International President Médicins Sans Frontières visits LUC The Hague
Last Thursday , Dr. Joanne Liu, the International President of the Médicins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), visited LUC The Hague as part of her visit to Universiteit Leiden. Dr. Liu spoke with four of our students, who shared their experiences as volunteers working with refugees all over the world.
The students who attended this meeting have been involved in a variety of activities helping refugees. For example, during her time at LUC, Daphne Gamberiakis (Class of 2016) went to Leros and Idomeni Kos in (Greece) where she helped to work with newly arrived refugees several times during her time at LUC. Another student, Ilyaas Sherally (Class of 2017), volunteered in the Zataari refugee camp in Jordan before joining LUC. Also, not too longLast summer, ago, Emma Basetti (Class of 2017) also volunteered atwent what used to be the to the “‘refugee jungle’ in Calais Jungle” camp in Northern Franceto volunteer there. But LUC students have also been involved in activities closer to home. Madelaine Alber (Class of 2017) has been onis active in the board of the LGBT Refugees Rainbow organization in The Hague and wais one of the driving forces behind raising awareness about the refugee crisis with LUC students and staff.
Lieke Schreel, Educational Director of LUC, commented on the meeting: “it was wonderful and quite special to see the interaction between the LUC students and the president of one of the most important NGO’s on the refugee crisis in the world. It was very nice to hear about the students’ experiences and Dr. Liu reminded us how important it is to never lose hope, even if time and again your projects end in political or bureaucratic barriers.”
From left to right: Prof. Dr. Pancras Hogendoorn (Dean of LUMC), Dr. Joanne Liu (International President of MSF), Daphne Gamberiakis, Emma Basetti, Ilyaas Sherally and Madelaine Alber (all LUC students), Lieke Schreel (Educational Director LUC), and Dr. Ann Wilson (Assistant-Professor of History and Gender Studies at LUC)
More about Dr. Liu’s visit to Universiteit Leiden:
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2016/11/doctors-and-citizens-under-fire-in-conflict-zones
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2016/08/doctor-joanne-liu-to-be-cleverina-lecturer