This is a recording from our GEM mentorship training day.
If you have any questions for the recorded session, please direct them towards mentorship@gemedu.online.
To sign up to our mentorship scheme as a mentor, please register using this link:
This on-demand teaching session will feature discussions on the challenges of mentoring in hostile environments relevant to medical professionals, particularly those in Gaza. The speakers are dedicated medical students and professionals who have made significant contributions to the lives of their peers, with particular emphasis on trauma and orthopedics. They will share their experience and details about leadership roles, online medical teaching efforts, and mentorship schemes they are part of. The session will also introduce various esteemed panelists who specialize in different aspects of medicine and have been deeply involved in humanitarian missions in regions facing healthcare crises. This session offers an opportunity for medical professionals to gain insights into dealing with challenges and learning first-hand from experts involved in international healthcare initiatives.
Warning!
The following transcript was generated automatically from the content and has not been checked or corrected manually.
Welcome everyone. Uh I hope you had a fabulous break and you were able to, you know, consolidate the new learning points from the sessions this morning and are able to take uh forward some of them uh this afternoon. So this afternoon, we'll have a discussion on the challenges of mentoring in the hostile environment. So before we began Eliana, I think it's best we introduce ourselves to our audience so that they can get to know us, know us a bit more. So I'll go first. So my name is I'm a final year medical student at UL, which is the University of Central Lancashire. My motivation to get involved with gems uh stems from empathy and solidarity. Uh I'm a medical student myself and I feel a deep desire to contribute meaningfully meaningfully to the lives of my peers in, especially during these challenging times. I bring with me extensive experience and leadership roles on a regional level. And these positions have owned my ability to deliver opportunities to students and it is a skill that I hope to apply in coordinating this unique scheme. I'm committed to bridging mentorship gaps for medical students in Gaza, complementing the online medical teaching efforts, which are already established by the G platform. So beyond my academic uh side of things and leadership, I do enjoy um going out with friends, exploring the nature, through my walks and through travels. I also have a cricketing background and was privileged enough to represent a country internationally on a professional level. I hold a special interest in trauma and orthopedics which aligns with my current work. So as we speak right now, I'm on site, serving as one of the organizing leads for daily trauma course, which provides a hands on opportunity for um trainees, medical doctors, uh course, surgical trainees interested in orthopedics uh through workshop exposure uh featuring our esteemed registrars and consultants at EL HD. So at the moment, I'm hosting two events today. So it's both my privilege, my honor um and testament to my dedication to both surgical education and mentorship. So I'm excited to see how the GS mentorship scheme will evolve and how it will provide opportunities and hope to our mentees in Gaza. So, thank you so much guys. And um it's an honor for me to be here. Thank you. So, hi, everyone. My name is Eliana Troi and I am a foundation year one resident doctor in Birmingham and I am currently on my general surgery rotation. And prior to that, I was on respiratory. I graduated this summer from the University of Exeter Medical School where I spent my first three years in exeter and my final two years of training in co in Truro in Cornwall. So the gem mentorship scheme first came into fruition when in December of last year, I started gathering a group of medical students with the hope that we could organize together to support our colleagues in Gaza during these unspeakable times. And while I was in Truro, during my final year of studies, I was introduced to Palm Academy by Doctor Hassam Adwan, who some of you may recognize from the Gaza educate medics, resurrecting medical education in Gaza conference just over two weeks ago. And Professor Mahmoud Laba where we met in January to discuss what would eventually become the J scheme. A few months later, gem was officially launched to the public and a part of it was the gem mentorship scheme aiming to supplement the proficient, the professional educational and holistic development of our girls and peers by pairing them with our pool of dedicated and experienced international mentors from around the world. So to be truthful, this is actually the first time I've ever had a leading role in any committee. And I'm extremely humbled by the overwhelming response that has come from our collective call to action. I am driven by hope as both a doctor and a citizen of this world and I will do everything within my power to see the fairer and kinder world. I and so many others like myself, dream of come to fruition and supporting the new generation of Gaza's doctors is a special privilege that I will continue to work with for the rest of my life as a medical student and as a current resident, having outstanding peer and senior mentors was truly invaluable as it can as it can provide truly unparalleled support for your career and your personal development. As a young trainee, I would not be as motivated or developed as I am today without the help of someone who has kindly taken a chance on me. And I think that we can all think of someone who comes to mind as a role model no matter your grade or experience. I'm much like Hansa have a special interest in trauma and orthopedics for which I am preparing my course, surgical training, application and all the skills and experience that comes with such aspirations in my free time. I enjoy drawing and painting as well as reading. My favorite genres are fantasy and horror slash gothic literature. And my favorite author of all time is JRR talking and I can talk on days for what I like so much about his works. But namely, I am invested in the underlying theme of hope, which is what this entire scheme is about. But that's enough of us. We'll move on to our panel discussion shortly where I will introduce our next esteemed guests. But before I do, I will put in the chat, the email address you can contact both myself and Hansa if you have any questions after this event, that have not been answered over the course of today. So without further ado, let me just start um introducing the panelists. And for that, I will invite Mr Good Aer who has joined us to the stage first. Ok. Yeah. All right. So with us today, we have Professor Nel Muko who is a B Board Ceric, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. And she is joining us online from the US and she specializes in challenging adult populations and emergency psychiatrist. She is also an award winning mentor to both students and resident doctors. And with us, we also have Dr Riyad Al Maha and he is the Chair of Palmed Europe and one of the key members of Palmed Europe. And he has been absolutely instrumental in developing gem from its inception to its launch. He has also served in a recent humanitarian mission to Gaza as a part of Palmed Europe's initiatives and we have with us as well. Um Mr Tim Good Aer who I am inviting to the stage who, and he is um a highly decorated plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in Oxford and he has, he has been involved in a recent humanitarian mission to Gaza as well during the current and previous crises. So welcome all. Um Let me just let's just wait for Mr Good Aer to join the stage. Before we begin the event. So the way that this will work is that we will have five questions from ourselves. So, just to start with, um I'll let everyone introduce themselves if they have anything to add from my introductions, and I'll just go around the room in the same order that I started with. So, um Professor Moko, is there anything you'd like to add for yourself? Um N No, thank you. I think your introduction was very good. I'm professor and not associate professor. I've grown up since. Oh, and I um my research focuses a lot on the technology that we use to enhance mental health, so to track and do better diagnostics. And I've been involved um for AZA specifically in programs that support the therapists. And so as you know, um it's not just uh of course, the students are bearing the burden of the healthcare there but the therapists and people trying to support the population um are having huge problems because the trauma isn't over yet. So most of our pro programs through GH I mm are about that. All right. And um Dr MHA, is there anything you would like to add? Thank you very much. I am the ex president of Pal Europe. I am now the president of the what we call a board for Palm Europe. I don't know many of you may be aware. We have nine branch of Palm in European countries and uh you know, we are doing activities in different aspects. And mainly we were focusing even before uh this war started on the academic and, and the teaching, continuous teaching. And for this reason, Palmet Academy was founded and uh it was mainly focusing on developing the subspeciality and supporting the current speciality there. But because of the situation in Gaza, we give the priority for the gym program at the time being. But hopefully soon this uh as this program, everybody know that it has been now well established. And I would like to send a thanks for cancer and for yourself, Elina for this fantastic, you know, uh conference which reflect that, that the gym program now is acting well and reaching the stage of student engagement, mentorship and other things. Thank you very much. Thank you very much and mister Good, is there anything you would like to add your own to your own introduction? OK. If I just put a slight thumbnail um on that, my, my sort of background, I've, I've done a considerable amount of work globally over, over sort of four decades or so since. Um well, actually, since um largely since working in Tanzania in, in the mid eighties, many, many years ago. Um But my involvement uh in uh in Palestine has been uh since since 2012 and certainly a decade of going to Gaza and exploring the um uh the, the background there. Uh And I have, we have been we, we're trying to build a, a training program for, um, uh, for reconstructive plastic surgery over a period of about a decade and it, uh, obviously the wheels came off the wagon in a fairly major way on October the seventh. We were due to sign a, an agreement with a curriculum program at that time, but I've had lots of contact with people in that period. I have only been back once during the war. It's as you know, I was, I wanted to go back subsequently. But since Rafa has been closed, it's almost impossible to get there with less than a one month stay and a a one suitcase. And it's, they've just made it very difficult to, to travel. So uh so that's my problem at the moment. But um but I have kept in touch with a lot of people in the meanwhile. So, um and I'm very grateful to join you. Thank you for coming. So, firstly, I'm going to ask the question, I'll open it to the panel and we'll go along the speakers to um have some to give everyone the opportunity to answer. So the first question is, what are some of the key challenges and difficulties facing by students and trainees in a hostile environment? Professor? Moan, is there anything you'd like to say? Yes. So let me start for those of you who have done mentorship but have not really studied. It's a formal aspects. Let me just start by summarizing what is a mentorship uh re relationship. So as it started, um ever since medicine has started, it is strictly the relationship between a mentor and a mentee. And the aim of this relationship is to advance the career uh of your student is to improve technical skills and to ultimately be part of a network. So I could join a particular lab to learn a skill for example. And that could be the end of it. But ideally, you'd want that mentorship re re relationship to grow in uh uh in inclusion to a network whereby my previous mentees become both my friends, my colleagues, et cetera. And even without the issue with Raza, even without the ongoing political strife, mentorship has always been a challenge for certain racial and ethnic group. It's always uh had challenges for first generation students. So if you're the first in your family to go to college or to become a medical doctor, it is always a um very tricky situation when you have sexual and gender minority students or those with disabilities, et cetera. So, mentorship is not a rosy relationship to start with because if you are, if you are a little bit different, then it is tricky. Of course, once you add in the problems that are going on with Raza right now, uh from food insecurity to act of war, to connectivity problems, to uncertainty in general, then you've really um seen a whole different set of challenges. The second point to keep in mind is that mentoring itself has evolved. So again, even if you forget the problems, mentoring used to be very straightforward. You go to somebody really famous and you're like, oh I know this person by knowing this person, then that opens doors and you get opportunities. It's not like that anymore. But students right now feel like they need a mix of both formal mentorship, the I know a famous person, but also a bit of more informal supportive mentorship. You could do this et cetera. And that's because as a profession, we are a lot more attuned to burn out. We are a lot more attuned to the demands of work life balance. We're also a lot more attuned to what it takes to keep longevity in medicine. Uh because people leave medicine, they have the option whereas our previous generations did not. So while the core relationship has not changed, it's both evolved on a system and an individual level. Uh That being said, mentorship really transforms lives. It's essential to individual success because it helps your professional identity development. It helps motivation and the treaty should bring a balance between your current way of thinking and your ability to explore new ways of thinking. So then let's take all of these principles and think about the students in Gaza right now or students in any war zone. Um You cannot have proper access to the things that you need to graduate and to evolve. You do not have access to good opportunities in terms of research, fellowship, et cetera. Not to mention that you might not actually be able to do your work. You might not be able to have food and electricity. And that way you won't be able to show up to those mentorship sessions. You can't say yes, I will volunteer to write a paper. So I think the first transformation here is that the mentorship is gonna become a lot more of a supportive primary relationship focused on survival before we put in the other pieces of the puzzle which are about growth. Um I want to remind everybody that in data done outside of war torn areas. When you have proper mentorship, there is better retention, especially in uh science fields and biomedical fields for underrepresented groups. So that's why we are all here today. And ultimately, it does give you the role models, especially for young women because there aren't enough role models. And I think I'll pass on. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for that um Answer. So I'm going to move down the line and um um Mr Good here. Is there anything you'd like to add to that? I come from AAA very different generation when mentorship was not defined. Uh I know what people meant by it. But actually, people were approached, if you were somebody who was um an accessible person, perhaps had empathy with, with, with whether it be students, trainees, uh other colleagues uh or, or such a life. There, there was no, this wasn't talked about as mentorship, it was just about partnering and, and walking together through life in, in various things and sharing um ideas. And I think what has changed is that, that we're much more sort of perhaps self conscious and aware of processes and things like this. So we, so this has been defined and, and become something which everyone expects to do. Uh But there are demands on it and there's the as, as Dr Mu has, has suggested there's formal ways of organizing this. But there are, there are difficulties in some circumstances between uh the with the barriers of age, gender and so forth and, and partnership. So it's so it's become more and more difficult and I think woven into that I would, there's an expression, I don't know if this word means anything to you, but people talk about the hermeneutic of suspicion. In, in recent years, we have, we approach almost every relationship. Now with a degree of suspicion, we have to have barriers and processes to avoid abuse, which we're all very aware of. But it builds up into it makes people, some people quite reticent to uh to, to take part in, in partnerships and in, in mentorship because we bring in with it. There's an innate suspicion, particularly if there's a gender imbalance or a power imbalance or, or whatever, and that's almost inevitable in mentorship relationships um in some respects. Well, it, it will be surprising if there were, if every woman were mentored by another woman or every man by another man and so forth and, and, and, and there are always age difficulty. The se the next thing I just want to mention also is that there are demands on mentors in my experience, in departments in, in hospitals and depart and academic departments in Oxford. Here, there are always, there will always be perhaps about uh 25% of the people who are the ones who are always in demand to be looked at as mentors um uh and approached so they get overloaded and they, and so there is a sense in which um if, if you're in a mentorship relationship, uh people have to, it's a two way thing where people have to understand that there are limitations on how much time you have to spend, especially in what I want to add to. This is the social media environment where social media is so immediate demanding and particularly for people of my generation. Uh As you, as you go through life, you get a bigger tree of people you've met and relationships you've had over your life and your, the number of whatsapp groups just explodes the number of contacts and et cetera, et cetera gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And it's very hard to constantly do meet that demand and particularly when you, I've just been to another meeting, uh and spoken at a meeting in, in a plastic surgery in the annual meeting. And there will be, uh, there are already a whole load of emails, whats apps and so forth to, to answer. So, you know, so these things are quite demanding. So the final thing I want to do then is allied to that is just to talk about. There is a, a change in value systems and structures across our society which is changing and it, and we have to appreciate that, that there are differences between the sort of experience and age group. The final thing about hostile environments and difficult environments is I am a passionate believer in face to face. Uh what face to face relationships do. It is extremely hard I think to, I think we all recognize this to, to do everything in the virtual environment and it's great. It's, it's enabled us to break down barriers. But so my, my, my greatest social links over which have been enduring over many generations. Uh many sort of decades have been built from initially from travel in contact with travel. When you can drop as a professional into one, I can get on a plane and I can be in Ukraine, China, Bangladesh, Tanzania Congo, somewhere like that. And within six hours or so you're in inside, you're inside the environment and you can build relationships in a way that it is so difficult to do online. So that's, that creates its own tensions anyway, I've, that's taken much too long, much of your time, but those are some thoughts to begin with. No, that was a fantastic breakdown of following um Professor Moan's point and um now I'm just going to go to um Dr Alma Shaka to see if he has anything to add specifically on the hostile environment um side of things because I do because you have quite extensive experience regarding that as well, especially for the ongoing current crisis in Gaza. Thank you. Uh Thank you Lina. And uh we thank for them and uh for what they said, II just want very quickly give you um you know, a very brief rough idea about the situation of the student there because um you know, Geza is a unique place in everything and the student there also they are special student. Honestly, it's not just because um you know, we are sympathy with them for their situation. No, even before this war, Gaza medical student were, they were special and everybody I think who visit there, I would agree with this fact. Um you know, as I said many times in, in when I went there. Uh Honestly, I it was my first time being to Gaza, unfortunately, however, I was working in, in supporting the the health sector and supporting education of the medical in general for a long time. But it was my first visit and I thought that I'll find doctors with me in the department. But, uh, the plastic surgeon, maybe 10, if he has gone recently, it's mainly supported by eight medical students and one doctor, one of the medical student, uh, recently, uh uh a Rahman. He was killed by attack to his home. It was the probably the only visit he paid to his home and he was killed. So what, what first brought my attention? I in the first operation I was doing um the medical student are the assistant, the nurse assistant and the medical other student they are doing circulating, they are bringing the things they are holding the list. Everything was by medical student. And I was amazed, you know what's going on, you know, where are the doctors? If this is the medical student, they are doing all this work anyhow, after some time, I understand that they are the only people who are running the show at that moment. And not only in plastic surgeon department, it was an old department and I realized that they have taken very heavy duty and multitask duties and they are doing it very well. Now this is just to tell you about what, what they are doing now currently in the medical student and also with just little chat with them, I realized, you know what I used to hear from all my colleague who visited like them and you know, Professor Menard and so many people, they were saying the same thing, they were impressed by the knowledge and the skills these students have. So, um I said, ok, then uh how we can help these people if they are that they are so good in this, we, we need to, to do something and they were warning that time about that they are going to lose the year because they thought that the war going to stop soon, but still the year will be lost. And I told them, have you heard about the G scheme? And of course that time nobody heard about the G scheme. Uh And as you said, it was probably just after the meeting we had on online here before. So from that point, I contacted Professor Lean, I said, we, we will need to push this scheme very quick and you know, to help these people. However, this is something maybe relevant to our talk. But still just to give a background for everybody who hear why we are here and what we are doing here now, honestly, before all this stuff, before the war, before there was uh an organization, I think who approached pal, they want us to help them in mentorship scheme there. It's not related to the to the war, it was before the war. So this give you a hint that those people, they were to this level of knowledge because I know you know, where I studied long ago and where my kids afterwards studied and some other places, they don't know anything about mentorship and about this kind of activity for the student. So those guys, they were ahead to all the people, II believe at least in their region, if not in in many other countries in the world. Now, why I was keen really when I heard about this activity that we need to push it because honestly, uh I might have said this also before. Yes. Um what Doctor Nadal was saying, we need to give these people support. But honestly, they are very resilient and they, they were, they were supporting us. They were saying, don't worry, you know, everything will be ok, we will be fine, we will stand in our feet. So they were very resilient from this aspect. But still, of course, you know, the situation they are facing is unhuman situation. And it it never been, I think at least to my knowledge in the history, nobody has faced it like this, that group of people just isolated in a small piece of island. They have no contact with the only some visitors comes to them and this has given them a big hope and you know, few people can come out. It's a unique, you know, situation, not only from now, even from before the war. And in spite of this situation, this is the student we are talking about. They are very good quality student, very you know, um uh ambitious to learn and to expand their knowledge, they look forward to become specialist, they keep contact with everybody they come across, they try to, you know, invest in every opportunity comes across them. So, you know, in spite of all these challenges, they are willing to engage and they are willing to, to, to, you know, to get the guidance and to, to, to be guided. They, they are not arrogant that ok, we know everything we can do everything. No, still they are, they are keen to improve themselves and this is very positive point on them. And I think, you know, uh there will be some challenges. I'm not trying to say that it will be going to be easy to help them. There will be some challenges and I'm going directly to the point you asked, you know, I agree fully with them that, you know, the human contact and direct contact is much, much, you know, um stronger and much better than the online. But still, of course, we have to accommodate and we have to live with the situation and I'm hoping soon that the world will stop. And many of the people who will be engaged in this program should go in a, in a visit there and meet the student face to face. But we want this now to start, we don't want to lose any time because they were keen not to lose any time. The other point. Also, you know, here in, in atmosphere like where we live and most of us live II it's easy to give a plan to somebody. He will find all the facilities to, to, to improve himself. He find this course he can find, you know, this contact, he will find this group of study this lecture. But there all this structure has been demolished completely. It was very fragile from before as II started my to and now it's gone to zero. So I think everyone wants to involve in this program. He should look politically and you know, he should come with, with solutions, not just only throwing suggestions on the student as we do here all. Oh yeah, you need to do it. Oh, you want this, you go do this and that, that no, it's different. You want to help them, you know, uh by making their life easy, not just throwing on them some suggestion which is not realistic. You want to bring something in reality, which is achievable and you know, it, it it can help them. I don't want to go more. I take more. I would just want to give more time for a discussion and for people to get engaged and ask the question. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much. Um So everyone has actually kind of answered the next question I was going to pose anyway, regarding the changing context of how mentorship has been over the years. And obviously how we are in a special, special situation at the moment. Um But it is not perhaps entirely unique in the history of mentorship when it comes to mentoring in a hostile environment where the people who are seeking mentorship, the students and the trainees are facing facing such impossible challenges. But again, that every situation itself is unique and there are different ways that we can, that we can all adapt to it both as mentors and as trainees. Now. II, so can I add one, just one sentence? Yeah, II think, I mean, who is? It's just like an invitation to everybody who listens from people who are existing in this program? You know, the II heard a fantastic news from Professor Dubai that a group of doctors in Manchester where, where I work for and it wasn't my uh my initiative. They approached the hospital to find places for the student to come and do a clinical year in some of the hospital. And I think, you know, this could be uh like a model for everyone who's listening to us to do this approach because those students, they will be highly benefited. You know, if everybody is doing ment menting for group of students or one or two or whatever and he approach and he get them to come for certain certain period of time to spend, you know, the time in, in advanced atmosphere like where we live and we practice. I think this will be highly beneficial. Thank you. Thank you so much. And um the next question I have um is to focus of some on to focus on the mentors for just a moment. So the main focus of the scheme of course is the students. However, the mentors will also face some challenges. Number one, most of us will be, will be running the scheme from a remote environment. So I just wanted to ask um Professor Moko, uh what are some of these strategies and methods of signposting to ways of dealing with some of the challenges and difficulties that we explored earlier in this situation. How can we signpost the our mentees? What are the methods that we can use to encourage them to seek these channels? Now, as a part of the GEM scheme, we are working on a um psychiatric and mental health um support system which the students can access. However, as doctor Alma Shaker has mentioned, a lot of these students are saying, are the ones consoling they're seniors actually in a lot of this time. And it's thinking about the barriers that a lot of both students and mentors have built up in order to be resilient to show resilience and how to say essentially that it's all right to seek help and how do we encourage that behavior? Um What this is, this is an excellent line of thought. It's more than one question, but let's kind of disentangle them. So there is a question in the chat about, give us concrete examples uh about give the students realistic things, not suggestions. So let me link that to what you just asked. So if I am mentoring somebody who is in a well resourced environment, I would say let's take a look at your resume, you need more papers, you need maybe this, that or the other to add. Um And then we would work towards that and the challenges they might face would be things like, well, I couldn't write the literature well, or maybe you missed a particular area that you did not summarize. Well, here, what we're dealing with is actually survival, right? And because we're dealing with survival, the role, the role of the mentor becomes a little different because we are dealing with basic life functions and we have to kind of keep, help them, keep going. I agree with what Doctor Riyadh had said in terms of these students are extremely resilient. The the people in Palestine in general and GZA especially are a model of resilience. But let me put on my psychiatry psychiatrist hat for a second, resilience is like drawing on credit being resilient is like basically saying I didn't have enough of a paycheck this month, but it's OK. I can make it through the month and there is a limit to how resilient, resilient one could be. And what you'll see is that right now people are like, yep, I have an end goal. I want to graduate from medical school. I want this, I want that and we will support them through that. But we also have to keep in mind that the minute they are in a quieter, calmer, less threatening environment, something else might come up, right? So a mentor's duty here or a support duty is to also realize that resilience has an end and you don't wanna overdraw your credit. So that's kind of what you wanna think about. And this is where you, you're not just thinking of mental health support for the students, but also for the mentors I had, I had not mentioned initially because it didn't seem pertinent, but I am the president elect for the National Arab American Medical Association. And this year, our international conference will be in Dublin in July and we will be partnering very closely with Palmd because we want to make sure to have these conversations and we know that pal med and other institutions in Europe have been huge in, in this support. So, so you want to teach the mentors that what you're seeing is not just burn out what you're seeing could also be posttraumatic stress disorders and much more serious mental issues just because the student is super resilient and they are wonderful, does not mean that they will not need that extra kind of support. Right? Then there is a very practical aspect that none of us has mentioned probably because we don't have control over it, but II cannot get you a visa. N none of, none of the people on this call can facilitate the stuff. So sometimes we have to learn some more advocacy and engage in some more advocacy. Probably more than an average mentor would, right? I might need to write a letter in support of somebody. I might need to go and figure out what organizations can help my student come to that here, et cetera between palmed and Nama. We've, we've collected a lot of money to support students scholarships and we've done a lot of these things. But placing the students has been interesting like we, we have been trying to place them in multiple places, but we cannot get them to the US, for example, very easily, right? So we are having to go from the individual mentor mentee relationship to kind of tackle the systemic factors a little bit. And I think that's a very interesting challenge and sometimes the students don't realize uh what it takes and, and that's ok. They don't need to carry that burden. So back to mental health, um mental health resources start with uh basic support. So just having the opportunity to talk about what you're going through is an excellent first step. Usually in environments that have close knit social circles, you have that. So as Doctor Riad mentioned, you go to aa everybody talking and it's ok to talk and politics feels almost like a national sport. Um I'm from Lebanon politics is a national sport. And so the first level of support is usually present and it, you can take it for granted because everybody will talk to you, everybody will ask you, everybody will check how you're doing. Um And so if you think of a triangle model where your first level is nonspecific support, what we're really struggling with is the level above, it's the individual therapy and the specialized trauma focused interventions. And that's kind of what most of the efforts will go towards. And I hope that every person who is educated enough to be a doctor will say, yeah, I'm I'm having nightmares. Let me go get therapy for that. So to me, it is a given that if I have symptoms, I would go, but I also have to be realistic and say that mental health faces a lot of stigma. So some people will try first to make it work without interventions. So I think that a primary role of a mentor, if I were to ask everybody here as a mentor, please encourage your students to get therapy. Having somebody to talk to who's a specialist can make a big difference, it could be effective, it could be results oriented and it might make a big difference long term. Thank you very much for that. Um So I've just got a comment in the chat from Amar who said, um are we talking about that part of the mentorship would be a possibility of aiming the mentee to come abroad to learn. And as you, you've mentioned already, this is, and it's almost impossible to um be able to facilitate this. I mean, in the United Kingdom, in the conference just past two weeks ago, there was a number of three students that we have from Gaza who are able to, who have been able to come to the UK to some capacity to continue the studies or who have just been able to come to the UK to escape the current situation. And that is appalling. That is deeply, deeply disturbing that we only have three students out of, out of thousands. Now, coming back to the point about setting setting standards about and expectations of the mental of mentors as you've kind of outlined regarding um the ways that in which things have changed and the ways that things are currently changing with the um current crisis. Now, earlier on, we had um a workshop delivered by um Miss Lucy Beer who is a um who is a um coach and trains in mentorship. And there's a concept, there was some concepts that were brought up about advocacy and supporting self development, but also perhaps patronage. Now, I'm going to ask this to Mr Goodacre since you've had quite um the experience over four decades. And I just wanted you to kind of think to comment on perhaps the different forms in which mentorship has kind of manifested itself and the common vein that has run throughout, throughout the different mentorships that perhaps you have experienced or perhaps part in, in, in your life. Yeah. Oh, that's a, it's a very big question. And did, should I just focus on, on Gaza and, and Palestine rather than, than elsewhere? But uh I think um it, it is, it is quite natural when you travel there, there will be um degrees of enthusiasm for wanting to develop in along a professional line that that and this, this will, this will be sort of seeking advice and guidance on how to, how to, how to learn, how to develop your career, how to get more experience, how to get and, and some of that, er, does involve as, as you've been discussing as almost impossibilities of getting, if you're trapped inside somewhere where you can't travel out, then, then you are, you are distinctly limited and I've spent a lot of time trying to break through some barriers, particularly for people to get uh higher, higher exams. Uh There, there were really annoying um obstacles put in the way by the Royal Colleges and, um, and the European board exams and so forth for uh in certain circumstances which make it very difficult. And we've, we, there's a lot of sort of campaigning and advocacy to try and do that. But when it comes to sort of individual mentoring, I think a lot of it is just, it's, it is really understanding, trying to really understand individual circumstances and their, uh, ability to, to, to fund, um, and, and to, to, sometimes there's language, er, is, is better or worse and you'll find, you can, you can sort of gently advise on whether somebody has the, has the ability to, um, to, to, to get through, um, certain hurdles and so forth. Um, but II II don't think, I don't think there's a sort of one size fits all for these things. Um I'm very much more on a sort of personal basis of building relationships over the year and, and some of that is, is um I think mental, the mental mental relationship that works is, is when there is one of mutual respect for, for uh and, and it's very hard to define that and hard to put, put it in paper, uh you know, to, to, to look at character characteristics, uh uh the, the, you know, you can't do it as a tick box exercise if I can put it that way. But um, II I'll, I'll, I'll leave this for the moment and let, let me, let me think again. Let's here. That's alright. And um, Doctor Ma Shaka, since um you were, you were so involved with the palmed Europe side of things and you're in touch quite a lot with the medical schools as well as some of the students. Um I just wanted to kind of like ask you if that, to see if in your experience, has there been anything in particular that the, that the students have received very well when it comes to having a senior mentor or someone to mentor them through both previous previous times and the current times that we are living in at the moment? Well, II have some really examples again from before the war, you know, uh in 2015, 2016, we were having an idea to establish a center in Gaza called Haya Center, which meant life in England. And we choose this name just because we want it to save lives. So it's an idea like every, everywhere, like here, British uh uh Heart Council like uh everywhere they in every country, almost this center is existing and it takes the lead in giving the courses of BL SA LS atl S and that kind of thing. And, you know, you would be surprised how much engagement we got from the student and it, the idea just spread just like, you know, in, in everybody and they were volunteering in that program. They, they took the courses and they start doing the courses, delivering the courses to public. So even they expand our idea more widely, they were taking it. They were those medical students, they were teaching B LS and they are still medical student. And, you know, I believe until, you know, until even before the war, it was in at least in the Islamic University because honestly, that's that center was established, established in, in co operation with the uh the medical college in, in the Islamic University. They make it compulsory for every student to graduate to, to get that course, you know. So these guys, they are very keen to learn and they, they expand the things they, they push it in spite of their circumstances and the difficulty they, they are facing, they are more than ready to grab any, any opportunities. So II I'm I'm saying this is an a as an example, like again, you know, the basic surgical technique, we were surprised that the, the most of them, they are still medical students in their final years and many of them have taken that course, that course meant to be for the, the junior doctors and newly graduated doctors F I one F I two and, and so on. But we were surprised that many of them when I used to look in their city, they have taken that course. So what I mean to say, you, you are in front of people who are very keen to learn and very keen to expand their knowledge and they are very energetic. So I I'm sure um you know, they will do well if they find some guideline, you know, little guidance in with any type of, you know, directions to whatever I I'll, I'll again give you another example which again, it might surprise a lot of people. I was speaking to one of my uh friends and colleagues, Doctor Ak, he's another plastic surgeon. I think today doctor is here is our most senior Doctor Galati. He was talking to me. Imagine during this war, he has established a kind of network like he is uh trying to arrange like 800 almost. I think he this ii remember this number or I hope that I'm not mixing with other number. He's spoken in the conference when in general. So he he involved a lot of those students in doing paper, I mean research, collecting data for research about wounds and injuries. And so so so other, so many other things and he's in process, he was saying in publishing some papers and I told him, you know, this is really amazing work. He said, you know, this is it it will it will help in many things, it will train the student how to collect the data and also it will the injuries and it will help us in doing publication. So he's here and he's working but still he's working closely with those medical students and he's engaging them in in in kind of very beneficial or very interesting project which doing collecting data about the injuries type of injuries and you know, doing some papers. So you know, II II think you know that they are coping with, with the with the situation they are living with. I know what doctor and I highly appreciate what she's saying and supporting what she said. It doesn't mean mean if they are resilient and strong, we mean to leave them. No, we need to support them because we know that there will be a breakpoint. They are very strong to appoint but the breakpoint will come. We are still human being. I witnessed, you know, so many um students doctors this they, they are working in the hospital and in a minute they will find their mothers or fathers or brothers or neighbors coming on be and imagine the situation how, how uh you know, uh again, uh we were doing around and one doctors who we we were trying to, you know, uh to make him to do help with the orthopedic people. He disappeared one day. I said, where is so and so uh uh when he said he went to, to bury his uh cousin to attend the funeral and bury his cousin. And I felt very sad for him because you know, he was working, working and we are trying to put more work in him. And in the afternoon, II find him. I said what you are doing here. He finished burying one of his close family member and he's back to work. And I think you people all heard about so many example of those people who, you know, like the the kamal director, he buried his son and he came back to duty. So they are facing a severe, very severe pressure and I fully agree with doctor that we should, you know, give this, you know, psychological and emotional aspect, full attention and support and I'm sure after this war stopped, you know, the grieving and the, the pain will be very severe when they realize how much they lost from, from their, you know, a lot other people, relatives, friends, ii, it, it will be very difficult time for them as well. Can I can I just add, er, er, about doctor Moti who, uh, I, he, he kindly offered me his room for two weeks whilst I stayed there and, er, we, er, he, the card of medical students that he had around him, he had this sort of smaller battalion of the, uh, medical students from year 1234, all, all mobilized, all learning skills far above there. Their level of commitment. Er, I agree occasionally that you would find that they had, they had to bury somebody locally and they were making up for many of the senior staff who actually wanted to be with their family because they, they didn't want to be in the hospital where if, if the family, you know, all 20 or 30 of their family were lost in one attack. They, they didn't want to be the one survivor. And so there were, but, but these students were, were quite remarkable. But what, what was interesting was as Moko Ala. I'll just say briefly about him. Er, you probably all, all know him but he, um, he, he does have an extraordinary mental approach as a, he's a father figure to, to many of the, the students and they, and, and there is that sort of emotional emoting link which he, he's able to get particularly because he's a, a but, um, I think the, the problem now is he, I think it will be extraordinarily difficult for him to go back if, if at all, for, for all the political reasons, you know. Um So I'll, I'll leave that there. But, but he was a great exemplar of how to and actually what would happen was in the evenings whilst he was still working, the students would gather in his room and we would have tea do teaching sessions together and go through sort of any slides we could have and just, and they were just hoovering up information. So there's immense possibilities for mentorship in those circumstances. Thank you so much for that. Um And I, as I mentioned a little during my um introduction, I think we can all think of a um different mental figure in our lives who have, who have really, really stuck with us for life. And to a lot of these students, the, the senior mentors, the doctors that they are around will be those people for them. Um Now, following on from that um line of thought, I just wanted to think about um essentially what our role is as mentors who are unfortunately, at this moment, operating primarily remotely and the and where essentially we can fit in and where we can slot in where we can fill the gaps because we can't, there is the massive disadvantage that we are not there with them in person, we cannot see them, we cannot feel the way that they are feeling. Our empathy is through a screen and that was how it was during COVID. And while it is a great technology that we can have that we are still able to see people face to face, it's not quite the same. Um So my question is perhaps as mentors who are operating remotely, what are some of the things that we can do to help bridge that gap and to really um have formed that relationship with the students? Um And the terms of engagement essentially, do um do Professor Mukham mentioned a little about um the ways in which mentors have to take on an advocacy role, which is a bit more extra than perhaps a traditional mentorship role and essentially to what extent should we really be um offering ourselves and um to, and how far can we take it? Because there is a financial side of things and that is not entirely feasible for everyone. There are different pools that we are able to access and perhaps um advocate for our students for to access when it comes to international exams and different resources. However, when it comes to the interpersonal level, what sort of advocacy or what sort of role can we um really ask our mentors to fill in for now since we are so working remotely and we are so far away. But yet we are so close because we can still see them face to face and there's an overwhelming sense of perhaps helplessness as well. Uh Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned helplessness. Yes. So um so people who are here, people who are on this platform, the volunteers that have been giving lectures as you know, are all incredibly dedicated. But the elephant in the room here is the trauma. There is no way to be close to this level of trauma and not be affected by it. So for now, we're all gonna assume that resilience is the keyword. We're just gonna keep going. The students will aim to graduate, the residents will aim to become attendings. The attendings will aim to have successful careers, et cetera. Um But the trauma has touched all of us it and when you talk to somebody who's lost multiple family members, it's terribly hard. They cannot uh when, when you're stuck in a place like Haza or, or in other war torn areas. I, I'm Lebanese. Uh There are families who've lost 567 family members in the past two months. Um We cannot think about it the way they can think about it, right? We're just, we're just seeing the trauma and it's, it's horrible. So at some point, we have to take that negative energy and instead of it being helplessness, it has to transform into something positive. Otherwise we cannot keep going. So that becomes an added uh kind of path to the membership. The I think that's something that needs to be discussed. And I think that a discussion with somebody who gets you is probably gonna go a long way. So for example, hearing the hearing my two colleagues today on the panel talk about what they've seen is, is good for me because it says to me, other people understand, right? And, and that by itself is enough to keep me going for a little bit. Like I said, this is the kind of nonspecific support that we're all craving and we do not get it in, in our regular professional circles. So that's why it's important to have. Um the I think that for mentors specifically, it's really important that there will be some helplessness. You are gonna sometimes be mad at your employer, your country, whomever makes the policies. And that's OK. We just have to find a way around it. It's just very important not to see to the helplessness, right? And we probably have to become a lot savier. Um It is often said that us brown people are just very like loud and circumstantial and we ramble a lot and we we get angry and II think that for the specific purpose, we have to be un and we have to just learn how to work with the system, you know. So it's gonna be a big change on multiple levels. I don't know if I've answered your question. That's all right. Um But it was definitely kind of like thinking about the helplessness and the idea that has been repeated quite a bit frequently over the past few months is that there is no such thing as posttraumatic in the current concept because the trauma is ongoing. And while as mentors, we can think of it as posttraumatic, because we, we ourselves are not experiencing the trauma, our we struggle with the feeling of helplessness that the trauma is ongoing and it is a heavy burden to bear for the students at for the students who are experiencing the things first hand, but also second but also the mentors second hand who are hearing about these things. But as you mentioned, the nonspecific support and the ability to verbalize and the ability to share some of that burden with someone who can listen, who can understand at least aspects of it, even if theoretically will be a massive, massive um help hopefully to all parties involved, just to know that there is this idea of the collective that we are in this together. And even though we are not together in person, there is the idea that there is some there are people out there who are thinking, who are willing to support in any way, shape and form possible. Um Yeah, let, let me add one thing. So I II feel one of the weaknesses of any scheme is if we are not communicating exactly what's being done, then people will not know. So some, some people may be hearing about the mentorship um in this context for the first time today. And the what people have to know is that in the past year and two months, there have been students that have been placed uh and that have left. But the point is we cannot get everybody out and you, for those who stay, we have to see how we can um assist them and support them while they are in place. I totally agree that the uh virtual component is not very good. We when we were trying to plan for the mental health lectures, we were told, you know, you have to wait until the solar panels are charged. And that means that the lectures could be between about 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. because the students have to walk um to go to wherever the solar panels are or wherever they could be safe. The internet is not working et cetera. So these are things you don't think about in daily life. When we try to do our consultation, calls for therapy, we we cannot schedule things without taking into account the checkpoints and So, so that's outside of Lasa. But, but even in other areas, you have to take into account the checkpoints and how long it will take them to get home, et cetera. And, and so it just adds a real life dose that, that is very humbling. Um, the practical expectations are you, you get what you can for right now, uh, you think of what they're going through a specialized training, think of it as free specialized training. Maybe you never wanted to do surgery, but you've seen so much surgery that you've become good, you know. So, um, so I think that's the way to twist it positively. Otherwise we will all collapse with helplessness and hopelessness. Thank you. And um following that, I will open up the floor to um Mr Goodacre and Mr Al Masaka to see if there is anything you would like to add or to comment on or to circle back towards while I have a look at the chat to see if there's anyone, any, anything, um anyone from the audience would like to ask the panel, I'll leave Dr Shaka first. Maybe because I've tried to put something in the panel just II find it very, very difficult to, you know, II would love to hear from anybody outside what they, what they, what they think about, um, you know, what we can best do is II think we're better off responding to need rather than, than actually putting forward something that we can promote. Uh can I put it that way round? I'd rather respond rather than the, the other way. So, yes. And that is entirely accurate to how the um G scheme came about in the first place. And the mentors as I've kind of repeated over the day is that these are 1 to 1 relationships. You cannot really anticipate what um someone that requires or would like to get out of this relationship until you actually meet them themselves. There are ways that we can um try to pair you with the most appropriate person based on some measure of um shared interest, shared goals. Um Some goals that you would like to meet, that your mentor can help facilitate. But at the end of the day, these things will have to work on a 1 to 1 basis and the goal setting will be and the standard setting will be based on need rather than anticipation and planning because as we've learned over the past more than one year, um planning doesn't always result in planning doesn't always come to fruition. Unfortunately. So um Dr Alma Shao, if there's anything you'd like to add, uh I really, I mean, thank you very much. You have uh uh you know, given very valuable points. What I want to say, I think we should take this meeting as an introduction meeting. Just we want, you know, to reach to as much as we can from the people who are interested in helping in this regard. But I'm sure we will come to a stage where we will give a written guide about, you know, the possible things because as I said, you know, the demand and the needs are very huge and uh we, we need to put the people in a frame of realistic thing which they can help the people. And as doctor Nadal was saying, you know, you know, when, when you have this contact at personal level, this is itself, it will give a big emotional and psychological support to the student there. You know that somebody somewhere in this world is caring about them, helping them trying to guide them. This is itself, you know, is, is very big help and I can tell you it's a very big help. As I described to you, they are just in a close prison for many, many years. And when they find somebody from outside contacting with them trying to, you know, provide them with some guidance and advise, uh uh you know, advise them about some courses about uh a route of, you know, to speciality or any kind of support, you know, but we will give a written guide to everybody who would be interested because, you know, as I said, we need to be realistic with the things. And again, I saw 11 question there about the way I think, you know, we cannot bound anybody in contacting anybody in any way they like. But we would prefer to keep the platform, which was, you know, uh meant for the, uh uh you know, for the student uh to, to get the student teach. We will probably, we will find a way or other to use the, that facility, you know, to do the, the scheduled meeting. We don't want it to be like, ok, the student will call you at 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock. I don't know the time difference or you are busy in the middle of things and his contact, we want to make it a professional way of contact. So there is a certain time that the monor is available, you can email him, you can schedule a meeting with him exactly how it work here in, in, in the UK and some other country where this, you know, this activity is going on. So we will try to organize it in a way that it shouldn't disturb the people here or, you know, also it will help the people there. We don't want it to go out to become like a personal relation kind of. No, we want it to remain in a professional way and it, it does, uh, uh, the job we wanted to do, we want to guide them how to progress in, in some aspect in their life, practical life, how to reach a specialty, what they need to do to get to the, the blood or to MRC S or Fr CS or what courses is helpful and these kind of things plus of course, you know, the the psychological, which I said earlier, the psychological support and you know, the the the the back push for them on this regard. So, II know, you know, we are talking broadly now but II promise everybody who will be interested in this program that there should be like in every you know, institute and there, there should be some guidelines and there should be some things. We don't want everybody there want to, to go to America or to UK or everybody I want, if I was there, II won't blame, blame them, you know, but the aim is not to, to, to plan that for them. No, the aim to support them medically and uh to expand their knowledge, they, to show them how they can, you know, read the articles, how they can decide the articles, how they can write to uh a letter to the editor. Uh these kind of things which medical students should pick and the early doctors they should pick and you know, develop over the time. Uh We are not talking about personal health, they are all in need uh about, you know, the circus. You can, you know, you are talking about over 75% of the homes in Gaza. I don't, I think this is very old statistic. It's now it's, it's must have approached much more than that. They have no homes, they have no homes. All the building has been totally demolished or partially demolished. All those students they are living, if they are lucky, they are living in something called tent. But the tents there is different. I wish that I can show you some pictures. It's just like a plastic, you know, things. It's not like the real tent. It help nothing. It, it does nothing. It's just like he's, they are lucky to be working in the hospital. So they have a roof under their, above their heads or they can find a toilet to go because where the, their family live, all this facility are not available. Even the clean drinking water, they might not find a meal, they might, they might not eat for days. Many of them I have met, you know, they haven't eat and everyone, they, well forget about them. I, the people I know from before I couldn't recognize them because they have lost so much weight. I couldn't recognize them. They look totally different and, you know, imagine people at that time when I was there, it was the war was six month, six months. They are living in the streets nowhere. You could imagine what, what kind of care they can do for themselves. They barely can find a place to, to shower. Maybe every ha online and this is for everybody, not only the medical student, but I'm giving you a sample of their life there. It is, it is really unimaginable and people will think that we are exaggerating. I was glad when I hear these facts from somebody else who visited because people will think that because I of my roots, I'm talking, you know, I'm trying to exaggerate this. No, it is worse than anybody can imagine. No human can live that situation. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um Mr Alma Shaka. So just to kind of like reiterate the point about the point of need and the way that we can only respond to need the day this entire day. And a more general sense, the scheme, we are only providing tools, tools for which we can build these relationships that we can continue to foster these relationships, these professional relationships that will continue developing you as a person in your career and holistically as well. Um Of course, these tools are meant to be used and they're meant to be adapted and meant to be used in a way in which they address thing, they address problems and they hopefully aim to go and reach conclusions to problems or solutions. We are here to make solutions. Now, um There has been a comment in the chat, chat asking about um dates organized for mentors to have meetings to discuss themselves. And I think as a as as this situation develops, as we get to know our mentors, of course, there will be debriefing because that's also a part of looking after ourselves as mentors as well and the students and the students as well, the students will have access to the mentors and the mentors themselves will have each other. So we will definitely facilitate these things. Um So I am aware that we have about 15 minutes left in the panel. Um Is if there are any closing remarks, um any of the speakers would like to make before we go on to the closing remarks of the day. Um I will start with Professor Moan who is unmutated herself. I'm unmutated because I want to pick up on um what Mister Good Aer has put in the chat. I there is an excellent point here about clinical consultation and about being a sounding board for clinical cases. II think that is a an excellent point. It's a fascinating point. We have to remember that because um the again, resilience is drawing on credit. So people are often finding workarounds um and and kind of shortcuts to get the clinical care that their patients may need and they are the those shortcuts are gonna become reality because the the medications are not available, anesthetics are not available, et cetera. So I think it is important to sound uh to be the sounding board for those clinical cases and to say, I understand you are doing this as an underresourced environment. But here is what standard of care would look like and, and kind of try to bridge that gap. That's huge. Whether for mental or physical health at the very beginning of the conflict, there was this very widely circulated video of the surgeon who used vinegar to clean up a wound. Um Do you remember that video? And, and it's, it's amazing, but it's not the only example of modifications the population has had to made in order to provide effective medical care. Uh There is an example of um when we do pra scales, when we try to calm somebody's distress, we're having to do this, but we have to do it in a congruent fashion. There's a question about the insulin. Um For, for example, if uh if everybody still believes they should refrigerate the insulin, but the insulin really in the US, we don't refrigerate it to the same extent. You, you could have different curves of who gets quote unquote admitted versus not admitted. And so it's important for us to be that sounding board. I just wanted to echo that, that's really important. So yes, we wanna be supportive, but we also want to keep reminding people that you're getting uh some sort of free training and here is the standard of care. All right. Thank you very much. So, um I'm aware that Mr Goodacre has to um has a slight time restraint and will have to leave soon. So I'll open the floor to you if you would like to make any closing remarks before you leave. Well, yeah, sorry. II don't want to, unseen rush off. I II wanted to, to just add uh what, what's running through my mind is, uh I, I've been very touched by the expression and what the fog of war uh that II don't think I've ever experienced anything. I have been in some hostile environments before, in, in different parts of the world. But the, the, the, the thing that really was extraordinary. I can't, I can, I, there's this expression, you've heard it in the past that used called the fog of war and basically not knowing um what is gonna happen tomorrow now, uh whether people are gonna turn up, not turn up, whether people are gonna die, your family are gonna die, whether there's gonna be food, whether the lights are gonna go on or whether there's communication, uh who's gonna turn up to the hospital, what, what links there are? I mean, that, that is it, it's just this, this completely horrible, horrible world of uncertainty, which is, I think I can only describe as the fog of war where you just don't know things and you don't know what's going on. And within that these sort of dealing with these unknowns every day, I think having potentially the ability to reach out and have some, some people where you feel, I mean, we, we may feel we live in sort of shifting times in our, in our, but it's a whole lot more sort of stable and circ circumstances as we know that and we're privileged in that environment and so to be able to do that, uh II II find it more of a privilege than, than anything we can, than anything we can give back. But it seems to matter to, to our, some of our friends that they can just get on whatsapp and, and, and link up with us and share sometimes it is clinical things but sometimes it is just feelings and emotions and, and just to bounce those around and, and, and I think that that is something I find I immensely important but it's only, it's, it, I II don't think we have any answers and, and it, it drains, it's every, all your resources, all your humanity that you've grown out with over the years is what's drawn upon uh when you're in such a, a relationship of mentor or mentee if you want to call it that. But I think it's, I think it's more just about being humans together and walking the walk together. Um And so, but anyway, I, I'll, I'll just listen in for a little bit more. Thanks. Thank you very much for coming, Mister Goodacre. So I'll go to Doctor Alma Shaka if, if there's any closing remarks that you would like to add. Uh Thank you very much. Really. I II don't have much to add. I can just kind of give a little summary honestly. I mean, as I said, you know, this program is having three aspects. And you know, the meeting today, we are hoping from the people who are here to take many messages, uh messages which related to the monitor itself and messages above the gen in general. So we want people to speak about this program and spread the word. We want people to get engaged with this program. We want people to a do advocacy about this program in their, you know, I, I'm not uh social media man, but I know many of us are and this is a great help also, you know, the nation, even if it's a little, you know, we need the support to carry on this program. This program is very unique program for many purpose. And I just wanted to tell you that this is, you know, keeping the future or helping in supporting the future of the medical student in Gazan so that they can continue their uh education in spite of the atrocity they are in and what has happened because we, we are thinking that this program would continue to at least five years, minimum three years. But we, we are thinking that it is going to at least five years. The the second thing, it will help to keep the medical college existing because everything is demolished, the the buildings are demolished but the people are scattered and spread. Now what we did, we tried to, to, to bring the people again to take care of their student and we don't want to take this from them. We we are helping them to, to, to continue. We are not replacing them. And I want this message to be clear for everybody. We don't want yes, we want to give a mentorship but the priority for them. But because they are busy in other things, we are taking this uh you know, this kind of support from them, but otherwise we want them to do everything in their way. And by their hand, the third thing is also not less important, we are providing doctors to the health system there. And there are an intense needs because you know, as you know, from the beginning of the war, the doctors, they have been targeted deliberately and many doctors has been killed with their families and there is a severe shortage of doctors there. So by this program, we are graduating a new doctors from the same society with the same, you know, culture, you know, the sa everything is the same so they will help better than anybody else. So this scheme is very vital for these things. Now back to our topic today, you know, as we um keep repeating, we are from different geographic areas. We we are doing this contact over the platforms or you know, the social or whatever things we will agree. So we are going to provide a guidelines for everybody who will get involved and things are open for everybody to, to give us a feedback. And you know, also like the very valuable points from Doctor Tim. Uh all these things we will take encounter and we will formulate like a protocol and guidelines, broad guidelines for everybody who, who want to be involved in this. So because you know, we know we want to bridge the, the the difference in everything. It's not an easy thing that II can do it. But maybe for somebody from different culture who have never been there to do a mentorship, for somebody who is in Gaza, it's a difficult situation with, with the difficult circumstances with, you know, people who are in intense need. And, you know, as I said to you again, last point, which Doctor Nadal always pushing in every meeting and I fully support that we need to support them. They are very resilient, but we need to give them a mental support to continue. We don't want them to break down. And, you know, II can't imagine how they have uh stayed up to this level, but I, I'm sure they are under tremendous pressure, very severe pressure and we need to make to push this to help them as much as we can. And again, the last thing I want to say, II would like to thank every one of you, you Elina uh and um uh cancer and everybody who's getting involved in this, you know, and everybody who's getting involved in the gym scheme, you know, this is, you know, a contribution which will be in the history for the people who are in intense need and for it will hopefully help not only in saving many lives, it's, it will also develop a good generation of doctors with, with broad, you know, knowledge and you know, ii it's something new for, for the system there, I believe. Yes, they, they were trying to start it before the war, but I'm not sure if they have it and it, it has happened before in, in this broad scale. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um Doctor Al Masa. So with the conclusion of the panel that today is now coming to a close, the mentorship team and Pelmet Academy are honored and so grateful for the fantastic turn out today. And we sincerely hope that today has been informative, useful and inspiring to us all. A warm thank you to all of our speakers today for volunteering their time and expertise to the scheme. And um let's use that and collate that together to move forward in the GE scheme. Now, as for the logistics of how the scheme works for students of IU and Al Aho, you may sign up as a mentor for a mentor to using the G platform website form. You will firstly need to log in to the GEM website before finding the mentor program registration form. After submitting that, that will send a ticket to our centralized email for me myself and Hansa. And in order to pay you for the mentor who will be the best match for you, please try to fill out the section boxes in as much detail as you can. And this is for the students who want to request a mentor. As for mentors, if you have not already registered using the Google form, I will shortly post it in the chat after we are done with closing remarks and if you have not registered yet, um please do so at your earliest convenience and try to fill it in as much detail as you can so that we can compare you with a student that we think would be a best match for you, Hansa and myself will be manually pairing students with mentors as students opt in for participation in this program. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate at all to reach out to us on our shared inbox at mentorship at gem edu dot online and that will go in the chat as well. Student and mentor pairings will come as a first come first serve basis. And while we are aiming for a 1 to 1 ratio, we may eventually have to look at establishing small groups depending on demand pairings will be made and sent out in due course as more students sign up for the program, so please do keep your eye out on your inbox for an email from mentorship at gem edu dot online. Once paired, an email for instructions will be sent to both mentors and mentees on how to proceed with the program and ideas on how to get started. Thank you so much for attending today and we would be grateful if you could fill out the feedback form to help us improve any future sessions we may deliver. As always, keep your eyes peeled on the Palm Academy and gem social media accounts for updates or visit the website for details regarding future events. Thank you so much and I will hand it back to Professor Laba. Thank you very much Liana. Wonderful uh uh session. Today we learned about the principles of mentorship and then practical applications of the mentorship. And this I hope will be the start of a great service to our students, uh all of our students. And hopefully in the new year, we will have the mental health and wellbeing scheme up and running in a similar vein. Thank you very much, everybody. And I, I'm most grateful to our faculty this morning and this afternoon for their valuable contributions. Thank you and goodbye.