Our Efforts to Support Medical Students in Afghanistan
Author: Akihiko Ozaki
Editor: Yudai Kaneda
Since last year, our organization, Medical Research Governance Institute (MEGRI), has been asking for financial support for Ms. Shola Qaderi, who is from Afghanistan and is currently studying at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Iran. The purpose is to raise USD $6,950 (about ¥790,000) for her to participate in the research workshop "Global Clinical Scholars Research Training 2022–2023," which Harvard Medical School organized. In this report, we will first discuss the donations we have received thus far and how they will be used.
Thus far, we have received donations from 33 people, totaling 1,204,908 yen. This will enable us to pay her tuition to Harvard University without any problems. We would first like to thank you for your generous support.
In addition, after paying her tuition, we will have about 410,000 yen left over to donate. We would like to use this remaining donation to continue to help Shola, who will graduate from Iranian medical school next spring and go to the United States. Specifically, it will be used for her travel expenses to the U.S. and for her temporary stay there. She is planning to obtain a postdoctoral position on the East Coast of the U.S. to further her studies. Initially, these expenses were not counted as expenses that this donation would cover, but now that we have received more support than expected, we have decided that entrusting her with these funds is the best way to reward our donors.
On the other hand, we, MEGRI, would like to continue to support Afghan doctors and researchers in their medical research and help them contribute to the Afghan people. In fact, when we asked for your donations, we promised that if we received more support than we expected, we would use it to support other doctors and researchers in Afghanistan. In that sense, it is also possible that we can use the donation to help other people who are looking for the same opportunity. This is our brief report on the possible uses of the donations we received from you. She has commented recently on Taliban’s negative impact on the Afghan scientific community in a news article in Nature, one of the world's most prominent academic journals, and has been actively commenting on the situation in Afghanistan.
This support activity was also a valuable opportunity for us to reaffirm the fact that "getting an education" is not something to be taken for granted. Although it is a small contribution, We would like to continue to support medical care and medical research in Afghanistan, and through this, contribute to the health and happiness of the local people who are going through difficult times.