The State of Palestine has declared a national initiative for engaging higher education sector to cope with the repercussions of the emerging Corona virus disease pandemic COVID-19 crisis, as an urgent assistance for the health sector. This initiative will be implemented by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, in collaboration with the Palestinian National Commission through working with medicine faculties, nursing and the supporting medical professions at the Palestinian universities.

This initiative comes in the context of the emergency plan to engage senior students from faculties of medicine at the Palestinian universities in all districts. The project aims at enabling selected students from this category to be volunteers after training them, in addition to equipping them with the protective and medical equipment required. Shortly, after training on the mechanisms and skills of preventive medicine, they will be ready to participate in the national efforts of the medical sector to encounter the repercussions of this serious pandemic.

The importance of this initiative emanates in light of the emergency condition globally declared to fight this disease, and what the State of Palestine is going through in terms of shortage in medical staff in comparison to the number of population, according to the international World Health Organization’s criteria. On the local level, it is expected that the prevalence of Corona virus will increase due to the limited human resources presently.

In light of the financial hardships encountering the State of Palestine, the Palestinian Commission is mobilizing resources to fund this initiative through local donors, in addition to seek financial assistance from specialized international organizations.