JEDDAH, 5 August 2004 — Dr. Hasana Al-Ghamdi, who is from the southern city of Baha, has been appointed director general of the Ministry of Health’s tumor center in the Western Province. She is the first Saudi woman to hold the post.
Al-Ghamdi, who has received advanced training in cancer treatment in the United States and Britain, intends to develop the center and increase its capacity. At present the center, which has six full clinics, treats 25 patients.
She believes that Saudi women are capable of making tremendous contributions to the Kingdom’s development. “You can see a large number of Saudi women who are experts in various sectors,” Okaz daily quoted her as saying.
Born in Baha, Al-Ghamdi completed her primary and university education in Jeddah. She has worked at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Jeddah and at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh.
She has received an Arab fellowship for the study of tumors in children and also a diploma in bone marrow transplants from the US. “I also had a fellowship dealing with blood diseases and tumors in the United States where I studied for a year,” she told the Arabic daily.
Al-Ghamdi published a research paper in a British magazine in 2001. She spends a considerable amount of time with children suffering from tumors at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Jeddah where the tumor center is located. “I try to make them happy and give them hope,” she added.
Last year, Maha Abdullah Orkubi, another well-known Saudi woman, was appointed dean of the Arab Open University’s Jeddah branch. Orkubi, who is from Madinah, did her postgraduate studies at Ohio University in the US.
