Maram Mutasim

Maram Mutasim is a final year medical student at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) in Khartoum, Sudan. Head Girl at high school and in the top 10 in Sudan for iGCSE results, she is passionate not only about practising and teaching medicine, but strives to foster a nurturing, supportive environment at university and change attitudes towards education. Over the past few years, she has initiated a number of projects to help her peers and wider society.

Maram dedicates much of her time to mentoring and tutoring other students in her year and conducts annual revision sessions. During her second year, Maram noticed classmates were struggling with a particular topic and so recorded a video of her explaining difficult concepts which she then uploaded to YouTube. After encouragement from students, she started a YouTube channel and Instagram account, Medwithmaram, one of the very first dedicated to medical students in her country, where she shares medical facts and knowledge as well as study advice. Maram has created study guides and summary sheets for her peers and has created a groupchat system at her university for each year where students share their experiences and offer advice. During the pandemic she also gave free online tutoring to groups in different universities and was an Event Co-ordinator for HULT prize UMST. She has also volunteered in the children's hospital of the Hamad Medical Center.

Maram is the co-founder of a charity called Gom, and started a project called Goma8ra, which means "Go study" in a Sudanese dialect. Gom aims to educate Sudanese youth about education, to correct misconceptions around studying, and gives students free access to online lectures, providing more than 1300 to date. Gom now has multiple projects spanning agriculture, cooking, religious studies and mental health.

Maram has also co-founded an initiative called the UMST Students Charity Initiative (UCSI) which aims to support the Sudanese health system which nearly collapsed during the pandemic. The organization collected donations from locals and the Sudanese diaspora and supplied hospitals with PPE, masks and sanitizer. Maram also organized a medical convoy to Darfur, supplying five health care centres in Darfur state with masks, sanitizers and antibiotics. USCI continues to tackle health issues in Sudan, with its latest project targeting malnutrition in the country.

She recently joined InciSioN (International Student Surgical Network) as the Lead of the Advocacy team. InciSioN is a network that aims to connect student surgeons and ensure equity when it comes to access for surgery. Through this network, she has been able to stay in contact with students in different countries worldwide who share my interests and goals and is currently collaborating with them on a number of projects.