Looking FW:

Hala Droubi 

After receiving her medical diploma from Damascus University in 2000, Chadan Naji completed her academic, laboratory, and clinical training in basic science and medical sub-specialties. She started her graduate studies in 2003 and obtained an MA in Dermatology and Venereology from Damascus University. She now works as an instructor at the Medical College of Damascus University, teaching clinical sessions to senior students. She is also active on the international level, working as Program Consultant for the United Nations Fund for Populations Affairs (UNFPA), and shines in the ield of social and charity work. Chadan’s concern for the well-being of children cannot pass unnoticed. Along with a team of experts, Chadan took the initiative of draft-ing the Law of the Disabled in Syria. She is a member of the National Team on Child-hood, through which she has conducted a detailed study on the current situation of Syrian children, addressing fields of insufficiency and preparing a draft for the nation-al plan for childhood. She is a co-founder of the Syrian Organization for the Disabled (AAMAL), and the Rainbow Institute for Better Childhood, in which she served as vice-chairman until 2004. She founded a volunteer team in Dar Zeid Bin Hartiha for abandoned children, where volunteers visit the children at the center on a regular and organized basis, supervising their health, education and well-being. BASMA is Chadan’s latest achievement, through which she supports and helps children with cancer. Actively involved in a variety of organizations she is a member of the Syndicate of Syrian Medical Doctors, the Federation of Palestinian Doctors, the Syrian Computer Society, and the Syrian Dermatology Society. She has attended over 10 international conferences, most of which address children and childhood around the world, and participated in the Conference on Disability in the Arab World that took place in Beirut. She co-organized the National Conference on Childhood that took place in Aleppo in 2004, addressing critical topics such as child sexual and physical abuse. Chadan also co-organized the Child Abuse & Neglect Protection Symposium, which took place in Damascus in 2004, in collaboration with ISPCAN and UNICEF. Chadan was appointed as a speaker in the first Symposium on promoting volunteerism among school students which took place in 2005. Chadan Naji was awarded the Donald Cohen Award for the Best Research Proposal concerning PTSD among Abused Children Forward Magazine met with her to talk about the ‘other side’ of the Doctor—the human side of Chadan Naji.