Promoting ecological awareness and helping animals

Mounir Abi Said, PhD Biodiversity Management, Kent 2006

During his time as a Foundation scholar, Mounir was known as 'the hyaena man', due to his efforts to increase understanding of hyaenas in the Middle East.  When he began his studies in 2003 he had already set up Animal Encounter, the only centre in Lebanon to provide environmental and ecological education.

Animal Encounter is still running and Mounir has been lecturing at several universities in Lebanon, including the American University of Beirut (AUB) where he teaches Conservation Biology and Mammalogy.  He has done consultancy work for numerous organisations and NGOs, and is working on three other research projects with international experts: one on bats, one on the genotyping of small and medium-sized carnivores, and one on the origin of dogs.

As for the hyaenas, "they are doing great ... they are more or less living peacefully now."

Leading progress in medicine

Feras Mahdi (MPhil Bioscience Enterprises, Cambridge, 2006) spent a year practising family medicine at AUB Medical Centre before going on to specialise in internal medicine.  He is also part of the Faculty of Bioethics where his main interests are encounters between religion and medical science, and pharmaceutical industry ethics.

As well as this Feras is a member of the AUB Resident Staff Organisation and the Graduate Education Committee, handling policy-making and curricula and approving incoming staff.  He is also a member of the Lebanese Order of Physicians.

CamStent, the company that Feras set up with colleagues from Cambridge, has just received $400,000 in funding: click here for details

Somehow Feras has also found the time to sing with the AUB Choral Society and to organise an AUB medical team for the Beirut International Marathon, as well as running 10km for the Braveheart Foundation for children with congenital heart disease.

Improving health care in Syria 

by Nour Chachaty, MSc Quality Management in Healthcare, Birmingham 2002

"On the plane from London to Aleppo after completing my MSc, I wondered what kind of future awaited me in my home country. I was full of ideas about how to use my new knowledge to improve the quality of health services in Syria.  Winds of change were starting to blow, and healthcare reform was high on the Syrian leadership's agenda.

At first, finding a rewarding job in quality improvement in the Syrian healthcare system proved more difficult than I had hoped.  Fortunately my MSc had equipped me with internationally recognised skills, so I was able to work with healthcare leaders in the wider Middle East region until, in June 2009 upon the recommendation of  Dr Charles Shaw from the UK, I was asked to deliver a module to Masters students at the Centre for Strategic Health Studies in Damascus. I was so excited; the opportunity I had been waiting for!  What made it even more meaningful for me was that I myself had graduated from the Centre exactly ten years before.  Standing at the front of the class as a module co-convenor was a dream come true.

The students were excellent and came from a variety of disciplines.  I was thrilled to see them participating enthusiastically and delivering brilliant assignments.  I was even more delighted when some of them chose quality improvement as their dissertation topic; very encouraging for the future.

This would not have been possible without the support of my teachers, colleagues and family, and of course the Said Foundation.  Thanks to them I look forward to more opportunities to serve my country by helping to improve its healthcare system."



Developing for the future

Rabih Fakhri (MSc Development Studies, SOAS 2009) is working with the Bank Information Centre, a nonprofit organisation in Lebanon.  On 28 January he delivered a presentation at a conference hosted by the Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union entitled Understanding the World Bank.

Dana Halasa (MSc Urban Design, Nottingham 2008) now works for the Amman Institute for Urban Development, improving existing spaces and making proposals for further development in Jordanian cities.  The Institute involves local communities in the process through public forums and discussion groups.  More details here.

Anas Darkaoui (MSc International Management, Exeter 2002) is the Communications Director for Massar, part of the non-governmental Syria Trust for Development.  The project aims to inspire young Syrians aged 5 to 21 and to provide them with the capacity for self-directed learning.


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