The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) Branch at An-Najah University concluded the activities of the Internship of Medical Students in Action for Refugees, IMSTAR 2011. The IMSTAR is a student exchange project that the IFMSA has implemented for the third time at An-Najah in cooperation with the Federation’s branch in the Netherlands.

Eleven Dutch students and fourteen Palestinians participated in the Project and received training at Rafidia and the National hospitals in Nablus. As part of the Project also, the participants organized a summer camp for children in Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus in cooperation with the Happy Childhood Center in the Camp. More than 100 children participated in the event where they joined art, music, mural painting, English and sport classes leading to substantial reinforcement of the cultural exchange between the Palestinians and the Dutch.

Members of the Federation also organized field visits for the internationals to the different cities in the West Bank where they were introduced to the suffering and difficulties that the people experience every day because of the occupation and its practices.

A special celebration was organized to honor the participants in the IFMSA’s project where Reem Sawafta presented a video that summarized the Project’s achievements. Riham Ghanem, Head of the Human Rights and Refugees Committee and the General Coordinator of the Project, delivered a speech in which she expressed her happiness to witness the success of the Project; she also hoped to organize further similar projects in the future as such events help reflect the suffering and the challenging reality of the Palestinians’ daily life especially students.

Loes de Langste, the Dutch Coordinator, thanked An-Najah and its staff for their hospitality and urged her Dutch colleagues to transfer what they saw in Palestine and educate their people back in the Netherlands about the suffering that the Palestinians are experiencing every day under the Israeli occupation.

At the end of the celebration, Nimer Abu Shihab, Chair of the IFMSA, Khairi Shalhoub, Vice Chair of the IFMSA for External Affairs, and Riham Ghanem, Coordinator of the Project, presented certificates of appreciation and souvenirs to the participants.