Alumni Latest News
Othman Al-Helli: On Meeting Queen Elizabeth II
On the 10th of November 2011, MBI Alumnus Othman Al-Helli (UCL, 2008) had the pleasure and honour to meet HM Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to his residence, Goodenough College. Othman shares his experience with us here...
I was introduced to HM Queen Elizabeth II as an Iraqi doctor studying in London. The meeting itself did not last more than three or four minutes, during which she asked where about I am from in Iraq, what subject I am studying and at which university. She appeared to be impressed when I told her that I am studying for a PhD degree on Parkinson’s disease with the aim of finding out new methods to improve the current diagnostic approaches to the disease. For the meeting, I wore my father’s abayiah (traditional Arab coat), which he kindly sent from Baghdad just few days earlier. It was heavy indeed as it is made of thick wool to give maximum warmth. Many people, including the Queen, admired the abayiah and thought it was pretty and sophisticated. For me, it represents something beautiful from my homeland, Iraq, and a dear thing from my family who suffered a lot to get me where I am today.
Surprisingly, the highlight of that day was not meeting the Queen, but what happened later that day. That afternoon, I uploaded photos taken by my dear friend, Aaron Murphy. My mother saw the pictures on Facebook and rang me saying “I am very happy for you meeting the Queen and deeply proud of you representing your country. You looked so handsome, I wish to see you wedded very soon, Inshallah!” Those words touched me deeply, like nothing else has ever done. My mother, a village girl from the south of Iraq and a mother of ten children, is very happy for me and because of me. She is a woman that has been giving and giving all her life without asking for anything in return, never thinking of herself or her own needs. She is a primary school graduate, but all of her children have gone to university. She is a mother whose only dream is seeing her children successful and happy. Don’t get me wrong: meeting the Queen was awesome, but my mother being delighted, happy and proud is super awesome! Her happiness made my day, my month and my year!
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Tariq Al-Aabed: "A Doctor with Big Dreams"
After Dr. Tariq Al-Aabed (UCL, 2009) received a distinction in his MSc., he completed training in Dresden, Germany and then returned back to Iraq with his family.
Tariq recently got a job through Ministry of Higher Education of Iraq as a lecturer of Radiation Oncology at the Mosul College of Medicine Department of Radiology. Currently Tariq is the only doctor with an MSc. in Oncology from UCL who works in Iraq as a Radiation Oncologist, and he is one of just two doctors who work as senior oncologists at Mosul Oncology Hospital and who work with the hospital’s new linear accelerator, which was recently imported to Iraq.
Tariq’s clinic for cancer treatment helps treat poor patients from Mosul, North of Iraq, Baghdad, Anbar, Tikrit and Deyala. He is currently hoping to start a PhD programme in Radiation Oncology in order to facilitate the opening of an MSc. and Diploma in Radiation Oncology for his colleagues and Iraqi doctors to get a degree in Oncology and also to aid his pursuit of opening a cancer research centre in Mosul which would be unique to the Middle East.
Tariq’s course at UCL saw him study at five different European countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany. Tariq’s training included visits to many organisations related to Oncology such as EORT, ECCO, SIOP and ESTRO in Brussels, and workshops including the EURATOM CARDIORISK workshop in pathology department of Technical University of Munich. The most important event for him during this time was meeting with Dr. Adamos Adamou, the Chair of the ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Developing Countries Task Force and Member of the European Parliament, in the European Parliament.
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Fahmia Al- Fotih and SAVE in Yemen:
Empowering Women to Counter Extremism
Since her graduation, Fahmia Al-Fotih, one of our Alumni from Yemen, has been working hard on vital issues in Yemen such as women empowerment and how to utilise it to tackle extremism that mostly affects women. Fahmia joined Sisters Against Violent Extremism (SAVE Yemen), an organisation that recently brought together a group of women from human rights groups, academic institutions, the press, and university students, to discuss how Yemeni women can become involved to face extremism and terrorism.
"The whole world is focusing on Yemen and terrorism right now, but the true Yemenis have no voice. People are talking about Yemen, but no one knows what Yemenis think or how they feel," says Fahmia Al-Fotih, SAVE Yemen coordinator.
For more details, please click on the link below: https://exchange.mbiinternational.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=e9a14f6766ba4ba0954593f7cb546a5c&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.yementimes.com%2fdefaultdet.aspx%3fSUB_ID%3d33446
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Abdurrahman Khaled Saif: Achievements in Journalism Translation
Our congratulations go to Abdurrahman who was just awarded his MA with Merit from the University of Westminster in Journalism Translation. This achievement makes Abdurrahman the first Yemeni researcher to complete such a degree. An article in Al Thawra Yemeni newspaper about these achievements discusses his thesis, titled ‘’The Basis of Making a News Item’’, which examines the main principles of Arabic-English translation of news and focuses on the importance of the journalist knowledge of customising the news when translating.
To read the article (in Arabic): http://althawranews.net/detailes.aspx?newsid=29539
Congratulations Ammar Al Naimi!
MBI Scholar Ammar Al Naimi has just gained a distinction in his Masters’ Degree from UCL.
Ammar, who is from Iraq, completed a Masters’ Degree in Prenatal Genetics and Fetal Medicine in September. The research undertaken for his dissertation is to be published, and will be useful for families undertaking certain fertility procedures.
Ammar is currently helping our new Iraqi scholars to settle in to life in London.
