as impressive and expressed their interest to support the Institute based on their belief in the important services it provides to the students and the local society.