b'SECTION REPORTSSection XMIDDLE EASTThe Middle East Section Fellows experience significant struggles but find hope through the opportunity to serve.Presidents Greetingother, even before the internationalduringhispresidency. Afterwards, Nadim AbouJaoude helparrived.TheopportunitytoFellowNabilBarakatpresented serve as individuals and a collec- the ICD golden medal to President tivecommunityandorganizationAbouJaoude, who showed his grat-provided the primary help that wasitude to ICD Fellows for their trust needed. and promised to put all his efforts Hand-in-hand, we all tried to sup- into promoting social, scientific and porteachotherssurvival.Morehumanitarianactivitiesunderthe than one third of the Lebanese Fel- ICDumbrella.Themeetingwas lows were directly affected by theended by taking memorial pictures explosion personally, either throughwith the elected president.family, their offices, or their homes orproperties.Thenon-affectedPandemic CampaignLyear started with a majorFellowsofferedtheirofficestobeWith the COVID-19 pandemic, most astshared. The spirit of the collectivitycountriesintheregionwentinto challenge,theCOVID-19andsupportrepresentedthetruelockdown from March 2020 until the pandemic,whichcrippledspirit that the College is built upon.end of May 2020, and even with the the world and brought it to a halt.In hoping this year will shed on us aresumption of activities life was still Iwouldsaythefearofdeathputbrighter light, we will keep on rais- marred by restrictions which varied the world to a stall. No more socialing high the flag of humanity. inseverity.TheCrisisCommittee contact, confined to our houses, noof the Section, chaired by District 1 more human contacts, avoiding theHandover Ceremony Regent Edmond Koyess, held sev-elderlyinordertoprotectthemeralvirtualmeetingsand,through how could the College function inTheInternationalCollegeofDen- the contribution of all its members, this situation? tistsMiddleEastSectionhelditscameoutwithagraphically-illus-Section X experienced, in manyhandoverceremonyonFeb.4,tratedseriesofrecommendations of its governance, unforeseen chal- 2020,attheNovotelWorld Tradefor dentists to safely resume prac-lenges:economic,financialandCenter, in Dubai, United Arab Emir- tice.Easysafetymeasuresthat ates (UAE). Councilor Cedric Had- will keep us safe was produced in humanitarian. In Lebanon, the cat- dadwelcomedtheaudiencewithEnglish and translated to Arabic. It astrophicexplosionthatoccurredabriefspeech. AwordfromPastwas adopted as a universal set of inAugustdisplacedmorethanPresident Youssef Talic, represent- recommendations by the Lebanese 300,000personsanddestroyeded by his son Dr. Fouad Talic, wasDental Association and sent to over morethan20,000houses,morestated. President Talic thanked all4,000 dentists.than seven hospitals, schools, mu- Fellows for their support during his seums, businesses and infrastruc- term, and congratulated the newlyTeeth for Beirutture.TheCollegespiritremained,elected President Dr. Nadim Abou-people stood together to help eachJaoude, wishing him all the successThe unfortunate Beirut Port blast 2 4 J OURNAL OF THEI NTERNATIONALC OLLEGE OFD ENTISTS'