Taking part in the Research Methods for Guiding Policy and Evaluation course was a decision that I will never regret! It significantly enforced my knowledge and challenged my experience. One more thing I have to emphasis about this course is the amazing ongoing efforts of the staff behind it to make sure that its meeting a high level of quality education.

I'd like to express my high appreciation to the sponsors of this training activity, namely Wellcome Trust Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation. There support made my attendance to this course possible.

The efforts of the organizers of this great regional training course cannot be imagined and all the AUC/SRC staff who were like a family for every participant in this course. Participants from different Arab countries and disciplines made this training experience one of the most impressing and useful experiences I ever had.

The course covered almost all research aspects, major and minor, this made me aware of the importance of many research aspects, such as the philosophy of formulating research question, fund raising proposal, and many other points. Being quantitative researcher I always thought that numbers are the strongest convincing evidence, Now I realize that quantitative research can’t always stand alone. The question of how and why can be answered by qualitative research.

highly appreciate the effort of all the AUC/SRC staff who were like a family for every participant in this course, in particular Dr. Sherine Shawky, Dr. Mohamed Salem and Ms. Amal Hassan.

I thank my entire colleague who attended the course and added to my knowledge and I hope to keep in touch with them to share knowledge and experience in the future.

This course is very great. It helped me to understand research better. Now I am able to manage all the aspects of my work, the design, the sampling, the data collection and analysis. I became more confident in publishing my work and help others as well. I t is really an amazing course.

I repeat my greetings to all of the staff and my group RM 2008, many thanks to Dr Hoda Rashad and Dr Sherine Shawky for all the great effort they did during our 2008 training. I have learned many things, I spent very nice days with all of my group and most of the staff.

It was of great help to me, it increased my knowledge about research methodologies, statistics, computer programs and I think it improved me attitude as lecturer or researcher or even as doctor….It is an important course & beneficial for researchers from Iraq……. I will always remember the course, it helped me a lot to improve my knowledge, skills and experience. An important benefit of the course that it creates a relation between researchers from different Arab countries and after the course, I have a group of friends from the Arab world. Finally, I want to thank all the SRC team for their great efforts with us for nearly 3 months, and especially Dr Sherine Shawky and tell you all that I am grateful to you all.

“I strongly believe that the training made me more effective in my work especially in the statistical treatment of my research data….. I enjoyed every bit in that training program… I did not only gain knowledge and new skills but I gained new friends both on teachers’ levels and participants.

The course has added significantly to my knowledge and skills and most importantly to my attitude towards the future of research in Egypt . I am now dedicated, more than ever, to engaging in research towards development.

First module was very interesting and useful, raising funds and sources of funding were amazing and unexpected.

The most important messages I learned from this course were the benefits of teamwork and the multidisciplinary approach to research work. In addition, I start to look at health research issues from a different aspect, which is wider than what I used to do before. I do not feel that there were significant limitations that deserve to be mentioned.

In short I can say that what I got from the Research Methods for Guiding Policy and Evaluation is much more than knowledge in how to conduct a qualitative or quantitative research, or how to evaluate a project. It even went far more than an introduction to new software; it was a living experience of excellence that I will work very hard to mimic.

First of all I'd like to express my high appreciation to the sponsors of this training activity, namely Wellcome Trust Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation. This is my second time to attend a training activity sponsored by them. There support made this possible/

I'd also like to transfer my thanks to WHO/EMRO, who sponsored one of the two modules i attended in this course, and to my bosses who nominated me for their trust.

The efforts of the organizers of this great regional training are beyond words. I highly appreciate the effort of all the AUC/SRC staff who were like a family for every participant in this course, and for the discount they offered in the fees of the fourth module. This made my attendance possible.

The participants from different Arab countries and disciplines made this training experience one of the most impressing and useful experiences I ever had.

It gives me a great pleasure to deeply thank our Hosts Headed by the wonderful lady Dr. Huda Rashad, added by dr Sherine Shawky and all staff members of SRC at AUC, as well as colleagues from Egypt who endlessly gave us support during our training course. Also extend my thanks to colleagues from Arab countries, for their sweet companion ship.

To all I would say that I miss all of you and hope to meet some or all of you Insha' Allah.
God bless you all and wish you a happy, successful and prosperous life.

One week after the course we attended in SRC, Cairo, and being at home, I overviewed the last three month experience. My impression is that this course was one of the most peculiar courses which will not be available at any time or any place. As in addition to the new information and of knowledge, I gained a lot from the participants who came from different Arab countries and freely shared there experience and opinions.

The course covered almost all research aspects, major and minor, this made me aware of the importance of many research aspects that I did realize their importance in the past, such as the philosophy of formulating research question, fund raising proposal, and many other points. Being quantitative researcher I always thought that numbers are the strongest convincing evidence, Now I realize that quantitative research cant always stand alone as the question of how and why can only be answered by qualitative research.

Dr. Hania was successful in summarizing here experience and knowledge in a short time period (three weeks) so that we can feel the beauty of qualitative research, dr. Shrine managed to make this course so useful yet interesting, by here day to day effort to improve the quality of lecture presentation, group discussion and work shops. I particularly thank her for the quality of epidemiology lectures presented by herself and all SRC staff members. I am so grateful to every member in the center starting from Dr. Huda Rashad, the head director of the SRC to Mr. Awad, the tea and coffee sponsor for their kind and warm welcoming.

Finally I thank my entire colleague who attended the course and added to my knowledge and I hope to keep in touch to share knowledge and experience in the future.