Hala AL-SARAF Founder of NGO “Access to Health,” Health Policy Expert (Iraq) Hala Al-Saraf was born and raised in Baghdad-Iraq. She received her bachelors degree from Iraq's Mustansiriya University and from there went to work in various UN organizations in Baghdad. In 2004, Hala was awarded Fulbright scholarship to study Health Policy at Columbia University NY-USA. During her stay in the US, she developed a project based on information sharing, THINK, (Towards Healthier Innovations & Networking Knowledge). The project connects Iraqi medical students with and American medical students and institutes to benefit from each other's knowledge and promote communication. Upon return to Iraq, she is planning other networking programs to address Youth, violence and create atmosphere for dialogue between Iraqis and others. Through her NGO work, she believes that the need for the development of the base of the medical sector, especially in terms of providing training for new medical professionals, due to the hundreds of doctors and medical professionals who have either been murdered, been kidnapped or fled for their lives from Iraq leaving the country with one of the least developed public health systems in the world. In that area, she thinks again, that internet communication and information sharing can reduce the impact of brain drain in the health sector in Iraq.