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IFMSA SCOPH PROJECTS

MM2009 Edition

Introduction Dear SCOPHians, SCOPH Dream Team and our beloved SCOPH Director, Florian Stigler. It all began back in late 2008 when two bright-eyed public health enthusiasts were honored to be selected as Development Assistants for SCOPH Projects 2008-2009. Brought together by fate and a little help from Flo of course, the world of fish and chips, football and grey, wet weather – the United Kingdom (UK), met a strange and bizarre new world of the Alps, Lederhosen and sausage – Austria. Together united as one it was our goal to think ‘big’ in our mission to support SCOPH projects around the globe. As one may say ‘the rest is history’… At the International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IFMSA) March Meeting 2009 in Hammamet, Tunisia, we are proud to present the first edition of the SCOPH Project Booklet. The SCOPH Projects represented within this 1st edition were selected based on votes of worldwide SCOPHians and the concept behind this venture is to publicise SCOPH projects within and beyond the IFMSA. It is our hope that the business card approach taken by this publication will allow a reader to gain a mind-blowing first impression of the visions of diligent SCOPHians tackling worldwide public health issues through community and student-based projects. Furthermore, we hope to stimulate the minds and encourage all readers to take the ideas and concepts behind each project featured within this publication to their country of residence with a newly inspired mission to implement as many projects as possible back home. Naturally we can’t take all the credit for such a publication and we would like to make a personal pledge of thanks and gratitude to all those involved in the design, content and implementation of the first edition - but hopefully not last, SCOPH Project Booklet. Enjoy! Yours,

Christopher Pleyer & Louise Mulcahy SCOPH Development Assistants for Projects 2008-2009

Contents Page Executive Summary 2 Priority Campaigns - IFMSA Campaign on Malaria (ICOM) & Anti –Tuberculosis Initiative Project Tobacco Initiative Project (TIP) & Transnational Obesity Network (TON) 3-6 Child Health – Smile X, Teddy Bear under the Christmas Tree & Teddy Bear Hospital 7-8 Community-based Projects - Community Support & National Health Week 9-10 Donation Projects – Marrow & Organ Donation 11-12 Global Health – Equip, Crossing Borders & International Students Network on Aging & Health (ISNAH) 13-15 Mental Health – Mental Health Initiative Project (MHIP), Eating Disorders & Fashion Show 16-19 1st Aid 20 SCOPH Exchange 21 22 Special Thanks 1 A project a day keeps the doctor away… World Health Days andProjects Links 23

Executive Summary Dear SCOPHians, In this moment, in your hands, you are holding the ‘SCOPH Project Booklet’. This is a special opportunity for you and if as a consequence of this booklet you go on to organise a project on your own, for all the people you will reach. This booklet has been made to give you an overview of the variety of projects you can organise within the Standing Committee on Public Health (SCOPH). The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) represents more than one million medical students all over the world and covers more than 100 national organisations. SCOPH works on different kinds of activities which all, in some way, affect the health status of our own communities deeply. This provides us with huge potential and a strong global voice as the future health professionals – but the most powerful tool is still what YOU are doing - in your own local committee! A local action gives you the chance to affect your own community directly. You are able to educate people concerning a disease, its early symptoms and possible treatment(s). You can raise awareness surrounding risk factors, prevention and promote a healthier lifestyle. Furthermore, you can influence policy makers through your advocacy. These goals may be achieved through marketing materials and the media. There is so much you can do and you are able to contribute towards unwavering change within your society. Through the same process you will improve your skills in working within professional organizations, team-work, communication, project-management and leadership. Moreover, you will be a health professional with awareness for real public health problems within your community and will hold the knowledge to enable potential solutions. So… Get active and organise your local action! Go through this ‘SCOPH Project Booklet’, become inspired, collect new ideas and make them come true in your own town and spread your message to others! You can become the consequence for changing the world! Spread your message effectively! Create a clear, short, catchy message and integrate it into your projects in a smart manner. Be effective and try to reach as many people as possible with your posters, leaflets and flyers, and use the media to report about your activities on TV, radio and newspapers. Involve others! Your local committee and other medical students are there to help you. Create a team! This booklet is not just for you – offer it to EVERYBODY, within your town and National Member Organisation (NMO), and new projects will raise up! Promote these projects as you can! Right now I would like to say thank you, especially to Louise Mulcahy (UK) and Christopher Pleyer (Austria) - the fantastic editors of this first version of the ‘SCOPH Project Booklet’! You have made this massive step for SCOPH possible, together with all the wonderful authors of each article. Thank you on behalf of SCOPHians and all the worldwide projects that will become active because of this ‘SCOPH Project Booklet’! Keep SCOPH rocking,

Florian Stigler

Projects IFMSA Director on Public Health 2008-2009

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Priority Campaigns IFMSA Campaign on Malaria (ICOM) About 40% of the world’s population, mostly those living in the poorest countries are at risk of acquiring malaria. Furthermore, every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria, 500, 000, 000 are infected every year and more than 1, 000, 000 die. The response of the IFMSA is called – ICOM: IFMSA Campaign on Malaria! This is an umbrella project, which consists of different activities within your own local committees. This article tries to introduce you to some of them in order to get ideas for your own activities to tackle Malaria! What do we want to achieve? • Education on nets (prevention), symptoms (seek a doctor), medication and to medical students. • Educate the society in the affected areas concerning the use of nets against mosquitoes, concerning the symptoms of having malaria to seek a doctor early and in raising awareness for the availability of effective medication (may be free). • Raise awareness and the knowledge of medical students worldwide concerning Malaria. To train us as future physicians to play an active role through advocacy and through treating and preventing this disease. In order to achieve these goals we need to get active on the local level – let’s organize activities on the World Malaria Day, 25th of April! World Swim against Malaria (www.worldswimagainstmalaria.com): The biggest swim event of the world can also be a big event for the IFMSA. It raises the worldwide awareness concerning malaria and puts pressure on our politicians as well as simply being fun. It is also a fundraising event with 100% of the funds being used to buy nets one net costs just $5 and just 8 nets save a life statistically! Health Education Campaign: Our main goal should be to raise the awareness and to educate society concerning the symptoms, the treatment and possible prevention of this disease. This can be done through educating kids and teens through educational games e.g. competitions on drawing, short stories or even poems or to create posters and flyers to spread your malaria messages to the general society. Bite Back: The Malaria project consists of 3 steps. As students complete each activity, they will receive a wristband – one will say “B” for believing, another “U” for understanding, and the final one will have a “G” for giving – spelling out “BUG.” B: The campus community is encouraged to sign a petition to show its concern over malaria. U: Increasing awareness is the key. Movies about malaria are shown and health information distributed. G: A donation campaign “Send Nets to Save Lives” is raised. It only costs $10 to provide an insecticide-treated bed net that can prevent this deadly disease. Peer Education Training – TMT (Train Malaria Trainers): An active training session at previous preGAs, which can also take place in your country! Create a peer education network by training medical students with the skills needed to act out interventions for the community or to educate other medical students on Malaria.

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Anti – Tuberculosis Initiative Project (Anti-TB IP) Many names are given to the monster – tuberculosis pathogen, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) admitted 2 billion of world population has been exposed to. Thus TB is one of the most virulent diseases worldwide. In the 20th century, tuberculosis killed an estimated 100 million people. Hopes that the disease could be completely eliminated have been dashed since the rise of drug resistant strains and the resurgence of tuberculosis has resulted in the declaration of a global health emergency by the WHO in 1993. Annually, 8 million people become infected with tuberculosis, and 2 million people die from the disease worldwide. The annual incidence rate varies from 356 per 100,000 in Africa to 41 per 100,000 in the Americas. Tuberculosis is the world's greatest infectious killer of women of reproductive age and the leading cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS. According to Stop TB Partnership which the IFMSA is member of, there are 20 countries that represent 80% of all TB cases and represent much of Asia, Africa and South Pacific countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. Within the last few decades Europe & America have also shown a resurgence of TB and it has been strongly correlated with HIV/AIDS co-infections. What can medical students do effectively? Medical students play a main role towards their society by raising awareness about Malaria to the general public, high-risk groups and their non-medical student colleagues inside their universities. This is highly effective and represents the real power of medical students. The prevention of the disease is the most powerful tool regarding disease control and eradication of TB. So what can you do? 1. Organise an awareness-campaign. Tell people more about early symptoms like coughing and about ways to prevent and to treat TB. Use posters, leaflets and flyers and try to get more attention by asking the TV or newspapers to report your activities. 2. Advocate against TB. Demand attention and speak as the voice of medical students. Collect signatures and write a statement to put pressure on your Ministry of Health and government to take action against Malaria. 3. Be active on the World TB Day. It is celebrated on the 24th of March within IFMSA and all over the world. Share your plans and ideas with SCOPHians all over the world by sending emails to the SCOPH Yahoo-Group. What is not effective? Activities like massive X-Ray screenings, treating patients, vaccinating public and any other specific measure as part of medical student’s activities are not effective as these activities cost a lot of money and involve a lot of effort. It is also already one of the main plans and duties of health authorities in several countries. However, it is our job as medical students to advocate the importance of this process and encourage authorities to allocate more financial resources to these goals.

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Tobacco Initiative Project (TIP) In the 21st Century 1, 000, 000, 000 people [WHO] will die because of tobacco, 10% of them because of secondhand smoke. This is the population of China, India, the whole Africa and more than the United States and European Union (EU) put together! The IFMSA can and should play an important role within the fight against this disaster. What we can do best is to get the attention of the general public, to educate our society, to strengthen the image of being a non-smoker and to advocate for adequate health care policies against tobacco use. We have different kinds of activities in IFMSA to achieve these goals and they are combined under the umbrella of the Tobacco Initiative Project (TIP). You can also use some of these projects and activities presented in this article in your own local committee. Smoke-free Party. It’s a party, it is fun and it is serious: second-hand smoke is deadly and one of the most underestimated risk factors for preventable diseases. In the EU alone, 80, 000 people are dying every year because of second-hand smoke [WHO]. This activity can raise awareness especially for this risk factor. Furthermore, it can help raise our voices for the creation of health care policies like smoke-free pubs and discotheques AND it can strengthen the image of being a non-smoker effectively. Just look for a discotheque and the owner will be happy if you want to organise a party for him. Just create posters and flyers and that’s it! Smoking-ologist This transnational project is integrating the concept of role-play simulation in its activities. The participants will reflect on the role profile of a doctor who is a smoker (Smoking-ologist) in an artificial social setting where smoking is a medical specialty (Smoking-ology), implying that the smoker doctor promotes smoking. Such a concept will expose the participants to first-person experiences of personalities, motivations and backgrounds of doctors who are smokers. Peer Education & Advocacy The idea is to train medical students to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to make interventions at high schools and universities and furthermore, to train other medical students who are the next generation of doctors. One step is the EuToCom (European Tobacco Control Meeting) of the IFMSA, sponsored by the EU. Collect signatures in order to hand them over to your Ministry of Health; signatures from medical students, by the general public – simply as many as you can, or a symbolic number. Smoke-free National Assembly This might be the easiest way to raise awareness concerning second-hand smoke. Be the one who proposes this bylaw change at your next national meeting! Join our Group! Visit: [email protected] or Email: [email protected]/[email protected]

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Transnational Obesity Network (TON) – Keep on Balance! Today we do not need to convince anyone that overweight children and obesity is a global epidemic. What seemed for over fifteen years to be a problem of rich and lazy societies, has recently turned out to be even more dangerous for the whole world. Nowadays, thanks to WHO researches we know how it could be possible that these symptoms of an ill society could develop under so many different circumstances. Natural History - revolution killed evolution The process of deep and social transformations due to economical and cultural globalization is no doubt a huge achievement of modern civilization. People all around the globe can enjoy successes of technology and engineering. Forget about the dark, almost medieval past – shamanism, poor nutrition and infectious diseases. Unfortunately traditional medical knowledge, as well as simple common sense is lost much faster than new systems are developed. Building fast food restaurant chains is a lot easier and appreciated more by poorly educated societies than the establishment of a diabetes mellitus or neoplasm screening program. Mission: children are future of the world! The 2005 WHO report clearly confronts us with a horrific situation! Chronic diseases such as stroke, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, were responsible for 35 million deaths worldwide. In developing countries almost 30% of children are overweight or obese. In the United States of America and most of the European Union the present situation is even more dreadful, with obesity rates above 40%! Excessive, culturally accepted smoking, poor diet composed of highly processed food and low economic standard of living take a heavy toll with 80% of chronic diseases occurring in middle and low income countries. Obese children have doubled the chance of developing severe vascular problems or diabetes mellitus in adult life. If we correlate this data our future looks gloomy and terrifying. Unless worldwide action is taken we will witness an apocalypse that we have made for ourselves... Action! Together we can make a difference… Chronic diseases have been tackled by the IFMSA Standing Committee on Public Health for many years. In the year 2004 during the PreGA in Zlatibor - Serbia, a group of motivated students took part in the ‘Global burden on Chronic Diseases’ workshop. After careful analysis of risk factors and the current global situation it was decided to start an international initiative. Since this time, constant work has taken place and finally in 2008 we could proudly announce the creation of the Transnational Obesity Network (TON). You will never walk alone! In many NMO’s medical students have been trying to tackle the danger hanging upon children and young adults in their societies. In some countries they have had spectacular successes, while in other they stumble in darkness. International cooperation was the chance to equalize these efforts and maximise the results. The aim of this project is to unite global efforts in the promotion of healthy lifestyles. TON will soon play the role of a platform for sharing ideas, educating local health leaders and cooperating actions in regions. Everyone interested in the topic will have an opportunity to find out new ways of getting through to endangered people, especially children. Constant work, peereducation and an exchange of resources is our only chance to reduce risk factors and educate young people how to live a healthy life. Life without disabilities, diabetes, vascular diseases, a world in which premature death and social tragedies are replaced by physical activity and a balanced life style! Do you want to join us? Together we can make a difference!

Projects

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Child Health

Smile X Hello there, IFMSA folks! We are proud to introduce to you “Smile X”, the craziest project of our association! Smile X is a project that gives medical students the opportunity to be in contact with the most beautiful kind of medicine: the clown-therapy. Inspired by doctors like Patch Adams and Dr. Marc Christensen, Smile X is a transnational project that was created in Italy and that now exists in 4 countries. After a hard learning process on clown techniques, medical students visit paediatric wards in order to try to establish a joyful relationship with the little patients. In general the clowns are divided into pairs and dressed up with the famous red noses. They develop games, gags and music presentations with the children, although the hospital’s dynamics are always respected. Our aims are to create a less stressed atmosphere inside our hospitals, giving children back their playful and spontaneous universe of childhood that may be lost with the admission. Moreover, we try to offer medical students tools and techniques to approach our patients in a friendlier way, which will eventually make medical treatment more comfortable for both patients and ourselves. Smile-X is about organizing clown therapy courses for medical students (held by doctors and students), creating a network to exchange all our experiences and to promote our idea of a harmonic doctor-patient relationship. Our goal is not become clown doctors for the rest of our lives. We also do not think that all of us, once graduated will carry a red nose in their coat. What we really want to learn is how we can be better doctors and how we can be closer to patients’ problems! Paint your nose and come to play with us. Become a clown-therapist too! To join us, or to get more information, please contact [email protected]! Our team will be glad to talk to you and believe me... I'm not joking this time ☺.

Teddy Bear under Christmas Tree “Santa is here!” – looking out through the patient rooms’ door the children are shouting with disbelief and happiness. Santa and his helpers are visiting them, singing carols and distributing gifts. For this moment the children and their parents are able to forget about their illnesses and fears and they can simply rejoice in the Christmas atmosphere even in a hospital setting. This is the reason why every year more and more medical students and local committees of IFMSA-Poland join the project “Teddy Bear under Christmas Tree” - the initiative, which aims to bring happiness to children who have to stay in hospital over Christmas. The project attracts medical students and gives them the opportunity to learn how

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to interact with hospitalized children and to gain experience in organizing charity events, which include parties, lotteries, movie evenings and concerts. All of these help to collect money to buy the gifts for the little ones. The students involved in the activities experience great satisfaction and assure us of taking part again next year, always considering their work as a great success for the families, themselves and their local committees. Doctors, media and parents are impressed by the initiative and look forward to supporting us in the project. “Teddy Bear under Christmas tree” won the 1st prize in the category "The Best Presentation" in the Projects Presentations sessions during the 57th General Assembly of the IFMSA in Ochio Rios-Jamaica. You can also join Santa’s team! Please contact: [email protected] [email protected]

Teddy Bear Hospital The Teddy Bear Hospital must be one of the most playful projects run by medical students because it is so popular within SCOPH of the IFMSA and within the European Medical Students Association – EMSA! Let’s see: “Hospital for Teddy Bears”? Sounds weird? The idea behind is quite simple in fact! We aim to introduce the clinical examination to children aged between 4-6 in a playful way in order to reduce their fears and at the same time provide an opportunity for medical students to learn more about pediatrics and interaction with children. Let the magic begin, children become parents and teddy bears their ill little ones! Through their own personal toy and without the stress of being the patient children come in contact with the hospital scenery. Parallel to this, through the role of parents children feel safe and interested in what is going on in front of them. They learn how to be responsible and realise that visiting a doctor is not something they should be afraid of. And the game starts! Does your belly hurt? We should give you a little of this fantastic syrup “Strawberrex”. Is your Teddy sick because of too much chocolate? Daddy’s kiss was not enough to make it feel better? Don’t worry our doctors are there to help you! The teddydoc’s must face poisons, broken tails and beaks but through using their imagination they always manage to apply the right treatment! In the end, children feel so comfortable with us, that they start asking us questions about auscultating their own hearts, taking pride in the fact that “they are not afraid of doctors”! When we ask them what they want to become when they grow up we love getting the answer, “DOCTOR!!!” The procedure shown above is just the main concept, since medical students in different countries have adjusted this to their needs, circumstances and limitations as well as course ideas! It is therefore not coincidental that more than 30 National Member Organisation’s (NMO’s) have chosen to run this project and that thousands of children play with us each year. It’s such a simple and attractive idea and importantly it has to do with children, our future. - Public Health without prevention is just not an option!

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Community-based Projects Community Support “A community is a group of people that share common elements: language, customs, values, geographical situation, roles, and so on. One of the main goals in a community is to follow the same objective” The medical students are the voice, the communicators and the people that are closest to the community. We are the people who have the time and the enthusiasm to contribute actively for our communities, can prove that we as future medical doctors can have a positive impact on our environment and that in the end, all our efforts are definitely worth it. We as medical students are often confronted with pain, suffering and sorrow but we also see joy and gratefulness. We can see how patients have doubts about their health and sometimes because of the lack of time they sometimes do not get satisfactory answers from our attending professors. Our main objectives are: • Offer patients easy access to information about their diseases. • Provide information about common and avoidable illnesses and their drug management. • Help to identify situations that can threat the patients’ health and promote a healthy lifestyle. The community support project can be set up by creating and coordinating groups that are able to work in the communities’ primary attention centers. Within group discussion or one-to-one consultancies all people from the community have the chance to ask questions. During the whole day students will try to clarify all the doubts in the best way possible, keeping up the quality of primary care attention. The amount of people you can reach in one setting can be set according to the quantity of medical students involved, keeping a 1:10 ratio. This way the students will be able to speak to 2 or 3 persons at the same time, trying to keep the conversation as interesting and dynamic as possible. All students can participate in this project even those at the beginning of their medical careers. Also physicians and all people interested in basic health knowledge can get involved in specific activities. With this project not only the community wins but also all involved students because their medical skills will be tested; they will see themselves confronted with unexpected situations since every patient has different questions, even different ways of focusing and describing the same problem. The community support project allows the establishment of strong relations between public and private entities and the students, eventually facilitating the coordination of actions and making the planning of activities easier and quicker. Additionally, students will be prepared to act faster during crisis and tragedies in communities, giving their best and most efficient attention.

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National Health Week Presently the National Health Week is being organised mainly in African National Member Organisation’s (NMO’s). It is the most effective project we’ve ever seen in IFMSA to reach and educate our communities. The project in Ghana is already celebrating its 40th birthday and this year they reached around 2, 000, 000 (!) people in rural areas to teach them about health. The impact of this project is magnificent and even harder to imagine. There is no other single activity within IFMSA, which is comparable – and it can also become reality in your country… But how is it possible? The idea is to coordinate all medical students of a faculty or even all national medical students to visit the rural areas of the country. They get a week off by their dean to attend this project and are sent by a hired bus to all parts of the country. Teams of 2 – 3 students spend a few days or up to a week in one region of the country. The local doctor organises their accommodation and food and the possibilities to reach as many people as possible. They approach people at the church, the market or at faculties, talking to them about one common topic, e.g. healthy lifestyle or maternal health. In all, two million people are reached in Ghana every year. This number might seem completely unrealistic to you but I have seen it with my own eyes when I joined the National Health Week of Ghana two years ago. A few hundred teams of medical students spread all over the country - my own team which consisted of 3 people reached at least one or two thousand people during this week. And this happens just in Ghana, a relatively small country with 3 medical schools - in Nigeria 28 medical schools organise projects like these … think of the potential! How to start a National Health Week? If you want to use this project idea to promote public health in your country you have to consider three things: availability and transport of students and the local community. Availability: In Ghana medical students are supported by their government and every medical student has one week off to join this event. For the beginning you can also start with one school which means you will have to contact your Dean to ask for one week off or at least for one day. Transport: The medical students can be sent by bus to different areas of your country or your region. You can look for money from the government, university, a sponsor or share the costs amongst participating students. Local Community: You have to think about what is the best way to approach the locals. To make this possible you will need to get in contact with the local doctor or the traditional chief of this area/village. They will need to organise accommodation and food for the students and arrange meetings at the church, market, schools, and faculties and wherever else you can approach lots of people. This is a unique project in IFMSA. It pushes the idea of being ‘effective’ to its limit and the organising countries can be more than proud of it. Every NMO of IFMSA should think about how to adapt this project idea to its own countries needs, it’s a fantastic concept which can be organised all over the world – also in your NMO. Contact [email protected] for further information.

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Donation and Transplantation Marrow Every year, thousands of people worldwide with blood born diseases such as leukaemia reach a stage in their illness where their only chance of survival is through a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, only about 30% of patients have access to a Human Leucocyte Antigen identical sibling, and so 70% will need an unrelated donor for a bone marrow transplant to become a viable option. A database called ‘Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide’ (BMDW) is an amalgamation of all the unrelated bone marrow registers throughout the world and comprises of a list of people willing to donate stem cells. However, despite amalgamating all of the world’s registers, there are just 11 million potential donors on BMDW (compared with a world population of approximately 6 billion). Marrow was inspired by Karen Morris, a student who suffered from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia. Karen had a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor but sadly she died post-transplant in September 1998. Despite this, Karen’s spirit continued to inspire others to work towards saving lives. One of those inspired individuals was a previous close friend, James Kustow, a medical student from Nottingham University. Driven by Karen’s strength and determination he realized that as a medical student, he had access to many young people who, he felt, may wish to help save lives. From this simple analogy, James Kustow founded Marrow in honour of Karen and it gives us great pleasure to celebrate our 10th anniversary this year and we have now grown to exist in over 30 medical schools across the UK. Marrow is a volunteer student organisation whose ultimate aim is to give every student the opportunity to join the bone marrow register. In the UK Marrow works in association with the UK’s largest national bone marrow register, The Anthony Nolan Trust (ANT) charity, who is recognised by the WHO as part of the international bone marrow and stem cell register - BMDW. Today, we contribute over 25% of the potential donors recruited to ANT bone marrow register and fundraise over £45 000 annually for the trust. We have even gone on to inspire international Marrow groups in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Austria. Furthermore, last year Marrow was awarded with the Rex Crossley ‘Best International Project 2008’. Marrow helps to take back lives from leukaemia by organising donor recruitment clinics in universities across the world and by raising the charitable funds needed for these lifesaving activities. Students run the entire clinic, from welcoming others to counseling potential donors and taking their blood samples for tissue typing. Each Marrow within a country is then, like the UK, linked to a national bone marrow or blood donation organization that carry out the tissue typing and take over the care of potential donors. If you are interested in starting Marrow in your country of residence then please contact [email protected]. You may also sign up to the UK’s Marrow central at www.marrowcentral.co.uk to gain further insight to the world of Marrow.

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Organ Donation Have you ever given any thought about how many people are on waiting lists for an organ transplant, how many transplants are actually done in a year or sadly how many of those waiting, died waiting? Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are waiting for an organ transplant, and thousands die every day waiting... With the development of new biomedical technologies, organ transplantation has become a widely accepted procedure, and a technologically accessible practice in almost all major medical centers. However, people are still unaware of the process of organ and tissue donation and transplant, of its ethical and religious implications, and of its importance in saving lives. Medical students should take the initiative, and launch a campaign to promote organ and tissue donation through educating medical students and other students in our countries about the topic, and emphasizing the importance of this act, leading to its acceptance. In other words, we believe that by raising public awareness on the importance of organ and tissue donation, we can encourage people to list themselves as potential organ donors. The campaign also comprises of lectures, round table discussions and assuring an interdisciplinary approach to the issue of organ donation. In 2005 this project was restructured, and applied for the transnational status at the IFMSA’s August Meeting (AM) in Egypt. The project received final recognition as an IFMSA transnational project in March Meeting (MM) 2006 in Chile, and at the same General Assembly (GA) was awarded the best ‘IFMSA Educational Project’. In April 2006 the first seminar on Organ Donation and Transplantation for Medical Students, held in Split, Croatia, was organised. The seminar was attended by a majority of medical students, but also by physicians and patients who had had an organ transplant. During the seminar, cooperation with Euro Transplant International Foundation, Croatian Donor Network, Donor Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Croatia and a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations were established. Since then, educational activity has included a pre-GA workshop on organ donation and transplantation prior to the AM2006 in Serbia and all National Member Organisation’s (NMO’s) participating in the project are constantly organizing different types of local educational and promotional campaigns. In December 2006 petitions were organized in Serbia whereby members of IFMSA Serbia who worked on the project Organ Donation and Transplantation, collected signatures from citizens on several very busy places all around town. Melhim Bou Alwan, the 2007 coordinator of the IFMSA transnational Organ Donation project organised a very big and successful seminar on Organ Donation and Transplantation in April 2007, Lebanon, and last year Goran Mijaljica, 2005-2006 coordinator of the IFMSA transnational Organ Donation project, gave his take on organ donation at the European Regional Meeting of the IFMSA in Brijuni. We intend to provide seminars in 2009 and more information will be available in the next few months. The application process for participation in the Organ Donation Project is quite simple – please contact the current project coordinators, [email protected] and [email protected] to get the necessary information.

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Global Health What is Global Health & Why is it important? Global health is a broad subject that looks at the local, national and international determinants of health and healthcare delivery. Global Health assesses the wider influences of health such as poverty, debt, globalization, healthcare financing, human rights, famine, environment, violent conflict and the movement of populations. It draws from a number of disciplines including politics, economics, sociology, demography, anthropology, epidemiology and philosophy. It is thought that students who have studied global health are better equipped to understand root causes in addition to the clinical manifestations of ill health. Global health education in your medical curriculum or through involvement in extra-curricular projects such as the one’s featured in this booklet, helps to foster a generation of health professionals who are committed to health for all, as enshrined at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, in 1978. We see health professionals as having a commitment not only to their patients but also to the health of international society as a whole. The growing number of health professionals who are committed to global health equity can form a powerful group of advocates for health for all. Globalization is changing the structure of societies and the way in which decisions about health are taken. Many societies are becoming more multicultural, and an appreciation of global health helps medical students to understand both the reasons for increased population movement and the social, economic and cultural factors underlying patients' ill health. Furthermore, decisions about health and healthcare are also increasingly influenced through global trade agreements such as TRIPS and GATS, and it is important for health professionals to understand the influence of such global policies on their work. If you are interested in finding out more about global health activities within the IFMSA, please email [email protected].

EQUIP “SCOPH’s REMEDY to medical supply disparities” Do you live in a country where hospitals use the most advanced medical technology or one where hospitals lack basic equipment? Either way, check out EQUIP: IFMSA’s new transnational effort to engage students in medical supply collection and redistribution (www.amsa.org/cph/equip.cfm). EQUIP Goals: Based on 3 E’s: Environmental benefit, global health Equity, and cost-Effectiveness, EQUIP aims to:

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1) Increase awareness of medical surplus amongst IFMSA members. 2) Increase the number of equipment recovery programs in clinical facilities in developed countries. 3) Maximize the utilization of donated supplies in developing countries. EQUIP Motivation: Each year, thousands of tons of usable medical supplies valued at $200 million are discarded from United States (US) hospitals alone. This tremendous amount of waste negatively impacts not only the environment through landfill use, but health care budgets through expensive regulated waste disposal. Conversely, clinical facilities in developing countries face daily challenges meeting their medical supply needs. The most needed supplies include gloves, sutures, drapes, gauze, syringes, beds, IV tubing, catheters, sponges and dressings. While US regulations prohibit the reuse of surgical supplies domestically, many of these materials are readily reusable and receivable for oversea use. Working with REMEDY: AMSA-USA has partnered with REMEDY (Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World), a not-forprofit organization that trains hospitals to develop supply recovery models (www.remedyinc.org). Operating room staff are trained to save certain exposed-but-unused surgical supplies that will be sorted, sterilized, resorted and eventually distributed to clinical facilities in resource-poor countries. Med-Eq, a branch of REMEDY, is the “eBay” of surplus charitable medical supplies where donors and recipients can exchange goods (www.med-eq.org). EQUIP Progress: Since EQUIP’s 2008 launch, over two dozen AMSA-USA chapters have expressed interest in starting recovery programs at their local hospitals and have received teaching packets from REMEDY. Lessons learned from this pilot project phase will be shared with SCOPH and other National Member Organisations at future IFMSA General Assemblies’. The more students that take initiative, the more supplies will be recovered, redistributed, and reused! Get involved! If you live in a country with surplus supplies: • Volunteer to help if your hospital has a recovery program. • Start a recovery program if your local hospital does not have one. • Transport donated supplies when you go on international exchanges. • Encourage your hospital to join Med-Eq. • Spread the word and write to local media about medical surplus. If you live in a country lacking supplies: • Identify the most needed supplies at your clinic. • Connect with international charities that distribute supplies. • Ask international exchange students to bring needed supplies. • Conduct utilization studies of the donated supplies. • Spread the word and write to international media about your supply needs. Please tell us what you decide to do so that we can help ([email protected]). Thank you for making a difference!

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Crossing Borders Crossing Borders is a network of healthcare students whose mission is to remove barriers to healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers. By educating future healthcare professionals, campaigning for policy change and running voluntary projects we hope to realise our belief that refugees and asylum seekers should receive the highest standard of healthcare irrespective of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or immigration status. Education and Projects: We want to educate medical and healthcare students about refugee and asylum seeker health needs, thus creating a cohort of future health professionals who will be well prepared to provide high quality care that meets their needs. What have we done? Educational resources about refugee and asylum seeker health issues have been compiled into a DVD called Refugee Health Resource Pack and have been distributed to universities across the country to those who are interested in including this as part of the medical school curriculum. We submitted a motion to the British Medical Association Medical Students Conference 2009 to make it compulsory for refugee and asylum seekers’ healthcare issues to be included in the core curriculum in medical schools. Through local and national projects we seek to improve the health and healthcare of refugee and asylum seekers through projects with local communities and organisations. Through practical engagement in these projects we also aim to inspire and educate our volunteers about refugee and asylum seeker health issues. In addition, we support campaigns such as “Defend Primary Healthcare” against the government’s denial of healthcare to failed asylum seekers. Cross borders and join us! Contact: [email protected]

International Students’ Network on Ageing and Health (ISNAH) The idea of the ISNAH project was first raised in 2000 as a result of an international meeting on Ageing in Porto. ISNAH is like an umbrella that pays attention to the elderly, trying to create awareness within medical students, doctors and the general population. The project is also called “Transversal to IFMSA Standing Committees” as it involves all Standing Committees. Information dissemination: This focuses on promoting awareness among health care professionals on global population ageing and special needs of the elderly as well as their rights and sexuality by a website, surveys and formative sessions. Furthermore, our goal is to offer professional and research exchanges to students. Curriculum Development: Despite the ongoing ageing of the population, basic geriatric training does not exist in all the medical faculties around the world. Thus we need to demonstrate this deficiency and furthermore, participate in the development of the need of curricula changes.

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Are you thinking about joining ISNAH? All we need is your name as the coordinator of ISNAH in your National Member Organisation, to be in contact and to work with you. You can also get an insight into what ISNAH is at: http://www.mediaweb-site.com/isnah/. Hope to see you soon and involved in ISNAH!

Mental Health Mental Health Initiative Project (MHIP) Mental health receives increasingly more attention in the field of global health. Recently, The Lancet published a series of articles that urge global health stakeholders (government, decision maker, policy makers, professionals etc.) to increase and to expand the coverage of services for mental health disorders worldwide. Growing from this global momentum for mental health, the Mental Health Initiative Project (MHIP) was born during the Jamaica 2008 August Meeting. The MHIP is a small working group that operates within the SCOPH. It endeavors to promote education among medical students on mental health issues and to promote student-led Mental Health projects at a local and international level. As a rule, the MHIP aims to debunk common myths about mental health and combat the stigmatization of people suffering from mental illnesses. We also recognize the importance of a multidisciplinary approach; psychiatrists, psychologists but also community workers, nurses, general practitioners and researchers are equally important when dealing with mental health issues. While mental health remains a neglected aspect of the global health agenda, MHIP’s action strives to promote equitable access to mental health resources, especially in middle- and low-income settings. Many mental health projects are budding in every country. The MHIP aims to rally all NMOs with mental health activities. In the near future we will provide a platform that will enable medical students to network and share their ideas. As more and more countries from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds join this initiative, it will become increasingly important to stress the cultural influence on many mental health aspects. What’s next for the MHIP? It animated working groups in regional meeting in January, building the momentum for the next general assembly in March. A survey run for the March Meeting theme event revealed that the interest for mental health issues ranked highest. The MHIP will stress the psychological consequences of conflicts by holding an interactive lecture on post-traumatic stress disorders. In sum, the MHIP objectives are clear: at an international level it creates a students’ network and educates future physicians on the global importance of mental health issues and at a local level it promotes activities that consolidate public health perspectives in mental health. This task has never been more relevant, for there is a strong evidencedbased set of actions recommended and proven cost-effective to alleviate the burden of mental disorders.

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You can join the MHIP by visiting our yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ifmsa-mhip

Eating Disorders Project Ludwig Feuerbach once said: "Man is what he eats". We wanted to prove him wrong! That is how our polish project Eating Disorders began because not a single person who suffers from eating disorders - albeit against the general publics’ beliefs that the majority of sufferers eat nothing - is “zero”! Almost everyone in today’s world is threatened by bulimia and anorexia. Through meetings with school pupils in secondary schools and using peer education tools we try to educate school children on significant but non-scientific information on how to avoid eating disorders and their associated illnesses. How to notice the danger before it’s too late… We discuss the symptoms, behavior anomalies, calculate Body Mass Index’s (BMI) and discuss the proper and current optimal energetic demands for those students who we meet with. Every meeting is a challenge - you never know where the discussion with the 14-year-olds is going to take you! We often end up analyzing the diets for ski-jumpers or answering questions on if you can catch diabetes from touching each other’s hands. Every medical student after taking a short course provided by our project coordinators can give his interpersonal skills a try! We provide these courses because the ability to communicate well in these situations is just as important and as vital as medical knowledge. Eating Disorders won the 2nd award in category "The Best Presentation" in the Projects Presentations sessions during the 57th General Assembly of IFMSA in Monterrey - Mexico. According to statistics almost 4% children at the age of 10-14 suffer from anorexia and with almost 8% from bulimia. This means that each time we visit a classroom full of school children we come across one ill student affected by an eating disorder - so don’t underestimate the problem! Together we can fight against this terrible situation and bring help! Want to join our cause or are you interested in learning more about eating disorders? If so you may contact:

National Project Coordinator “Eating Disorders” IFMSA-Poland at [email protected] or Aleksandra Herbowska, NPO 2009 IFMSA-Poland at [email protected]

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Fashion Show versus Anorexia & Bulimia Project Information on eating disorders are little known in Mexico and Latin America, due to small economical resources, and also because the research done has mostly targeted women, even though nowadays men care more about their appearance. The Fashion Show versus Anorexia & Bulimia is a project led by young medical students who aim to increase awareness regarding the major prevalence and incidence of eating disorders among young men and women in today’s society. We want to show that there is no need to starve to death and get so thin in order to look beautiful. To accomplish this, we try to reach as many young students as possible and provide information regarding eating disorders as well as to launch an intense promotion of the Fashion Show through mass media. We think it is a good idea to contact a clothing brand as they may like to support the project and this will encourage young healthy men and women to participate in the catwalk fashion parade. This must be done as part of the organizing process. If any profit is made from selling tickets to these events then it can be donated to a foundation dedicated to eating disorders. However, it may be ideal to have a no-cost event in order to reach more people.

As medical students we are obligated to embrace this project whose mission it is to address this huge social problem, however this project should be open to everybody so everyone can participate. It is really important to spread the information on the fight against the fashion tendencies and trends that make people believe that happiness can be reached only by being thin. The main objective is to encourage people to love themselves just the way they are. No one should ever be in a position to change for someone else in order to feel better about themselves. As we say in Mexico….

If you would like any more information on this project, on how to set it up or just to ask a few questions, please don’t hesitate to contact: [email protected]

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1st AID COURSE The teaching of first aid is a major cornerstone of SCOPH projects and due to its importance it has been taught continuously for decades without regard to local, national or international barriers. Why 1st Aid? We have been holding courses in teaching first aid for several years now. They usually target an audience consisting of children aged between 10 and 13 years. At this age children are no longer interested in playing with teddy bears and sexual education is probably not a useful topic for them at this time. On the other hand an interesting and dynamic presentation in teaching this age group some of the theoretical and practical principles aspects of first aid is something kids of this particular age enjoy. Furthermore the knowledge and skills they acquire will be able to help them in crucial situations of their life. How? The coordinator of the first aid course (usually LPO) forms a team of 10-20 people. The team usually works together actively for one to two semesters. The coordinator is in charge of organizing the events, which usually includes finding a patron (usually a well known doctor or professor), making sure the team is well educated in the topic, assembling the teaching materials (CPR figurine, ppt, first aid equipment) and as the most difficult task, he is in charge of setting up a schedule of all coming trainings. Outcome - Ever since the first course in first aid, we have been boosted by the enthusiasm of the university students, the praise of the staff and the support of our university administration and officials. The whole organization and its members have gained respect as students who care not only for their studies in public health but also act as role models who are not afraid to show their commitment by performing extra work and giving back to society. Quick Facts - In the last year we have held first aid courses in 47 elementary schools, 172 classes of students adding up to about 4000 children aged 10-13 years in the Czech Republic. Once upon a time... IFMSA members from the local committee of Brno held a first aid course in their hometown. They had a three hour course at an elementary school for the students of the 7th grade. About a week after their visit an accident occurred in which a student found one of his classmates unconscious. He did not hesitate and applied the knowledge he had acquired shortly before in the first aid course. He checked for basic life signs, put his classmate into a stabilized position and called an ambulance. Suddenly the unconscious friend who was heavily poisoned started to regurgitate. A spokesperson of the ambulance company confirmed, that if it had not been for the students’ abilities and

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actions, the poisoned boy would surely have suffocated and died. Luckily for him, this did not happen thanks to the young rescuer who knew exactly what to do.

SCOPH-Exchange “Exchange your ideas, exchange your experience, exchange projects - (Ex-)change SCOPH” Have you ever thought about volunteering in a public health project? Or do you know about a project which needs volunteers? If yes then SCOPH-Exchange is exactly the right thing for you! SCOPH-Exchange is a platform for Volunteer-Based Projects of IFMSA. Essentially, SCOPH-Exchange provides a network for these projects and at the same time gives medical students from all over the world the opportunity to support these projects as a volunteer and to gain experience in the different fields of public health. Many projects around the world are confronted with the problem of not having enough people involved to realize their idea or keep a venture running. Resources are limited and therefore coordinators are more than grateful for every helping hand. The IFMSA and its National Member Organisation’s (NMO’s) offer a wide range of projects for students who would like to temporarily participate as a volunteer, either abroad or in their own country. Orphanage Initiative Project – Presently there are approximately 100,000 orphans or children abandoned by their parents in Romania. The staff in orphanages is highly overburdened with the large number of children. The Orphanage Initiative Project, which is coordinated by IFMSA-Norway and IFMSA-Romania gives medical students the chance to participate actively in the daily work of an orphanage and give children the attention they really need. SCOPH-Exchange Projects: • • • •

Romania: Orphanage Initiative India: Calcutta Village Project Burkina Faso: Primary Health Care & Disease Prevention Brazil: Cepas

Do you know about a project, which could join SCOPH-Exchange? Joining the SCOPH-Exchange Network is easy. All you have to do is to contact SCOPH Development Assistants on projects (contact details below) and fill out a single form. If you are involved in a volunteer-based project you can give medical students from other NMOs the chance to participate and work as a volunteer in your project. In exchange students from your NMO have the chance to participate in all the other projects within SCOPH-Exchange. Visit: www.ifmsa.org/scoph-exchange - Contact: Development Assistants on Projects – [email protected] We will be glad to assist you! -

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SCOPH Months & World Events March (Tuberculosis / WHD) October (Mental Health)

24th

World Tuberculosis Day http://www.stoptb.org/

1st

International Day for Older Persons http://www.who.int/topics/ageing/

8th

World Sight Day http://www.v2020.org/

7th

World Health Day http://www.who.int/world-health-day/

World Mental Health Day http://www.wfmh.org/

25th

World Malaria Day http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/worldmalariaday/

April (Malaria / WHD)

10th

November (Diabetes)

May (Tobacco)

14th

World Diabetes Day http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/

31st

15th

World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day http://www.goldcopd.com/WCDIndex.asp

June (Blood donation)

20th

Universal Children’s Day http://www.unicef.org/whatwedo/index.html

December (Child Health) 3rd

World No-Tobacco Day http://www.who.int/tobacco/

1st

International Children's Day

14th

World Blood Donor Day http://www.wbdd.org/

26th

International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/

International Day of Persons with Disabilities http://www.un.org/disabilities/

July (Alcohol and Drug abuse) January (Cancer) 30th

International Leprosy Day & Neglected Diseases http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/

February (SCOPH Management) Projects 4th World Cancer Day http://www.worldcancercampaign.org/

August (Heart & Lifestyle) September (Ageing) 28th

World Heart Day http://www.worldheartday.org/

10th

World Suicide Prevention Day A project a day keeps the doctor away… 21 http://www.iasp.info/

This first edition of the Project Booklet would not have been possible without all the excellent contributions of the authors of each article. We deeply appreciate all the work you have invested in this project.

Special thanks to all of you! Authors Mariana Freitas de Aguiar Jelica Alargic Constantinos Christodoulidis Filip Dabrowski Assem El Sokkary Anthony Gifuni Aleksandra Herbowska Marko Jovic Jan Kocanda Yasutaka Konishi Kim Le Magda Kaminska Louise Mulcahy Jesús Mateos del Nozal Gemma Owens Christopher Pleyer Kushalinii Ragubathy Olympia Samoglou David Sancho Marco Saucedo Florian Stigler Marco Zavatta

Design & Layout Filip Dabrowski Louise Mulcahy Christopher Pleyer

Editors Louise Mulcahy Christopher Pleyer *All names in alphabetical order

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For any questions, please contact: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]

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IFMSA General Secretariat c/o World Medical Association BP 63, 012 12 Ferney-Voltaire Cedex France, Europe Fax:the + doctor 33 450 away… 405 937 1 A project a day keeps