Several Muslim students at the University of Maryland participated in a two-week medical outreach internship and provided healthcare services to rural communities in Uzbekistan from Jan. 6 to Jan. 20, 2026 through a partnership with the program Volunteers Around the World (VAW) Global Health Alliance.
The seven students worked alongside healthcare professionals to offer medical screenings, take vitals and provide medication. In preparation for the trip, students organized fundraisers to cover the cost of medical supplies for patients so all medical assistance was free.
The trip intended to reach areas with patients who may not be able to receive healthcare or afford medication. Stops were made at Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan and the regional city of Nurafshon. Students also visited more remote communities, including the rural Oqqorg’on District and Green Lukas to reach more communities in need.
“It really felt like Muslims helping Muslims, and you could see that in every clinic that we went to,” said Sarvinoz Nabiyeva, a sophomore economics and Arabic double major who is Uzbek.
Nabiyeva served as the financial chair for the trip and said that the trip resonated with her because of its impact on rural Muslim communities in her home country — communities that typically have limited access to healthcare and medication.
The medical outreach internship was organized by Mariam Almuhammad, a sophomore neurobiology and physiology major who started a VAW chapter at UMD. VAW’s mission is to support developing countries by holding mobile clinics where they treat patients free of cost.
For Almuhammad, the team leader and ambassador from UMD’s VAW chapter, this initiative was an act of service to her Ummah (global Muslim community).
“I’ve always been passionate about helping people that needed [medical treatment],” said Almuhammad. She said that giving back to Muslims through providing free healthcare services was doing just that.
Outside of clinical work, the students visited historical mosques and learned about local culture and Islamic history.
Uzbekistan is home to many historical Islamic sites, such as Bukhara, the birthplace of Muslim Scholar Imam Muhammad Al-Bukhari who narrated numerous authentic hadiths. The city is over 2,000 years old, making it the best example of a well-preserved Islamic city in the world. They also visited Imam Al-Bukhari’s grave in Samarkand.
Almuhammad said she felt inspired by patients trying to gain more Islamic knowledge and connecting to their Lord by learning Arabic, despite it not being their native language.
“Just seeing that although these people are so different from me and my own people, our bond through Islam made it felt like there was really no difference,” said Almuhammad.
Nabiyeva felt that the connection between Islam and service created a strong sense of unity. Reflecting on the trip, she said she felt a deep sense of gratitude.
“The entire trip, I was just grateful. I found myself constantly saying ‘alhamdulillah,’” said Nabiyeva. “I’ve been on a service trip before, but the fact that I got to serve my own people, and give back to my own country. It was a whole different [feeling] … It just felt very fulfilling.”
Almuhammad described the trip as “heartwarming.”
“Alhamdulillah, we got to meet a bunch of people who were helping on the trip and interacting with the people and patients, hearing their duas, constant prayers, and dhikr [remembrance of Allah]… it was actually amazing,” she said.
For Matab Elbashir, a student volunteer on the trip and a sophomore public health science major, the experience was fulfilling.
“I never experienced a situation where it made me feel really grateful and good about the work we were doing,” said Elbashir. “I felt like we were all one big Ummah.”
Image credits: Cover photo courtesy of Mariam Almuhammad.
Al-Hikmah 
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