Students of Year 4 Batch 5, Class of 2021 attending the clerkship of Community Health Sciences visited SOS Children’s village in Islamabad on January 9, 2020. This educational trip was organized by Dr. Fozia Tahir, Dr. Hiba Choudhry andDr. Ghanwa Bareach Qazi. The objective of the visit was to develop empathy among medical students through interaction with SOS village children.

Medical students were first given orientation about the SOS Village by their administrative head. The students then visited family homes, interacted with the mothers and their children. Our students appreciated the way homes are being managed and the way children are treated with affection, care and respect.

SOS children were engaged in different games including cricket, football and board-games. Multiple entertaining activities like henna designing for female children and face-painting were thoroughly enjoyed.

Our students generously donated money along with story books, winter clothes and various food items for the village children. Medical students were overjoyed to visit the Children’s village and suggested that such interactions in different community-based settings should be periodically integrated in the curriculum.