AGU to launch second season of ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’ initiative

Manama, Jan. 2 (BNA): The second season of the ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’ initiative will be launched on January 25-26 at the Avenues-Bahrain. The initiative aims at raising awareness and reducing childhood anxiety from hospitals and doctors through fun and interactive teaching, pursuing the goal of creating an educated generation of doctor-loving children. On the occasion, Public Relations Director at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) Abdullah Qatami said the students of the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences in the university have been coordinating with the Pediatrics Department throughout the past few weeks to resume the campaign by the beginning of this year. Mr. Qatami explained that meetings are being held to prepare for the relaunch of the initiative and distribute tasks among the 100 participating students, adding that the students are from both genders and from Bahrain and other GCC countries. He affirmed that the educational campaign comes as part of AGU’s GCC community service goals, providing space for open interaction between children and medical students, with the aim of reducing childhood anxiety from hospitals, medicines and surgeries, and at the same time to improve medical students’ communication, social and interactive skills. It’s worth mentioning that the first edition of the ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’ initiative, which was supervised by the Pediatrics Department in the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences in cooperation with the Public Relations Department, was a huge success and witnessed positive interaction from the community. The initiative contributed to changing the mentality of children, who’re usually afraid of visiting hospitals, by creating opportunities of direct interaction between them, doctors and medical students, in a fun-filled atmosphere where medical examinations are done in a combination of learning and playing.