By Dr Maria Rasool, General Practitioner, AIMA NSW Bathurst Chapter Lead
The AIMA NSW Bathurst Chapter held an Eid milan dinner on Friday 27 March 2026 at the Neighbourhood centre community hall. Bathurst is a regional town in Western NSW, 3hrs from Sydney, and the event was held locally to support its members. The main ideas behind the event was to share Eid together, to engage with local Muslim doctors and students, to welcome those new to the Bathurst region and to invite and encourage them to join AIMA formally as registered members.
It was a night full of warmth and excitement of meeting existing and new AIMA Bathurst group members. We all prepared and brought some food and desserts.
Among the attendees were Dr Annie Rasool a JMO from Bathurst hospital starting her GP training soon, Dr Namrah a Pathologist from Orange hospital, her husband Dr Ali Waqar a pulmonologist at Bathurst hospital, Dr Salma Hanif an ACRRM registrar from Cowra, Nayma a CSU medical student, her brother, a medical student from university of Newcastle and our families.
AIMA members were able to attend virtually for those who could not make it in person. It was an honour to have Dr Habib Bhurawala – the National JMO and students lead, to welcome us virtually and provide a small talk about the vision of AIMA. Then we enjoyed the delicious food and discussion amongst ourselves, sharing our passions and concerns.
At the conclusion of the event we had respected brother Dr Elhassan ElAbbas, the AIMA NSW president who warmly greeted us and appreciated our efforts of bringing the Rural Western NSW medical community together. Dr Sara Yusuf the NSW AIMA secretary also joined to deliver her warm wishes and kind words of support.
We look forward to hosting more AIMA events and networking opportunities in the future Insha’Allah.
