Mais’s Story: A Gaza Medical Student’s Promise

I was in my fourth year of medical school when everything stopped.

My university was destroyed. Lectures came to an end, and even continuing my studies online became nearly impossible.

“I used to walk long distances just to find an internet connection, and even when I found one, the signal was often too weak to use.”

But I refused to stop learning. I refused to walk away from medicine.

In northern Gaza, I began volunteering at the Indonesian Hospital, caring for injured patients and dressing their wounds whenever I could. There, I came to know medicine in a completely different way. It was no longer about textbooks or lectures. It was about the people in front of me, every single day, who needed help.

I studied wherever and whenever I could. After my sisters and I carried heavy containers of water home from far away, I would sit down with my books and study with whatever strength I had left.

Then, during one of our displacements, my sister Noha was martyred.

Noha was not only my sister. She was my companion on this journey. She was a medical student one year ahead of me, and she was the one who first encouraged me to study medicine. We shared the same path and the same dream: to become doctors and use what we learned to help others.

Losing the person who had walked this road beside me changed everything. But it also gave my journey a deeper meaning. Medicine was no longer just the career I had chosen. It became my way of carrying forward the path Noha and I had begun together, and the purpose we both believed in.

“I want to finish what Noha and I started, and become a doctor who saves lives in Gaza.”

But becoming a doctor takes more than textbooks. With universities and teaching hospitals damaged and students cut off from their training environments, opportunities for hands-on clinical and surgical practice had almost disappeared.

That changed when I joined FAJR Global’s Clinical and Surgical Skills Enhancement Program for medical students in Gaza.

Under the guidance of specialized trainers, I was finally able to practice again. The program gave me hands-on training in essential clinical and surgical skills and helped bridge the gap between what I had learned in theory and what I needed to do in practice.

It made a real difference. I had volunteered in a hospital and done everything I could to help the wounded, but now I was building those skills through structured training and professional supervision. My confidence grew, and I felt better prepared for the responsibilities waiting for me.

Today, I am still studying medicine. The war has changed almost everything about what this journey looks like, but it has not changed where I want it to lead.

I carry Noha’s memory with me every step of the way. And one day, I will become the doctor we both dreamed of being, using everything I have learned to save lives in Gaza.

Learn about FAJR’s clinical and surgical skills training for Gaza medical students, its campaign for medical education in Gaza, and the Research and Medical Education in Gaza program.