The SCORPion issue 4

The SCORPionFourth Edition

IFMSAwas founded in May 1951 and is run by medical students, for medical students, on a non-profit basis. IFMSA is officially recognised as a non-governmental organisation within the United Nations’ system and has official relations with the World Health Organisation. It is the international forum for medical students, and one of the largest student organisations in the world.

is to offer future physicians a comprehensive introduction to global health issues. Through our programs and opportunities, we develop culturally sensitive students of medicine, intent on influencing the transnational inequalities that shape the health of our planet.

Imprint

Editor in ChiefEkaterine Buadze

Content EditorsDiana Tashkova Esther VroegeHelena Chapman

Design/LayoutNino TchilaiaLara HesselsHassan Aboul-Nour

PublisherInternational Federation ofMedical Students’ AssociationsGeneral Secretariat:IFMSA c/o WMAB.P. 6301212 Ferney-Voltaire, FrancePhone: +33 450 404 759Fax: +33 450 405 937Email: [email protected]

Homepage: www.ifmsa.org

[email protected]

Printed in Ghana.

The

miss

ion

of IF

MSA

By the time you are reading this, IFMSA General Assembly is knocking on the door with the most amazing ses-sions, presentations and workshops.Thinking of the moment when hundreds of medical students unite for peace, dignity, human rights and bright future, most of us remembers Standing Com-mittee of Human Rights and peace - SCORP. SCORP can be freely com-pared to the live organism consisting of hundreds of small pieces, working day by day for the better future in the world. Hundreds of medical students from all over the world are ready to speak up about human rights, peace, injustice, violence.

The 4th edition of The SCORPion is to focus on the Standing Committee of Human rights and peace, on develop-ment of the committee, new projects, members, ideas, suggestions, and vi-sions. This publication gave opportunity to every member of SCORP to express themselves, their ideas, future plans, new projects, campaigns.

When given a task of being editor of The SCORPion, I cannot lie; the feeling was amazing, although at the same time it was a huge responsibility. How-ever, The SCORPion 4th edition would not have existed without the most amazing, mo-tivated, dedicated editorial team, who worked continuously on the publication. I would like to thank every member of editorial team for their work, every author for their spirit, dedication, and character which they showed in the articles.

I hope you will enjoy this publication and get more inspired with new pro-jects and events conducted by SCORP all around the world.

Warm wishes from Georgia.

EDITORIALEkaterine Buadze Editor in Chief

4 The SCORPion | MM 2012

Dear Readers,I am extremely happy to present to you

the outcome of the hard work of our mem-bers in the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace. I hope these brilliant indi-viduals who have shown their initiative and dedication to Human rights inspire you as much as they do to me.

As you turn through the pages, you will see the thoughts, ideas, and outcomes of the great “SCORPions” who have done so much to make this a possibility. We should always remember the television or read the news; we find there are millions suffering. Be it those starving in the Horn of Africa, the victims of violence in Syria, those in the Philippines strug-gling to survive, or any other issues that harm our fellow humans; we should always stand up and give something to help those in need. The events that have taken place in the past year (2011) have been incredible as we have seen the struggles, victories, and incredible moments that have etched this year into his-tory. One does not need to be a future phy-sician to be an advocate of Human Rights, but all of us have a responsibility to protect his fellow man. As Voltaire had best put it “Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do”.

Again, you will be inspired by the lo-cal, national, and international activities of these incredible individuals. My colleagues in SCORP have moved the world with their hard work and brilliant ideas. Their opinions and words also help one think and look into the importance of Human Rights and Peace. This standing committee is one that contin-ues to touch my heart and create a burning passion throughout the world that cannot be extinguished by the cold of oppression and violence. The pride I take in the members of SCORP cannot be matched, and you shall understand as you read their articles and ac-tivities.

Lastly, I would like to thank the incredible editor in chief Ekaterina Buadze for her com-mitment, and hard work in making this pub-lication possible. Also thanks to the great in-dividuals working with her - Diana Tashkova, Esther Vroege, Helena Chapman and Nino Tchilaia on the editorial team. If it was not for these wonderful people, then this publication would have not even been a possibility. So please, enjoy this publication and see the magic that comes out of this Standing Committee.

Director on Human Rights & Peace

2011-2012 | IFMSA

Fares K. Al-Fares

Message from the director

5www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

Ricardo Zules | IFMSA Ecuador | SCORP Regional assistant for the Americas

SCORP & importance of huMAn RIghTS

After the terrible conflict of World War II, humanity realized the serious situation that everybody was liv-ing worldwide; the fear and uncertainty was power-ing human kind especially after 50 million people de-cease in this terrible tragedy. Nobody knew what was going to happened next and sadness was the main feeling around the environment.

In December 10 of 1948, Human kind did one of the most important acts of faith to established peace and respect around the world; they notice the im-portance of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights that protects everybody from atrocities that could be committed to them or to their population. Nowadays, despite the establishment created 63 years ago; peo-ple continue breaking human rights because of the economical and social inequity that exists around the world that limits human kind, where money is the con-trolling machine in each one of us; a machine that consumes the consciousness of society.

It is time for us to be part of the changing system; those who enhance the importance of human rights and promote them in our daily activities. Is necessary to create and raise awareness to all population. Piti-fully every day in many places around the world, we don’t notice about the aggression of human rights because the situation that surrounds our population is infested with violation of them; children working in the streets, poverty, deficiency in medical atten-tion, inequality in economical resources.

The best way to get to people’s minds is through action. We need to share to the world that human be-ings have the ability to design ideas that will improve our exist-ence. That’s the main objective that SCORP in PAMSA has. Our com-mittee in the Americas is developing strategies to strengthen the regional structure so we can continue creating projects and activities that will lead to the main goal.

It’s important to highlight that is not going to

have a quick result and is not going to be one per-son’s job. It’s going to be a baby step work that finally will raise as a strong and fruitful standardization that will maintain proactive and inspire to all SCORP mem-bers in PAMSA and hopefully all over the world


Where varieties unite in one hEARTBEATMonika Szamosová IFMSA SCORP Regional Assistant for Europe

Human rights situation in European region is on the

whole believed by many to be good. However, the

current need of action from many non-governmental

organizations is still present in a huge extent.

The history of human rights in European region is

marked by a contradictory combination of legislative

and intellectual progress on one side and on the oth-

er one by violations of fundamental human rights in

both the colonies of Europe and at home. It is not only

non-governmental organizations that contribute by

their piece for the improvement of the situation. As a

Regional Assistant and Scorpion I cannot forget about

Scorpions who do not build walls around themselves

to ignore the injustice around them, working with

hopeful heart and aware mind for bringing support

where needed. At this occasion, let me to dedicate

this article to all European Scorpions with compassion-

ate hearts and helping hands.

Immigration and asylum seekers, human trafficking,

racism and intolerance, minority groups, ongoing

conflicts – these are the most common areas related

to violation of human rights in European region, how-

ever the violations vary from one National Member

Organization to another. Some of the European NMOs

do not face the same infringements as their neighbors

and hence this is a factor influencing the national ac-

tivities of member organizations. At the present, there

are loads of various European projects that are amaz-

ing, for example – METIS: Student Movement Working

Against Health Access Inequalities; 3om1 is a project

about finding sponsors for school children in Calcut-

ta, Embracing Diversity; Student Ambulatory; writing

letters with Amnesty International; Ashipti is a pro-

ject trying to raise funds to build a health clinic in the

northern part of Ghana; international undocumented

immigrants right to health care projects; Equip project

collects medical equipment and sends it to partners

in developing countries; health education projects in

refuges centers; positive images and lots more.

You can look for more projects at SCORP Database,

here I would like to stress that those who have not put

their projects up into the database, do not hesitate to

do so, we are eager to hear about your projects and

learn from them!

My vision of the future of this region is connected to

Buddha´s thought.

In my vision European Scorpions are thousands of

candles that are lit from a single candle, SCORP, with-

out shortening the life of that candle. Happiness never

decreases by being shared. That is what I would like us

more to do. To inform each other about ongoing pro-

jects and plans, because despite borders between

European countries that is paced by legislative, there

are none.

I believe we always have the big-heartedness to

learn, understand and appreciate others. If we greet

the world in this spirit, the ´Circle of SCORP´ is sure to

grow. With many months ahead of us, I want us to cre-

ate a common mark that will be left after us for other

Scorpions or NMOs deciding to join SCORP. Together

we can promote SCORP to one of the most recog-

nizable pillars of IMFSA. In the end, I would like to ex-

press my huge thanks owing to all of you, European

Scorpions, for doing more than just existing. Please,

do remember that I am always here for you to assist

you and help you in your projects or hesitations and

7www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

The big hug for the small

SCORPions, we are all only

a hEARTBEAT away from improving.

Diana TashkovaAssociation of Medical Stu-dents in Bulgaria

Bulgarian medical students from AMSB promote the values of solidarity and equality with a project called „The big hug for the small”. The target group consists of orphans who are accommodated in orphanages in the country. The main idea is to teach children (4 - 12 years old) the basic knowledge of human body which is important for them as part of their culture. As the study programme in most of the orphanages is’t very vast, the students from the Medical University are eager to share their knowledge and to contribute to the intellectual development of the kids. Every second week of the month in the afternoon around seven stu-dents go in the orphanages. The orphans are taught about the human body and hygiene by playing many games, drawing.

The lessons start with an introduction of the topic, after that there are questions and the education fin-ishes with games. All the children who participate ac-tively and answer the questions receive a small pre-sent such as a star or a crown. The kids and the youths are singing songs, playing and painting together.

As a result, the children not only get knowledge but they feel loved and respected. They meet youths who are interested in them, who want to play, to discuss dif-ferent topics and to have fun together. The approach is different to every child but happy moments are the most important.

uncertainties. You show that nothing great was ever

achieved without enthusiasm.

Your chromosomes have combined beautifully! You

are inspiration to this world.

Therefore may P.E.A.C.E. always be with you. Positive

Energy Always Creates Elevation. Joy is portable, so

remember to bring it with you while running your pro-

jects.


The big family of the future

From the very beginning of my career in IFMSA there were so many people around me, so many dif-ferent thoughts, so many great ideas and so many, breathtaking, brilliant and incredibly stunning photos and videos.

It was summer of 2010, a summer “hotter than ever” when I made a decision to visit Ghana in order to participate in a professional exchange program to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in the city of Kumasi, Ghana. My involvement with our local com-mittee here in Alexandroupolis, Greece was not so enriched and I was not so devoted until that time. But there was something extraordinary on this trip for me. It was the push that inspired me to start working with IFMSA in a more regular way than in the past. That was my first real experience in human rights issues, my first real experience in SCORP’s field. And of course I will always remember these amazing moments and espe-cially through my pictures and my videos…

After my return from Ghana, where I had spent more than 40 days, I got involved with SCORP as the Local Officer on Human Rights and Peace of my med school, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. In the first months we had lots of obstacles as most of our team didn’t know anything about human rights is-sues and in many cases they didn’t even care about

these subjects. One of our first attempts was to start blogging. And yes we tried to inspire more of our col-leagues through publishing articles accompanied with some appropriate pictures and videos.

Admittedly Friends without Borders an initiative Sup-ported by Facebook Inc. and the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. was one of the biggest boosts to my work. I have been selected as a Peace Champion for Greece. Here is some information about the project: The Friends without Borders global peace-building campaign has nominated eight world youth Peace Champions from regions challenged by conflict - Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan, Greece and Turkey, Kosovo and Serbia. The Peace Champions have been selected as a Facebook cross-border friendship pair in conflict regions. The initiative is supported by Face-book, Inc. who publishes daily friending rates across all our four regions at http://peace.facebook.com/. The project brings together the immediate power of information and communications technologies and video storytelling to increase mutual respect, trust and understanding among youth from all eight countries by promoting social and cultural self-expression. The campaign provides a forum for trusted social engage-ment, and allows youngpeople to connect with new and old friends with dif-

ferent cultures and beliefs in real-time across unlimited locations. The Face-book platform has created a space for youth from different sides of the four conflicts get to know each other with-out the constraints of distance or inter-ceptive media. The Peace Champion friendship pairs from each region will act as ambassadors for the campaign by sharing their own story of friendship on video. They will inspire others to engage in friendship and peace-building on Fa-cebook in ways that will help progress positive inter-country, intra-regional and inter-personal relations. Many months later there was a huge progress and our local team was obviously getting stronger and more interested in human rights issues. SCORP Human Rights Day

Dimitrios PeichamperisLORP - 5th year medical student Democritus University of Thrace

9www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

2011 video contest was a great chance for us to test ourselves and to express our passion and concerns for

a better world. Even if we had requested and con-firmed our participation at the last minute, we finally did it! Our video was one of the two winning videos and hundreds of SCORPions shared, through social media, our message for an “Adequate and afford-able healthcare accessible to everyone” to every sin-gle corner of this world. Finally what I wanted to men-tion is that your pictures and your videos could help to make our world a better place in so many different

ways. Photos from your visits to IFMSA meetings, videos from your local projects, even from your adventurous exchanges, they are all very useful tools in some way. Remember you could use them to promote your work and in order to share your dreams for a better world. Never be afraid to share your dreams with the world, because there’s nothing the world loves more than the taste of really sweet dreams. Also remember that people have always had a natural curiosity about the past. History is an important part of both education and personal enjoyment. It is espe-cially interesting to learn about your own family’s history. Preserving your family photos for future gen-erations is one way to keep important memories safe and accessible. You can create a family history photo book to keep track of the precious memories and im-portant events within your family. IFMSA and SCORP as every big family need to have their own family photo albums.

I wish the best of luck to my Ghanaians friends for the upcoming March Meeting 2012.

Warm regards from Greece.

Educating SCORP Right now!

I can safely say that we medical students are one of the most uneducated of all students. We are great in our own field, we learn about the most interesting diseases and we prepare ourselves to dedicate our lives to our patients. We will be the medical research-ers of the future doing research on important medical problems and trying to develop new ways of treat-ment. But outside the medical world we are clueless. We don’t have philosophy, sociology or economy classes. Outside our medical world, we are in fact quite lost.

That’s why I’m so glad IFMSA has the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace. This commit-tee broadens our horizon and enables us to talk about the problems we see all around us. I believe SCORP is the foundation of IFMSA, everything we do involves our rights. But even with our Standing Committee, we still don’t have a clue. Being a SCORPion is one thing, but to actually know what’s going on is a whole differ-ent story. If we want a new generation of doctors who have their own opinion on worldwide issues and are willing to discuss this with other professionals, we need to educate them.

SCORP-NL has made a small step to educate her

own SCORPions and other members. We released our first human rights newsletter called Right Now. In this newsletter we write about local and international hu-man rights issues, we interview a SCORPion and we have a column. We don’t copy paste from main-stream news, our goal is to ask local people. For in-stance interview them on human rights in Iran or the political situation in Egypt. We also try to encourage our members to do research on a topic they like and write an article about it. We’ll make sure they get in touch with the local SCORPions and revise their work if necessary. Apart from this we will also organize hu-man rights trainings and debate events to further edu-cate our members. Hopefully this will be the start of a more active and involved SCORP in our NMO and will it also motivate other members to think outside the medical box. If you want to follow us by adding us on Facebook, our name is “Pax Fortyeight”. PAX stands for Peace and 48 stands for 1948, the year the decla-ration of human rights was adopted by the United Na-tions. We will also send the newsletter to the general SCORP server so every SCORPion can read it. It’s time to educate ourselves. Right Now!

Esra DedeIFMSA- the Netherlands


Peace, the doctor’s choiceIFMSA Georgia, Georgian Young Medics’ Union

Every doctor in training on their first year of study realizes that being a doctor is not just profession; it is a way of life. Our main concern is the preservation of human life. As it has been said ours is the most humane of all professions. So we view events from a different angle.

Every day we see horrible things around us: discrimination, humiliation, killing, rape and it pains us to witness these horrors. As we study the science of medicine, we re-alize more each and every day just how valuable human life really is. Everybody is a walking, talking miracle of nature and each person is unique. So, we believe that we should try to make the world see from our point of view. We will try to make them understand how marvelous the living be-ing can be so that the “IFMSA Standing Committee of Human Rights and peace” will be built into society’s thoughts. In do-ing so, we believe that people will begin to better understand and develop higher

viewpoints about one another. Around the world there are a myriad of groups with different creeds and cultures who have one thing in common: They are seeking a peaceful life. Together we can end Earth’s long history of settling differences by hat-ing our enemies. Together, we can prove the power of faith and love to make our enemies our friends. Together we have the power to create a wonderful world based on values of love, equality, respect and freedom for all. In order for people to truly be at peace, they first must come to terms with themselves, their surroundings and take action. They must also stand up and take action. Future generations must create a new and peaceful world. Pro-tecting human rights and peace should be implemented in everyday life.

Onise Mebonia

Aleksandra Gvenetadze

Sergo Dzamashvili

Archil Agladze

Bejan Khelidze

If you defend my rights, then your rights will be defended

11www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

Omar Abu-Zaydeh | Regional Projects Assistant for the EMR and coordinator of NORPAL project

Palestinian summer 2011A whole new experience

Last summer Palestinian, Dutch and Norwegian medical students spent one wonderful and interesting month together on an internship. All had the chance to explore the situation in Palestine, especially in the refugee camps by spending four weeks with the kids in a summer camp. All learned a great deal about this land, its cities and its people! However, the internship did not focus solely on the life in the camps, but also consisted of training at the Palestinian hospitals.

Background: The Dutch students participated in the IMSTAR project, and the Norwegian students ex-perienced the NORPAL SAWA project. The situation for the Palestinians on the West Bank is difficult in regards to economics, politics, health issues, and human rights. The goal of these projects is to give the partici-pants the opportunity to experience the local situa-tion up close and meet other students and citizens who live under these conditions. When the Norwegian and Dutch students return to their countries they will

have the responsibility to spread their new knowl-edge to fellow students. In this way, we hope to increase the interest of students to get involved in difficult economic or political situations,in their own nation or across the globe.

NORPAL-SAWA is a cooperation project between NMSA, MedFred (IPPNW´s youth organisation) and IFMSA-Nablus (by Al-Najah University) on the West Bank.

IMSTAR, Internship for Medical Students in Action for Refugees, is a cooperation project between IFM-SA-Nablus-Palestine and IFMSA-the Netherlands that started two years ago. IMSTAR 2011 was the third edition of the project.

Where and when: NORPAL SAWA was organized for the first time in July 2011, just as IMSTAR started on July 16, 2011. The projects took place in Nablus, which is the biggest city on the West Bank. The city has about 134 000 inhabitants, where 30000 of them live in refu-

gee camps. The projects will be arranged again for July 2012.

What: The first week of the project was an introduc-tory week with workshops and lectures on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the refugee situation and health situation. During the next three weeks, the participants had clinical rotations in the mornings, while other activities were planned for the afternoons. Students organized a summer camp for the children in one of the refugee camps in the afternoon, to dem-onstrate life in a refugee camp. They also planned many social activities both in Nablus and around the city. Places visited included parks in Nablus and sight-seeing the old cities of Nablus, Sabastya and other ancient villages and Turkish baths. They even coordi-nated swimming and cooking days.

On weekends small trips were made to visit most cities in the West Bank (Jericho, Hebron, Jenin, Tol-karm, Beth-lahm), to visualize and learn about the Pal-estinian situation and culture.

The last summer was continuation of our previous work and start of a dif-ferent experience as well. We look forward to welcoming many other countries that would like to work with us in such projects and develop new ideas that support our issue and give the chance to the world to know us! This is a way we can spread our message of global peace!

And on behalf of my SCORP committee, we feel so proud of past and present accomplishments. Many countries have communicated with us for potential future collaborations! We are hopeful that all IFMSA organizations will have this opportunity to learn about our country!

Reham Ghanim | NORP and coordinator of IMSTAR project


Mohamed El-MahdiIFMSA-Egypt

Forced human Rights1

as working to implement a good value should be through good means, we can’t grant that the cause justifies the means. We can’t justify wars, kills, violence and destruction by the nobil-ity of implementing human rights. Hu-man rights are a universal package, you can’t choose to implement what you think suits you and neglect others, also there is another aspect regarding your human rights shouldn’t interfere with others’.

It has always been debatable if using force is appropriate in our fight for hu-man rights. Some people say that if you run out of peaceful approaches, force is your shortest way to get to where you want to go.

But force will provoke counter vio-lence and subsequently we will lose hu-manity and not only the rights we are fighting for. Also it has been proven psy-chologically that sometimes humans start to reject any idea or change when it is forced upon them, even if it was

their idea in the first place; humans by nature refuse to be told what to do.

Another point, using violence and force in your quest for human rights can be used against you. That is why many remember people like Mohandas Gan-dhi, as one of the most influential prac-titioners of non-violent resistance, using a unique combination of spiritual and political pressure to achieve humanitar-ian ends.

Such debate won’t cease, it is hu-man nature; to love control and hate to be the one controlled.

(1) The article is written 21 months ago, as part of my group task in the project; http://www.eyhre.org/(2) Mexican president; Gustavo Diaz Or-daz (1911-1979), from inaugural speech as president.

“My government will pro-tect all liberties but one: the liberty to do away with oth-er liberties”2

13www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

Myat HannIFMSA Bahrain

Discrimination has always played a role in the way

we as humans live our lives. We put stereotypes on most of our interactions. We judge by gender, race, color, language, social status, even by the clothes we wear.

Why do we as humans judge others? We do not understand them. Why is it that we are more likely to help out a whining dog than a man passed out in a gutter? We have already judged the person without knowing him. Discrimination is not simply making fun of someone or teasing another based on some per-ceived superficial traits. It is based on deep-seated pre-conceptions that color all further actions we have based on a stereotype learnt from parents, media, friends or any force without understanding them.

Every person in the world is a fascinating cascade by the background coming from, including friends, teachers, parents. How can we judge such a myriad collection of different experiences? Many people do not even understand themselves. How can you judge when you do not understand? And if you cannot even judge yourself, how can you judge others? The key is to live without judging, instead live trying to un-derstand. Discrimination comes from a lack of under-standing and ignorance is the root of discrimination. The easiest way to be free from of ignorance is to find the root cause.

In the 21st century we come across many different obstacles that were unknown in the past. We live in an age where the world grows every year; we have

world-wide epidemics. The economics of a single country affect everyone. We live in a fascinating mul-ti-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic world. Let us try to understand it!

I am the girl walking beneath the trees, judge me not from my looks but from the words I say.I am the boy sitting on a bench; judge me not from my clothes but my actions this day.I am the woman smiling in the wind, do not judge me instead share the sights that I can see.I am the man holding his head up high, do not judge me in-stead why not rejoice with me?We are entitled to all the rights and freedoms, with-out distinction of any kind.We must be judged not from the characters of our bod-ies, but the shapes of our mind

Ignorance is the root of discrimination


Owoyemi JospehNigerian Medical

Students’ AssociationCollege of

Health SciencesObafemi Awolowo

University

The niger River Delta Situation: Oil as a Barrier

The Niger River delta is a geographic region of 36,000 square kilometers, located near the coast, where the Niger River forms an area of mangrove forests, lagoons and swamps. The entire Niger River delta is geographically smaller than the state of Texas in the United States.

Just as in the case of Saudi Arabia, the oil indus-try has permitted the transition of Nigeria from a poor country to become an economic power in petroleum. In 1956, oil was discovered in Oloibiri (Niger delta), and later it was discovered in all areas of the Niger delta. Although this delta rich with oil extends about 100 kilo-meters (60 miles), the reality is that the local popula-tion continues to live in impoverished conditions.

Petroleum has dominated the Nigerian economy, the world’s fifth largest producer. Although virtually 100 percent of export earnings and four-fifths of fed-eral revenues are derived from petroleum,1 these economic profits have not been reflected in the daily livingconditions of the average Nigerian citizen.

While oil has brought profit and prosperity to some regions, it has brought pain and suffering to the popu-lation of the Niger delta region. Since the advent of the oil exploitation, this industry has hindered the Ni-gerian delta citizens in their traditional occupations of agriculture and fishing. In addition, the oil industry has not compensated these local citizens from their an-nual profits. This situation is best reflected in the com-mon phrase, “Water is everywhere, but no one can drink the water.”

The harmful effects of oil spills and environmental pollution have created a great concern for the ma-jor water supply from rivers as well as tributaries of the Niger river. First, oil destroys the productivity of sustain-able crops in the farmland. Second, the oil film on the water surface blocks penetrating sunlight rays and reduces the level of dissolved oxygen required for aquatic life. Lastly, crude oil can be mortally danger-

ous for birds and fish as direct contact can damage feathers and gills, respectively.

In the United States, oil companies pay heavy fines whenever oil spills threaten the environment. For ex-ample, the British Petroleum company was heavily fined for environmental damages produced after the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, andwere made responsible for disaster cleanup.

Oil has been a barrier for community residents of the Niger River delta. Despite the consequent envi-ronmental pollution from oil spills in the Niger delta re-gion, no tangible efforts have been made by the fed-eral government to make foreign multinationals pay for local environmental destruction. Several Nigerian groups have campaigned actively, to compel the government and major oil companies to introduce and implement environmental safeguards. In 1988, the government created the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) to address problems of oil pollution and land degradation, which had only a mi-nor impact on environmental action.

Various groups have rebelled against the leader-ship in order to focus attention on the Niger River delta situation. Adaka Boro unsuccessfully attempted to se-cede the Niger delta, but was overwhelmed by the force of the Nigerian oil industry. More recently, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger delta has emerged to call attention to the delicate Niger delta situation.

In 2009, things took a turn when the Nigerian gov-ernment declared amnesty to all the militants in addi-tion to creating a Niger delta ministry and road map for the development of the Niger delta.. However, no meaningful achievement has been observed since this date.

Many people comment that there may be two

15www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

reasons why these Niger delta problems still exist. First, the practice of the unitary system (federalism) has provided a platform to focus on the oil industry and respective profits

Although many people see no moral in armed vio-lence, I propose the following question: What mor-al lies in forceful impoverishment, pain and death caused by national leadership that focuses on profitAlthough I do not anticipate an easy solution, we must all join together and create one single movement that uses the power of our medical education and health awareness.

This movement would not only protect the Niger River delta geography and environmental conditions, but also it would improve the health, wellbeing and prosperity of the community residents.

PROTAP: Provocation to Love the Environment

To commemorate the Indonesia Young Genera-tion Oath Day and the National Hero Day, the Stu-dent Council of the Padjadjaran University School of Medicine collaborated with the Indonesian Medical Student Executive Broad Association (ISMKI) to organ-ize Provocation to Love the Environment (PROTAP),an event organized to plant 1,000 trees on December 11, 2010. This planting program was held at the Bukit Goleah Panorama of the Hegarmanah Village in Jatinangor, West Java. The event participants repre-sented the seventeen universities of the ISMKI area II of Jakarta and West Java. The Office for Forestry and The Military Commander Office of Jatinangor, West Java, also collaborated in this activity. This planting program was chosen as a participatory model for the One Bil-lion Indonesian Trees (OBIT), encouraging community citizens to be more conscious about the environment. Since floods are common in the Indonesian provinces, especially the disastrous 2010 flooding in the south-ern areas of Bandung, planting trees are beneficial to maintain the soil structure. Scientists predict that chronic respiratory disease will be a major source of

morbidity in 2025. As in Indonesia, life in any metropolitan city brings the risk of decreased air quality due to automobiles and factories. For this reason, planting trees is also an ex-cellent way to produce clean air. In the opening speech, the representative of The Office for Forestry said, “A long time ago, if we wanted to go to the for-est, we did not need to take water. Now, we should always bring mineral water. In the next 20 years, it may be necessary to bring oxygen tanks to breathe.” Through this activity, we hope that we can improve our environment for the future and inspire others to save the forests from destruction. Since trees are the lungs of the world, let’s plant trees for the regenera-tion of mankind on earth.

By : Mega FebrianoraIndonesian Medical Student Execu-tive Board Association


Melika HanifihaaNORP IFMSA- Iran

A Report of Travel to Khor Village - IranSaba hoobehfekr & Shayan Kashefinejad | Project Co-ordinators

In September 2011, a group of Tehran University of Medical Sciences’ students prepared the trip to one of the poor regions of Iran. This group of 10 male and female medical students trained community citizens about health issues and learned about the commu-nity needs.

Khor Village has a population of approximately 813 persons,1 located in the Khoosf District of Birjand City in the Southern Khorasan Province. The village lies 70km from the central province of Birjand, and 50km from the city of Khoosf. The main occupations of the rural people are farming and camel ranching. The vil-lage has one primary school with 40 students.

Different educational strategies were utilized for the different age ranges, as follows:

Training of Children For the ice-breaking session with the children, a

painting workshop was organized. Gluing rolls of pa-pers on the walls of the village’s Communication Hall,

a large space was created for the children to paint and design with pencils. Later, the personal hygiene training workshop allowed medical students to edu-cate the children in accurate dental hygiene, hand washing and personal health. They donated pack-ages of soap, toothbrushes, toothpastes and Kleenex.

Training of Teenage Boys and Girls A group of the female medical students held a

session for adolescent girls, where they discussed the developmental stages of puberty, including men-struation and hormonal changes. At the same time, a group of mamedical students held discussions and workshop sessions for adolescent boys about addic-tion. By showing movies, the visual demonstration in-cluded different types of addiction, its damages and prevention approaches.

Training of Women and Mothers They educated females on preventing undesired

pregnancies and family planning methods. Despite living in impoverished conditions, the Khor village has a future potential to increase education levels and health status of residents. Adolescent girls and boys want to continue their education. As medical students initiated these educational sessions with the Khor vil-lage residents, they learned about community needs, which can be the focus of future health campaigns to these residents.

17www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

Yesenia S. Galan4th Year Medcal Stu-dent; UNIBE, Domini-

can Republic

While discussing the criteria of cerebral death, Dr. Miguel Suazo listed the authors we needed to con-sult for further study on bioethical themes in end of life care. He took a notable pause before continuing, one in which after the paper-shuffling topic changes induce, the class returned to its previous hushed at-tention. He began to speak about the Puerto Rican ethicist and writer, Dr. Leonides Santos y Vargas. We learned from the selected concise words, he provided details about the work of this man, who was his close friend and intellectual brother. As evidenced by his methods, Dr. Suazo was himself an insatiable learner.

We left filled with more questions than we had upon entering, and it was with great pride that he talked about the formation he had received from his contemporary. Our professor was also adept at pre-senting the general subject knowledge, then expos-ing sub-layers that provided a stronger foundation to the prior conclusions drawn. He revealed that Dr. San-tos y Vargas was experimenting on a personal level what he once viewed from the perch of academia: the battle of a terminal process of cancer.

As our esteemed professor expressed such admira-tion for his colleague, in the midst of echoes of sadness and solidarity,it is worth the time to investigate the life and works of this individual. In the following months, I immersed into the required reading in books and ar-ticles that presented a kind of lens to view human conduct regarding health issues.

The professors provided these “new glasses” for their students to “wear” and give dimension and weight to medical topics regarding the paradigm of “hospital protocol” and the “doctor-patient relationship”. Con-cepts, like quality of life and professional morality, in-tertwined with concepts of medical practice, where health professionals must focus beyond the disease pathophysiology. Diego Gracia’s arguments on the validity of the Hippocratic Oath1 and Jorge Jose Fer-rer’s treatise on the responsible use of animals in bio-medical investigation2 became the common lunch

conversation topic among my hospital colleagues. The collective enthusiasm and support made our roundtable conversations an empowerment to com-plete our rotations armed with knowledge and com-petence. Pursuit of an advanced degree in bioethics is not required to become a physician who excels at the science of healing, but rather exists as further un-derstanding of the discipline vital for those who prac-tice the art of healing.

In this previous week, I learned about Dr. Santos y Vargas’ final days and subsequent passing through heartfelt correspondence from Dr. Suazo. After hours of analysis of his most salient essays and several spirited debates on positions held with respect to his writings, I developed a deep and enduring respect for him and his vision. In one particular writing, “Bioetica y Pueblo,” the author challenges the bioethicist to internalize the fact that he or she is a public intellectual, and there-fore has the obligation to communicate with society so as to guarantee access to issues.3 Its clear and original discussion continue to inspire my vocation in medicine. Thanks to analytical thinkers, like Dr. Santos y Vargas and Dr. Suazo, I now formulate my own ideas and perspectives, learned under their tutelage. Just like the student eventually becomes the teacher, I find myself motivated to create similar analytical pieces, which may serve to encourage others to explore bio-ethics, which is intimately connected to the traditional health profession. I look forward to working with my colleagues in efforts to propagate the ideas that have served to enlighten me in my discipline. After all, as Dr. Santos y Vargas professed:

It is the PEOPLE who will ultimately enjoy or regret the results of these challenges faced in the field

Bioethics as a way of life


Nora El-GharbawyNORP, IFMSA-Egypt

Turning PointI never liked expectations, in my opinion it is not

so smart, expecting something to happen, fantasizing and dreaming about how it will happen, thinking and practicing how we will react when it happens, and then falling apart when reality screws us up. I am Nora el Gharbawy, 4th year medical student, and national officer on human rights and peace in IFMSA Egypt.

The story is divided into two sections, before and after January 25th. While I wanted to men-tion the story of a country before 25th, I sadly can’t, because before then I lived my own life, my own way, had my own family and friends, and my own study, and my own inter-ests. Maybe I did some activities in IFMSA-Egypt and other places to fulfill my share of public respon-sibility to satisfy my own self. But this story, my story, is the story of the majority of people around my age and older in this country, before January 25th.

Maybe the few lines above can give you an idea about how we lived before, self centered, with no faith at all, except in finding a way out, out of our lame education, out of our boring though tough lives, out of our country. Although personally I wasn’t in favor of mi-gration, thinking that I do have an obligation towards my people, but rarely would you’ve found somebody thinking the same. Maybe it is bad education, maybe it is very low fees, maybe it is corruption, which be-came the normal act everywhere, maybe this lead to altering the human nature inside of us, we stopped trying, and some even stopped speaking at all.

We’d only hear about elections in the TV. We’d only see how one party can take above 90%, and we know and you know how they would reach this percent. We’d only see how this person or that per-

son bought this big factory or store or land from the government, with that much –or little- money, and we know and you know how they got it. And maybe we don’t talk about it and maybe we do, but never out-side our circle. Maybe we hear how this guy or that girl were kidnapped by national security, from their home, or from this street at night, and taken to someplace nobody knows where it is, and maybe show up cru-elly beaten and tortured, and maybe don’t show up at all, and then maybe we justify how this happened because they were part of this party or this this move-ment that does bad things.

But then surprisingly along came January 25th of 2011. And being myself I did not participate in the pro-tests. I never expected how many people would go - most people, even those who do like expectations didn’t actually, and I certainly never expected the consequences and how the national security would react. January 25th was a Tuesday, on Wednesday I remember I walked in the streets of my small town searching for the protests, I found national security everywhere, but there definitely were no protesters.

But this wasn’t the case in Tahrir, peo-ple were still there, fighting for rights they hardly ever had in the past 30 years, even before that. But everybody was building theories and expectations for the following Friday 28th of January “because Friday is our day off in Egypt”, and it was killing me how I can’t make my own theo-ry. On Thursday night they cut off the in-ternet, they blocked phone networks, we were completely isolated. Being not able to arrange it with my friends I went

19www.ifmsa.org

Issue 4

out alone, searching for the protests. This was the first time I ever scream for change, freedom, and dignity. It was the first time at all that I scream or even ask for something that involves somebody beside me and ever since then I kept following the news, protesting, and speaking up my mind about what is going on, and building theories and even expecting how things would go, not taking anything but what I as well as most Egyptians want, which is the regime down, and the president away.

I changed, Egyptians have changed, it is like when you scream for so long and nobody listens, you’ll even-tually lose hope and stop it. But when you do it again and find a result, somebody joining you, dying for the same cause, and you see response from whoever is in charge, this gives you the power and the will to keep screaming and shouting and fighting until your demand comes real. And days went on and February 11th came, and the president left. He stepped down handing the governance to the supreme council of arm forces – unfortunately. I remember going with a lot of people around my age and younger, down streets to clean them after the protests were over. We were happy, full of life and dreams for a brighter fu-ture than we had ever imagined, I remember some people I know who had found their way outside of Egypt for the rest of their lives coming back, decid-ing to spend the rest of their lives home. And all of us discussing how better we will be, how we won’t cheat in exams for example, how we will respect the traffic laws, how we will not bribe any official to speed up the procedures of whatever we want, how we will keep the streets clean. We were dreaming out loud.I have changed, I thought that maybe, just maybe having

plans, expecting and making real effort eventually does pay off.

Although the recent events, the violations that SCAF and the police committed, brutally killing peaceful protesters, exposing girls and attacking them, cruelly, very hard, very painful, very inhumane, people who are now demanding SCAF to step down, personally I support their demands, personally I still join protests happening in my small town, personally and deeply I am starting to lose that sense of optimism and change, but one of my friends told me that as long as there are Egyptian youth, with will and power there is still hope.

We are on our way, we don’t know what would happen next, we can’t say the revolution is over, and we can’t say we reached our goal, not yet. Even though most people are already moving on with their lives, starting to live in some stability that they have missed in the days of the revolution. Maybe this it-self, the fact that life is moving on before we reach full change is somehow making us worried or disap-pointed.

Sometimes I try to foresee, or yes expect what the future may hold for us, but I can’t say I can, in fact I don’t need to, because it is enough for me to know that when once we had a cause and a will we could break down the regime that has been there for 30 years, and watching videos of how protesters acted in Tahrir and everywhere facing water cannons, gas, rubber bullets, and even live bullets makes me believe that no power on earth would ever break us.

www.ifmsa.orgmedical students worldwide

Algeria (Le Souk)Argentina (IFMSA-Argentina)

Armenia (AMSP)Australia (AMSA)

Austria (AMSA)Azerbaijan (AzerMDS)

Bahrain (IFMSA-BH)Bangladesh (BMSS)

Bolivia (IFMSA Bolivia)Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA)

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Rep. of Srpska (SaMSIC)Brazil (DENEM)

Brazil (IFMSA Brazil)Bulgaria (AMSB)

Burkina Faso (AEM)Burundi (ABEM)Canada (CFMS)

Canada-Quebec (IFMSA-Quebec)Catalonia - Spain (AECS)

Chile (IFMSA-Chile)China (IFMSA-China)

Colombia (ASCEMCOL)Costa Rica (ACEM)Croatia (CroMSIC)

Czech Republic (IFMSA CZ)Denmark (IMCC)

Ecuador (IFMSA-Ecuador)Egypt (EMSA)

Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)El Salvador (IFMSA El Salvador)

Estonia (EstMSA)Ethiopia (EMSA)Finland (FiMSIC)France (ANEMF)

Georgia (GYMU)Germany (BVMD)Ghana (FGMSA)

Greece (HelMSIC)Grenada (IFMSA-Grenada)

Hong Kong (AMSAHK)Hungary (HuMSIRC)

Iceland (IMSIC)Indonesia (CIMSA-ISMKI)

Iran (IFMSA-Iran)Israel (FIMS)Italy (SISM)

Jamaica (JAMSA)Japan (IFMSA-Japan)

Jordan (IFMSA-Jo)Kenya (MSAKE)

Korea (KMSA)Kurdistan - Iraq (IFMSA-Kurdistan/Iraq)

Kuwait (KuMSA)Kyrgyzstan (MSPA Kyrgyzstan)Latvia (LaMSA Latvia)Lebanon (LeMSIC)Libya (LMSA)Lithuania (LiMSA)Luxembourg (ALEM)Malaysia (SMAMMS)

Malta (MMSA)Mexico (IFMSA-Mexico)Mongolia (MMLA)Montenegro (MoMSIC Montenegro)Mozambique (IFMSA-Mozambique)Nepal (NMSS)New Zealand (NZMSA)Nigeria (NiMSA)Norway (NMSA)Oman (SQU-MSG)Pakistan (IFMSA-Pakistan)Palestine (IFMSA-Palestine)Panama (IFMSA-Panama)Paraguay (IFMSA-Paraguay)Peru (APEMH)Peru (IFMSA Peru)Philippines (AMSA-Philippines)Poland (IFMSA-Poland)Portugal (PorMSIC)Romania (FASMR)Russian Federation (HCCM)Rwanda (MEDSAR)Saudi Arabia (IFMSA-Saudi Arabia)Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia)Slovakia (SloMSA)Slovenia (SloMSIC)South Africa (SAMSA)Spain (IFMSA-Spain)Sudan (MedSIN-Sudan)Sweden (IFMSA-Sweden)Switzerland (SwiMSA)Taiwan (IFMSA-Taiwan)

Tatarstan-Russia (TaMSA-Tatarstan)Thailand (IFMSA-Thailand)The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MMSA-Macedonia)The Netherlands (IFMSA-The Netherlands)Tunisia (ASSOCIA-MED)Turkey (TurkMSIC)Uganda (FUMSA)United Arab Emirates (EMSS)United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Medsin-UK)United States of America (AMSA-USA)Venezuela (FEVESOCEM)

Mali (APS)Belgium (BeMSA)

Tanzania (TAMSAz)

Documents

The SCORPion issue 4