I’m Ehab Balawi, a 30-year-old Palestinian physician living in Gaza. I was graduated from Al-Quds University in 2013.

With a rapid survey, anyone can notice that the healthcare system in Gaza has many deficits, both in medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties. Neurosurgery is one of the most affected disciplines due to many reasons; on top of those reasons are a shortage in the number of neurosurgeons and the lack of neurosurgical training programs. So, it's illogic that a city living a continuous conflict has less than 10 specialized neurosurgeon who is serving about 2 million inhabitants. Subsequently, my choice has gone for neurosurgery and I'd been accepted in a specialty program for 3 years at Chongqing Medical University in China.

On the other hand, my deep gratitude goes to IMET2000-Pal for the generous grant I’ve got, without this grant I couldn't take the first steps on my way to being a neurosurgeon. In fact, this would help me to focus intensively on my training and research program, and motivate me to plan for subspecialty and more advanced training in the future, to return back to Palestine with all the knowledge and experience required to enhance medical services.

Regards,

Ehab Balawi