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Last Sunday evening I had another
wonderful time meeting familiar faces in this rather new world I am now
affiliated with: The world of Medicine. And what’s better? I was able to become
a part of a growing ‘family’ of professionals with a two unifying ideologies:
Medicine and Islam.
The Islamic Medical Association
of the Philippines (IMAN Phil) is a non-profit organization founded in 2007
with the aim to create a massive network of Muslim Professionals and
Specialists in the medical field, uniting them not just because they have a
single faith (Islam) and profession (doctors), but with the single ideology of
serving the ummah of this generation. You can check the website of IMAN here:
imanphil.org
The dinner meeting I attended was
nothing but a simple informal gathering, organized by IMAN to meet-and-greet
the Muslim Medical students in the Manila area. Although only a few of us were
able to attend (most of the invited were on duty), it was still a wonderful
gathering. The members of the boards of IMAN present who organized this meeting
were Dr. Naheeda Mustofa (Internal Medicine, Clinical Nutrition; St. Lukes) and
Dr. Khasmin Ismael (Board and founder, Health for Mindanao). Both Muslimah
doctors inspired us with their experiences in the medical field from being a
Muslim medstudent to being doctors. Also present in the meeting was my dear
uncle, Dr. Nelson Laja (Medical Oncology, UP PGH) who also shared great
insights about how we can further improve our
 |
Arabic Kitchen has this nice place where we can gather around, without chair or high tables. :) Arabian style
[photo from Dr. Mustofa] |
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The ever outnumbered male doctors (and soon to be)
[photo from Dr. Mustofa] |
We also talked about the Visions,
Missions and goals of IMAN, the past activities they had, the challenges they
experienced, and also the plans and activities the IMAN plans to have in
the future in sha Allah. IMAN emphasized
the importance of involving the student body to better empower the future
generation of doctors. They also assured the students that they can find help
and support from IMAN if ever they need to. In fact, a number of IMAN’s future
plans were directed in helping the medstudents like providing medical books they
need during their academic career. We are hoping to strengthen the network of
Muslim medical students not just in the capital region but in the whole
Philippines as well in the future, in sha Allah.
We, the students and interns who
attended the meeting were all enthusiastic and excited with the future
activities IMAN have and in sha Allah hopefully we could participate actively
in all of those planned activities. Looking forward to meeting new faces and
members of this growing family I am happily affiliated with. Perhaps my dream
of attending an authentic “Muslim Medical Students Summit” is not a farfetched
dream after all :D
May Allah make things easy for
IMAN. Allahumma ameen.
You can check the IMAN website
here:
www.imanphil.org or visit the IMAN FB Page: #no link yet#
Salam Kasilasa!
-Anakiluh, MD
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