Yemen
Dr. Hassan Kassim Khan, WFMH Vice President for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, visited Washington D.C. in late April under the auspices of the American Psychological Association’s visitors program for representatives of recently established national psychological societies. This program is designed to provide individualized information helpful for the operation and goals of new societies.
Hassan Kassim is the President of the Yemen Psychological Association and head of the Behavioral Sciences Department in the Faculty of Medicine of Aden University. Joan Buchanan, Director of the APA International Office, arranged a program about methods of organization and administrative functions. Dr. Kassim was also interested in styles of advocacy, relationships with government bodies, and collaboration in scientific research.
On 28 April Dr. Kassim met with Dr. Henry David, former WFMH Board member and Chair of its Committee on Responsible Parenthood, and Secretary General Brody. They discussed the status of Federation work in the WFMH Eastern Mediterranean region, with particular reference to the possible development of a symposium there in March 2000. A major segment of the symposium would be concerned with reproductive health and behavior and family planning practices in Yemen. Factors to be taken into account include the status of women, the role of Islam, and customary practices in the surrounding communities of the Arab world.
Following his time in Washington Dr. Kassim visited the Applied Behavioral Medicine Research Institute at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the State University of New York, Stony Brook. The Institute, headed by Dr. Arthur Stone, became a WFMH Collaborating Center in March 1998.