By Maha Ellawati.
Benghazi, 18 April 2014:
There were several thousand smiling faces in Benghazi yesterday when 700 medical students took . . .[restrict]part in a graduation ceremony attended by friends and families.
It was the second graduation of medical students from the Faculty of Medicine at Benghazi University since the revolution, and the 37th since the faculty, formerly the Arab Medical University, started.
Many of those attending spoke of this being “good news” for Benghazi.
“We’re very happy,” said one parent. “This generation will build Libya and we believe they will succeed. It shows there is hope in Libya, that it is a good country.”
Another parent echoed the notion, pointing out that the young doctors had been working in hospitals in Benghazi, such as the Jelaa Hospital, where there had been a number of attacks. “It did not make them stop. They were determined to continue.”
All of those who graduated yesterday took much longer than planned to reach the present point. The revolution interrupted their studies. “We stopped for a year and half,” explained one new doctor.
The revolution, and those who died in it, was commemorated in a particularly poignant way at yesterday’s ceremony. Posthumous degrees were handed to the families of four medical students killed during the revolution who would have graduated this year. [/restrict]
