Imprint Editor in Chief Ibrahim Kandeel Design / Layout Ibrahim Kandeel Rami Abdallah
IFMSA-Egypt is an independent, non-profitable and non political association of medical students in Egypt, and it’s a full member in The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) IFMSA-Egypt has been inspiring medical students since 1969. It has always been the representative of medical students all over Egypt, be establishing its roots in 23 Local Committees in 23 different medical faculties. Through years, IFMSA-Egypt has always been concerned with different major issues that affect healthcare providers and the medical society as well as the general public in Egypt; this is through being a continuous reflection for medical student’s engagement in different health and social activities and focusing these efforts to be always coping with the national, regional and international work trends.
Photography Editor Mohamed Yasser Editors / Proofreaders Dalia Abdelnaser Mai Ashmawy Manar Nassem Nowrus Emad Publisher IFMSA-Egypt Homepage www.ifmsa-eg.org Contacts publications@ifmsa-eg.org
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This Publication is a property of IFMSA-Egypt. No other parties are allowed to use this publication without a prior consent.
Notice:
• The opinions presented in the publication are mere possession of their authors, and don’t by any means reflect that of IFMSA-Egypt. • All precautions have been taken by IFMSA-Egypt publication team to ensure the verification of the information present within this publication. However, The responsibility for interpretation and use of the material belongs entirely to the readers. • Some of the photos and graphics used are property of their authors, and all precautions have been taken to spare any contravention to their rights.
Copyright © 2014 IFMSA-Egypt
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President’s Message
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General
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SCOME
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SCOPH
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Words from the Editor in Chief
Message from the IFMSA-Egypt President
Words from here and there.
Learn about their vision towards better Education.
Here come the SCOPHeroes.
SCORA
Words from the SCORAngels.
SCORP
The People who want to make the world a better place.
Exchange Testimonials The world through the eyes of Exchange Students.
Projects Bulletin
The core of our organization.
CONTENTS
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Editorial
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Editorial
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March 2014
Ibrahim Kandeel,
IFMSA-Egypt Publications & IT Director 2013-2014 publications@ifmsa-eg.org
Dear IFMSA-Egypt Members and IFMSA Friends,
It’s such a pleasure to introduce the 2nd edition of IFMSA-Egypt newsletter, This Newsletter is the Voice of the Medical Students in
Egypt.
“Global Health in Action”; that was the theme of the 5th IFMSA-Egypt winter camp. In this newsletter we are going to talk about all the details of this mega event from the preparation also the pre winter camp workshops and the externals experts who facilitated these workshops. As well as the latest news; IFMSA-Egypt is now representing all the Faculties of Medicine in Egypt after the 3 new LCs that joined to our big family. So, now we can say it Loudly IFMSA-Egypt is representing all the Egyptian Medical Students in 23 different Universities across Egypt. This Edition of the Newsletter is very special as we worked on the MSI [Medical Students’ International] Magazine style as an integrated publication for all the Standing committee activities, through this publication you are going to find a lot of medical students telling their stories about their experiences in IFMSA work and also you are going to take a look at IFMSA-Egypt National projects and how we could reach in all the governorates of Egypt. This Publication took a lot of effort to be done, this is why I want to thank all the team members who worked on this publication , the Amazing Editors Dalia , Manar , Mai & Nowrus, the photography Editor Mohamed Yasser and finally special thanks to Rami Abdallah (IFMSA-Egypt Projects Support Division Director) for his great help. Also I want to thank all the authors who submitted their articles to be part of our newsletter. Enjoy reading it and don’t forget to drop your feedback. Yours,
Ibrahim Kandeel 3
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Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
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IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
President’s Message Ramy Genaid ,
IFMSA-Egypt President 2013-2014 president@ifmsa-eg.org
Dear IFMSA-Egypt Fellows,
collaborations with officials and governmental agencies.
It is with great excitement and motivation that I write to you in this special edition of IFMSA-Egypt newsletter. This is a special edition because this year I have witnessed that IFMSA-Egypt is expanding to involve more LCs; to be represented through 23 Local Committees in 23 different Faculties of Medicine. That proves that IFMSA-Egypt is the voice of medical students and the leader of health care system in Egypt.
In IFMSA-Egypt, we are aiming to broaden the spectrum of medical students and enable them to reach their full potential through our capacity building strategies.
This wide representation has made us capable of advocacy for major issues that affect healthcare providers and the medical society as well as the general public in Egypt. Because we believe in the role of youth, we have actively focused on spreading awareness about the importance of our role as youth in advocating for change, as well as establishing
This year IFMSA-Egypt has featured a huge transition from a committee-based structure into an initiative-based structure. This has led us to focus on international issues that are relevant to the Egyptian society as Global Health Equity and distribution of resources, Access to Quality Education & Gender Equality. A huge success was the IFMSA-Egypt 5th Winter Camp: Global Health in Action which was built on the values of capacity building, and advocacy for issues that serve Egypt’s community and to somehow drift the standard fixed approach our projects were being dealt with, to focus mainly on quality and not just quantity to ensure that IFMSA-Egypt as an organization is starting looking to projects from a different scope. Hoping that this will empower our members and make sure they are gaining the experience they need to be qualified to cope with, not only the national but the international trend of work. Finally; I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in producing this issue ‘’ IFMSA-Egypt 2nd Newsletter ‘’; through the pages of this issue you will find the different activities IFMSA-Egypt has been running Enjoy Reading!
Ramy Genaid
IFMSA-Egypt President 2013-2014
www.ifmsa-eg.org
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March 2014
IFMSA-Egypt winter camp
5th
Dalia Abd Elnasser ,
Head of feedback and Evalutaion team of the winter camp.
With the attendance of more than 450 delegates from 7 different countries, IFMSA-Egypt 5th Winter Camp under the theme of “Global health in action” had its doors open from the period between 3rd of February to the 6th of February. Many things can be Good, but only few can be Special, and this is how it is when it comes to IFMSA-Egypt Winter Camp being the biggest national event held every year. However, this year IFMSA-Egypt Winter Camp showed up with a totally different Face ; a more professional , unique and exceptional one , skipping the old traditional way of Standing Committee based event composing of ordinary Sessions like those of GAs, into an event of initiative base coping more to the issues of global medical interest such as global health. Flash back to the beginning of the story on the first of February; Pre winter camp workshops on topics like global health, disaster risk management, project management, human rights training and TNT (Training new trainers) being facilitated all with external speakers. Three days of workshops passed and another three days of the motivational and enthusiastic spirit came along the way, delegates arrived, opening ceremony, pictures here and there, morning sessions, afternoon training, evening social events and a working day by night organizing committee to suit everything good for everyone. Delegates were offered the chance to meet IFMSA-Egypt alumni in
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“IFMSA-Egypt between history and future” event, where 4 of IFMSA-Egypt alumni came to tell their different journeys in IFMSA-Egypt and how such experience influenced their lives after that. “Global health in action” Titled Theme event, was a good chance for all delegates to take a look on how the world is now shifting its interest towards such important medical cause. The Story of IFMSA-Egypt 5th WC came to an end, one that everyone witnessed it to be an end of one of the most professional and one of a kind events. So Now you all knew the way, if you ever felt interested to live such story you have only one option; IFMSA-Egypt Winter Camp.
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
They’re not to be blamed actually, as there has been a debate over the definition of global health for the past few years and the term is differently interpreted. Imagine that we have a bucket and a tap of water just above it, the bucket is full and the tap is still running while the bucket is spilling the water outside and we’re doing nothing but moping the floor around the bucket instead of closing the tap or even draining the bucket. This just shows that we are definitely searching for the wrong causes at the wrong places as well. This is what global health aims to stress upon. We need to look at the bigger picture, because if we do, we’d figure it out easily. Global health views health related issues knowing no boundaries what so ever, it places a priority on improving health all over the globe with equity in the level of health care provided to people worldwide. Global health is about taking our knowledge and turning it into something that will melt the snow that is on the boundaries between us and socially transforming the world into one big city.
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Global Health in Action:
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Unfortunately, many medical students don’t have a clue what global health is and why is it even relative to their work.
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Through the eyes of a med student. Nowrus Emad Amer,
Menofia University nowrus.mssa@gmail.com
connected. Our ability to become professional and compassionate physicians is closely related to how we understand our patients, their needs, causes of illness and what should be done. Global health as a concept makes sure that we start stretching out to other people if we are going to play a significant role in our world as doctors, as health is no longer limited to hospitals and clinics, health care is now everywhere around us. Proper understanding of global health and how it should be applied helps us focus on the exact steps we need to take to make this world a healthier place. This year, IFMSA-Egypt hosted its 5th Winter Camp; a Global Health in action-themed event where a handful of the definition and the major topics of global health was served to more than 450 Egyptian medical students and others from all around the world. Highly capable global health experts, both in the voluntary and professional fields, have delivered the training and lead the workshops. The event highlighted the various approaches ahead of medical students worldwide to actively participate in the field of global health. Workshops emphasized the goal of providing medical students with the basic knowledge of global health and the role of youth and future doctors in shaping the world of tomorrow. This was a very important step taken to stress on why global health is one of the challenges of the generation and how important it is for us as physicians and how it is a crucial part of our training.
But why should I care? How is this useful for my career as a physician? Our world is increasingly inter-connecting and understanding global health has become crucial for every physician. It is not a specialty; it’s a perspective that asks us to look at the whole world as one entity which is globally and socially www.ifmsa-eg.org
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March 2014
Psychiatry
Ahmad H. Shata,
6th Grade , Suez Canal University shata_1992_2008@yahoo.com
“Is psychiatry a medical enterprise concerned with treating diseases, or a humanistic enterprise concerned with helping persons with their personal problems?” Thomas Stephen szasz Let’s start from the beginning, my first encounter with psychiatry was when a friend of mine got diagnosed with OCD and throughout the whole process from diagnosis till recovery we had to keep his illness a secret and no one should have known about it. The second time was during my first week in psychiatry round when we entered the ward, it was fine by me but what really caught my attention was how my fellow colleagues reacted to patients as if they were insane, perilous or something like that. That really made me think about how these patients suffer, how miserable their lives are during the healing process and how the society looks at them as if they are stigmatized and I really couldn’t help but wonder why these patients can’t say that they are schizophrenic while diabetic ones can say that they are diabetics!. Stigma, misunderstanding and discrimination surrounding mental health disorders are widespread. Despite the existence of effective treatment for mental disorders, there is a belief that they are untreatable or that people with mental disorders are hard to be dealt with, not intelligent, or incapable of making decisions. This stigma can lead to abuse, rejection, isolation and excluding people from health care or support. Within the health care system, people are often treated in institutions which resemble human warehouses rather than facilities established for healing. Human rights violations of people with mental and psychosocial disability are routinely reported in most countries. These include physical restraint, seclusion and denial of the basic needs and privacy. Few countries have a legal framework that adequately protects the rights of people with mental disorders. When I looked through the top global health issues, I found many interesting facts; one of them shows that mental health disorders such as depression are among the 20 leading causes of disability worldwide. Depression affects around 350 million people worldwide and this number is projected to increase. Less than half of those affected people have access to adequate treatment and health care. Another fact regarding WHO statistics shows that around 20% of the world’s children and adolescents are estimated to have mental disorders and about half of the mental disorders begin before the age of 14. Neuropsychiatric disorders are among the leading causes of worldwide disability in young people. Yet, regions of the world with the highest percentage of population under the age of 19 have the poorest level of mental health resources. Most low- and middle-income countries have only one child psychiatrist for every 1 to 4 million people.
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On the other hand, as medical students we studied psychiatry in order to understand the nature of despair, but all we really learned was its pharmacology. The human mind is easier to medicate than to comprehend. So actually it is a serious issue and we should pay more attention towards this emerging problem as all we do as physicians is write prescriptions and we neither teach those patients how to deal with the society nor teach the society how to deal with them during their illness. That takes me to the headline of the article “Psychiatry 101”. We should as a major medical students’ organization introduce psychiatry from a different perspective, other than the one common in our society; through campaigns, conveys and much more not only to the public but also to medical students as they also need not only the medical knowledge but also the proficiency of dealing with them and providing a healthy atmosphere to prevent any dreadful outcome. We need to learn how to deliver the message to the society as it tends to believe that their illness is as a result of myths like magic and evil possession rather than having a certain deficiency in a certain neuro-transmitter in a certain area of their brain. References 1. World Health Organization (WHO): 10 facts on the state of global health [Online]. 2. Available from: http://www.who.int/ features/factfiles/global_burden/en/ [Accessed 3rd January 2014]. 3. World Health Organization (WHO): 10 facts on mental health [Online]. Available from: http://www.who.int/ features/factfiles/mental_health/ mental_health_facts/en/index.html [Accessed 3rd January 2014].
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
“ Standing Committee On Medical Education ”
www.ifmsa-eg.org
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March 2014
Introduction from IFMSA-Egypt NOME Ahmed Badr ,
IFMSA-Egypt NOME 2013-2014 nome@ifmsa-eg.org
“Our Education … Our Rules”, by this spirit we work at SCOME (standing committee on medical Education). At SCOME, we target medical students from all aspects in order to ensure a better future and a decent healthcare system. As medical students are directly exposed to medical curricula, they should have an influence on the creation of new curricula and curriculum development. They should also be able to meet the standards of the medical profession, their healthcare systems and the needs of their communities. From this perspective, SCOME tries to promote modern medical education. We exist to gather medical students from all over the world who are interested in playing an active part in their education, improving it, adapting it more to their present needs and also to their future requirements as doctors. We try to deliver our message and goals through many awareness campaigns, workshops, seminars and other interactive events which are targeted towards medical students. Some of the previous workshops included training on
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Communication skills, stress and time management skills. Several awareness campaigns were done on the importance of research and the influ ence of study on student’s health. SCOME has many projects planned for the future including several seminars for postgraduate foreign options, competitions between medical students and recreational days. As SCOMEdians, we realize it will always be a very hard task to change large policies especially in Egypt as student influence on professor-run rules and regulations is almost non-existent, but we still thrive on the fact that change is always gradual and that peer-education and awareness are vital. As we are the future policy makers and as long as we realize that, we shall continue to do our best to maintain advocacy, projects, awareness and field activities, as you remember, it is our education … our rules!
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
Such issues are supposed to be taught to students as any educational process cares for the classic essential triad; knowledge, attitude and skills. Due to multiple mistakes in the educational system of most medical schools in our country, there’s a shortage in application of this triad and that’s what we SCOME – are working on and that’s why AMSA executed such mega project named “Future medical career”. And because the present is always the first step towards the future, we’ve discussed the whole journey of medical students starting with the main part of luggage; studying skills in the form of a practical workshop through which students were divided randomly into separate groups, given medical topics with pre-mentioned objectives to be shown to all attendants within a specific time showing an effective spirit of cooperation; the thing we’re seeking.
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It’s said that “Clear destinations are clear ways”. Dear readers, Have you ever thought about the percentage of medical students who know all details about their future career after graduation or even their present one regarding ideal ways of study, research, communication and presentation skills? How many students are aware of Quality and accreditation and their rights as medical students?
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Future medical career Mohammad Sobhy ,
6th grade, Al azhar university dr_mhsobhy@yahoo.com
by a staff member at community medicine department. A “research methodology” workshop was held by a professor from National Research Center as research is a must for the physician throughout his whole life to get recent updates and enhance his opportunities in such fierce competition in the job market. Finally, AMSA organized a seminar about post-graduation opportunities by a lecturer from SCORE center whose speech included United States medical licensing examination (USMLE), Membership of royal college, ministry of health and university residencies. That mega project has been held on three days at the end of which, students were honored with certificates of attendance and active participation. At every day’s closure, students gave their feedback about every session for determining points of strength to be enhanced and those of weakness to be dealt with later as we are planning to repeat it again according to students’ will.
A physician isn’t effective unless he has excellent communication skills with both his mates and patients. So, a “presentation skills” training and doctor-patient relationship sem inar were – respectively- held for such purpose. The former was facilitated by a certified IFMSA trainer and the latter
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Our Roots
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March 2014
Mohamed Abdelkarim Mahmoud , Suez Canal University blado_knight@hotmail.com
If we trace back the origin of the Hospitals the closest example was first built in Bagdad in the eighth century. This hospital was established by Harun el Rashid after which public hospitals spread to all the Islamic empire from morocco to Persia. Hospitals were continuously developed where medical libraries and schools were attached to larger hospitals and senior physicians started teaching students and spreading the medical knowledge. (1) The contributions of the Arabic community to the medical field didn’t stop there, which was obvious from the “General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales , where Geoffrey Chaucer identified the authorities used by his “Doctour of Physic” .The list includes four Arab physicians: JesuHaly , Razi , Avycen and IbnRushd . Chaucer cited them because they were considered among the great medical authorities of the ancient world and the European Middle Ages, physicians whose textbooks were used in European medical schools, and would be for centuries to come. First collecting, then translating, then augmenting and finally codifying the classical Greco-Roman heritage that Europe had lost, Arab physicians of the eighth to eleventh century laid the foundations of the institutions and the science of modern medicine(1). “IbnSina Canon of medicine” was the standard textbook of medicine in many European universities for centuries and it was used at Montpellier, France, as late as 1650(2). The “Canon of medicine” was a medical Encyclopedia that was described by Sir William Osler-one of the founding professors of john Hopkins hospital-as “the most famous medical textbook ever written” (3) and this is just one example of many additions to the medical field caused by the Arabic community during the golden age which was the period from the mid of the 8th century till the 13thcentury (4). By seeing how the contribution of the Arabic community in the medical field was and still appreciated by medical professors across the globe it’s our job, as a rising Arabic physicians, to learn from their trials and error and try to restore our position as the leading community in the advancement of medical field
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Reference 1. David W. TschanzThe Arab Roots of European Medicine.Saudi Aramco World[Online] 1997;199703: 20-31 Available from:http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199703/the. arab.roots.of.european.medicine. htm[Accessed 30th December 2013] from:http://www.saudiaramcoworld. com/issue/199703/the.arab.roots. of.european.medicine.htm[Accessed 30th December 2013] 2. William Archibald Robson Thomson, M.D. history of medicine[Online]Available from:http://www.britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/372460/history-of-medicine/35654/Arabian-medicine#ref412742[Accessed 30th December 2013] 3. 3-William Osler.The Evolution of Modern Medicine.Kessinger Pub Co; 2004 4. 4-Tahir Abbas.From the historical to contemporary.Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics.[Online] 2 Park square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN: Routledge;2011 p. 9 Available from:http://books.google. com.eg/books?id=JdC90uc8PfQC&pg=PA9&redir_esc
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
We aim to improve medical education in Egypt through well designed evaluation system with student representation involved in the decision making and making medical students allover Egypt aware with
If you have been working in SCOME, then most probably you have passed by the idea that “medical students are the first quality check of medical education and they should rightfully have an influence on the creation of new curricula and curriculum development.” However when it comes to the Egypt , students involvement in medical education is very weak and although there always seems to be some sort of guidelines or criteria set by quality assurance units in the different medical faculties in this field , the actual application of them is almost non-existent. In an environment where curricula, assessment methods, and teaching methods are exclusively developed by faculty staff and where medical students voice to contribute their concerns, suggestion, ideas is www.ifmsa-eg.org
Students’ Rights Project Moaz Emad El-din Essa, 6th grade, Tanta university dr.moazessa@hotmail.com
quality standards of medical education and the importance of regular evaluation and asking for the better. We work to increase Students’ knowledge about quality standards of medical education and how to assess the process through Course Specification, ILOs, mission and vision of the faculty. We also work to increase Students’ awareness with their duties and rights and how to deal with each and to create a student rights statement to defend for students’ rights. We did a poll for students about the educational process and its negatives and how to handle them. In addition, we will make a documentary film about university hostels which become one of the most thorny issues that include a lot of problems.
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Medical Education and Students’ engagement in Egypt Ahmed Badr ,
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Moreover, we are students have rights in better infra-structure, equipment, laboratories, healthcare and enough time for extracurricular activities without affecting our study.
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In Egypt, we still don’t have student representation in making decision and medical students don’t have enough awareness with basics of medical education and different ways to ensure high quality medical education.
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
IFMSA-Egypt NOME 2013-2014 nome@ifmsa-eg.org
negligible or ignored, a gap is created which leads to less interest in developing the medical education system, as well as decreased awareness of what medical education is and the worldwide updates in this field. On the long term, this is directly related to a less developed health system overall. As Egyptians, advocacy for our right in the decision making of medical education issues is vital. The first step to work on such an issue is through nationwide awareness among medical students about medical education and its different field and how it can have an enormous impact on health and competency of future doctors. It is very important that we understand the issue and believe in it before actual change. Once medical students realize how important this issue is, it becomes easier to present ideas, and evidence-based recommendations to faculties, governments, and NGOs that we think should be applied and implemented. However hard such a task may seem, it is the only path to take for a better our country.
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“ Standing Committee On Public Health ”
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
www.ifmsa-eg.org
Introduction from IFMSA-Egypt NPO
Mostafa Essa,
IFMSA-Egypt NPO 2013-2014 npo@ifmsa-eg.org
Through IFMSA-Egypt newsletter, SCOPH will mainly focus on issues that are currently in spotlight in the country referring to how the committee tries to successfully establish a footprint in the road of fighting such concern.
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Stating the fact that Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most prevalent infections that contributes considerably to illness and death around the world, leaves no doubt why it was termed as the “consumption illness” in early Medicine. TB is a potentially fatal contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis that does not only infect the lung in most cases but can also affect any part of the body. Since the cause of illness is bacteria, it is a misconception that the disease can be easily eliminated. Actually, the rise of multi drug resistant strains lately hinders this. Moreover, tuberculosis prevalence rate per 100,000 populations in Egypt is 35000, which means that it can never be over looked. Most NGOs seek the empowerment of governments to support certain policies regarding the disease control and eradication. Others go after research fluid relating to TB trying to find new drugs and better understanding of the disease. And of course it is not surprising that IFMSA-Egypt does not neglect such a noticed health issue in the country.
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Addressing all issues related to Public Health is the easiest and fastest way to explain what SCOPH is. SCOPH gathers medical students quilting them with skills as organization, teamwork and leadership in order to fulfil such a hard task. Full gain of knowledge about public health matters within Egypt is one of the intended measures taken by IFMSA-Egypt SCOPH so as to implement reasonable and fair minded projects.
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Watch out being “Consumed” by TB!
Omneya Mostafa,
Alexandria Univeristy omneya.m.mahmoud@gmail.com
Recently every year on the 24th of March which is the World TB Day, IFMSA-Egypt SCOPH members gather and successfully discern the mob about the frightening endemic of TB. Additionally as medical students, delivering the proper foundation needed by the public is the main goal. This is done through the implementation of awareness campaigns that effectively spread information about ways of prevention of TB. Another remarkable thing is awareness through school visits because TB is well known to spread within this age group. Teaching the students about the cough etiquette for example; can noticeably decrease the percentage spread of the disease. Just the same way, advocacy events as cycling against TB and online campaigns via social media as Facebook and Twitter are very effective in putting a spotlight on tuberculosis. This in return does not only change the public’s lifestyle in preventing the disease but engage healthcare personnel in spreading services for early diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In fact the entire world is dreaming of a “farewell” to the consuming illness before it consumes the world in return! Hopes are raised for the NGOs and medical personnel to fight it successfully.
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Safe Liver
(Anti-Hepatitis) Project
Ahmed Abdel-Hay,
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March 2014
Mansoura Univeristy docabdelhay90@gmail.com
Along recent decades, Medicine skipped its role of only treating diseases to focus on their primary prevention. Most of the budget estimated for health services in developed countries are spent on the prevention programs targeting lower levels of incidence and prevalence or even elimination of certain diseases. While on the other hand, most of the budget in developing countries is consumed by health programs for providing health service and medication for the ill due to high prevalence of diseases. Therefore, it’s our role as a students’ association concerned with society public health issues, our vision towards better future, healthy coming generations, and the steps we achieved within the last years, we have a lot to do in (Safe Liver) project that works on such a major public health problem as Hepatitis. This year, we have many different axes to work through. First, we will stress on awareness about Hepatitis viruses especially HCV. Awareness will be our major and main priority. A survey about HCV in Egypt will be conducted through each LC to collect data about the prevalence rate, related health habits and then health education. The collected data will be analyzed to form an appropriate international paper about HCV problem in Egypt.
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For the third year, we will be working on HBV vaccination but with little modification of the target group. It will be available for medical and paramedical students especially, for house officers, new interns and then whole public as possible. We are trying hard to spread HCV screening for students all over all LCs. We will try also to coordinate with concerned authorities in order to get positive discovered cases treated for free. A national TOT about infection control will be conducted in conjoint with HY5 project. A national scientific workshop had already been conducted at the Gastroenterology Centre – Mansoura University. Within which there had been scientific sessions discussing the patho-physiology, complications, treatment and prevention of Hepatitis viruses specifically HCV. For me, I’m really lucky to work with such a great enthusiastic team, looking forward to reach our ultimate objectives and noble goals.
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
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Wash hands and save lives
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Simply Hi-Five is a project that deals with hand hygiene and Infection Control. We started working on this cause 3 years ago, starting by 5 of IFMSA-Egypt L.Cs in 4 Cities Alexandria, Zagazig, Benha and Assuit, then the idea spread more among the SCOPHeros all over Egypt and we are working now on 18 Local Committees with a team of 300 volunteers in 14 different cities since 2012.
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Mohammed Abd El-Ghany,
Al azhar university mohammedabdelghany1@ gmail.com
What’s the importance of hand washing? Hand washing is by far the best way to prevent germs from spreading and to keep ourselves protected from getting sick. Good hand washing protects against the spread of illness, from common cold (which is responsible for 22 million skipped school days each year) to more serious diseases like Meningitis, Flu, Hepatitis A, and most types of Infectious Diarrhea caused by touching another person. You can also catch germs when you touch contaminated objects or surfaces and then you touch your face (mouth, eyes, and nose). “Good” hand washing techniques include using an adequate amount of soap, rubbing the hands together to create friction, and rinsing under running water. Using gloves is not a substitute for hand washing.
This year we are aiming to: • Increase the awareness of more than 12,000 people of different ages & jobs generally about infectious diseases and how we could control them easily • Increase the awareness of medical students about the dangerous hazards of infections • Train more than 2000 nurses & intern doctors on advanced infection control methods. • Develop and establish advanced infection control units on each hospital. During the last year we have been working on spreading awareness on hand hygiene only, but this year we will work on spreading the awareness and training Medical and Para-Medical Staff about the advanced techniques in Infection Control to assist in establishing a standard Infection control level in our hospitals. Since we are medical students we are aware of the risks of the spread of infection, its harms and consequences, we decided to fight this phenomenon and change the behaviour of the medical staff and direct them to know their abilities and make the best use of the available resources for the best outcome. That’s why we are trying to apply this project in almost all hospitals to improve the Medical healthcare program.
www.ifmsa-eg.org
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March 2014
Omneya Mostafa,
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World Diabetes Day
Alexandria Univeristy omneya.m.mahmoud@gmail.com
The World Diabetes Day is a globally celebrated event that takes place on the 14th of November of each year as set by the Inter national Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization. In this day and along November month, millions of medical students and physicians all over the world cooperate and establish awareness campaigns targeting diabetic and non diabetic people. IFMSA never missed such an important United Nations World Day; this was reflected in Petar Velikov’s –SCOPH Director- announcement: “In IFMSA this day brings together LPOs and NPOs in almost all NMOs to raise awareness of diabetes. During November and especially on the 14th, numerous local and national events with the International Diabetes Federation 2013 campaign theme DIABETES: PROTECT OUR FUTURE will be organized by SCOPHeroes around the world.” As a result, IFMSA-Egypt –as usual- established the World Diabetes Day national celebration. The national celebration was preceded by an online campaign made by almost all members of IFMSA-Egypt. Profile pictures as well as cover photos on social media as Facebook and Twitter were changed to the Diabetes logo and IFMSA-Egypt’s diabetes banner that was designed by the publications team. Last year’s celebration pictures were also posted along with some advice to the public. This step was really remarkable! After that, the fundraising team established three partners for publishing the required publications material, collaborating in the awareness campaign and setting a national workshop. As a result of this, flyers, booklets and random
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blood sugar measuring devises were provided for the day and some were distributed to the LCs for further local events. Consequently a call for participants was open and 211 SCOPHeroes participated. The national celebration was hosted by ASSA-Alexandria in the city of Alexandria on the 14th of November. The day started by the national workshop; this was given by two physicians and a clinical pharmacology professor at Alexandria Regional Centre for Woman Development. After the workshop, members were very qualified for the awareness campaign as they received all the information needed to approach the public and provide the message of our cause. Following this phase was the awareness campaign. It took place at Qaitbay Citadel located on the Mediterranean Sea coast. The citadel is surrounded by a peninsula which is also a popular area with families and is usually crowded by people. IFMSA-Egypt brought out a booth where screening for the public was provided by SCOPHeroes and physicians who helped via the partners. Additionally there was a talking team who distributed flyers among the public, delivered the united message of the day and were ready for any questions. Many misconceptions were amended. One example of these misconceptions is that Diabetes is a disease of the wealthy. The talking team’s job was not only for the public outreach but also for guiding the Public to the screening booth. The World Diabetes Day celebration of this year has finished successfully preparing SCOPHeroes over Egypt with the foundation and potential for bringing out local campaigns in their LCs. It also proved to the whole World how IFMSA-Egypt never neglects a major health issue. Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
“ Standing Committee On Reproductive Health & AIDS ”
www.ifmsa-eg.org
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March 2014
Introduction from IFMSA-Egypt NORA
Rewan Youssif,
IFMSA-Egypt NORA 2013-2014 nora@ifmsa-eg.org
“Isolated, mistreated and misjudged”
this is how a person living with HIV spends his/her life. HIV/AIDS is a life-threatening disease that is mostly sexually transmitted; that’s why people always associate it with bad behavior and personal irresponsibility. There is a lot of inaccurate information about how HIV is transmitted, creating irrational behavior and misperceptions of personal risk. AIDS related stigma and discrimination refer to prejudice, negative attitudes, maltreatment and abuse directed at people living with HIV and AIDS. In Egypt, whenever you mention the word HIV or AIDS, most people start saying that there is no AIDS in Egypt mainly because the religious and moral beliefs lead
Since our theme for this term is “Together we make a difference”, and since IFMSA-Egypt believes in the power of youth to initiate change, we -with great pleasure- launched our World AIDS Campaign this term aiming at standing up against AIDS-related stigma and discrimination and making a change, and believing that -as Ralph Emerson once said- “The purpose of life is not to be happy; It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well!”.
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people to believe that being infected with HIV is the result of moral fault that deserves to be punished. But, if you look closer, you will know that the absence of clear statistics of people living with HIV doesn’t mean that there are no HIV infections, it is just one of the consequences of considering it a taboo.
Share with us and save lives
Bassant Elbanna ,
6th year medical student at Kasr Al-Ainy medical school basant.elbanna23@gmail.com
Mr. & Mrs. Breastestis ... The life savior:
Through our project, we target one of the most important global health issues which is cancer. We’re just more specific to target genital cancers. Many people die from cancer annually just because they don’t know that it can be prevented. So, we decided to work on this and educate people about cancer; we decided to save their lives. Yes, cancer can be prevented and Mr & Mrs Breastestis can be a life savior.
Movember:
Half of IFMSA-Egypt members woke up on 16th of November to find the rest of the members with Mustaches! How weird! On the 15th of November, we started our online campaign “Movember” to advocate for Changing The Face of Men’s Health. As our project is concerned with raising awareness about genital cancers, we concentrated on two topics, prostate and testicular cancers.
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Our target group was the medical students, as we believe they should be aware of some facts to deliver to the public and help them prevent cancer. The campaign lasted for two weeks, during which the LORAs and members shared perfectly to reach our goal. The idea of the campaign depended on making the maximum benefit of IFMSA-Egypt and the LCs social media accounts to reach our target group as most of the Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
people now have social media accounts and check them regularly.
What’s next?
We’re currently working on another goal for the project which is raising the awareness of public about genital malignancies; the alarming symptoms, the screening methods and how to prevent them. Also, we’ll try to offer some screening and preventive opportunities to them.
TK, South Africa
This quotation is from a personal story gratefully shared with us and hence we believe in how much our psychological support for patients living with HIV Can be effective. Can you Imagine how cheerful would it be if a pessimistic hopeless patient received a message saying” I am here for your rights, live freely “!, we can imagine it as we believe in the efficacy of drawing a smile on someone’s face. December is a very important month for SCORAngels all over the world, it represents the international AIDS awareness www.ifmsa-eg.org
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“Still, the shock of discovering my status is something I will never wish on my worst enemy. I thought my life is over… In fact, I started thinking of ways I could end my life.”
World AIDS Campaign 2013; Message delivered Merna A. Ezz El-Din ,
A 3rd year medical student at Suez Canal university dr.mero93@hotmail.com
month, and it is one of the biggest events for SCORA where our target population is mainly youth between 15 and 24 years. During 2011 – 2015; World AIDS Campaign had the following themes: “Getting to zero”, “Zero new HIV infections”, “Zero discrimination” and “Zero AIDS-related deaths”. Every year we do our best to have the greatest impact on youth’s thoughts about HIV, to raise the awareness about a disease which is often ignored and is instead a subject of stigma and discrimination. This year, and since IFMSA-Egypt believed in youth’s power to initiate change and since our theme for this term was “together we make a difference”, we launched a nationally held event that was totally led by youth-dependent organizations such as AIESEC and ROTARACT club along with UNAIDS,
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March 2014
So why not live for others ?, think of not easily detectable issues and make a difference through our actions. SCORA has always been there for every denied HIV patient to help the society as a whole face its hidden problems and admit it. We believe that through this year’s campaign we were on the right track to “Get HIV to Zero” stigma and discrimination. , it was hosted by Darb 1718, we had Zap Tharwat and Karakeb bands who performed live on stage along with the speech by Dr. Ahmed Khames to let us know about HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination and why we should pay attention to it in Egypt, SCORAngels from all over Egypt came to prove their endless enthusiasm towards getting HIV to Zero. And the most important part is the realistic step we tried to take to make a difference, we decided to take action and stand by the side of PLHIV showing them our solidarity in the face of pandemic, we sent them messages anonymously telling them that they are not alone and that many people got their backs even if they haven’t met them before, these messages will be sent to organizations that deal with PLHIV so that they would receive it as postcards and hence we created an indirect relationship between the anonymous sender and the anonymous recipient of the message.
Re-started
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FGM Project;
Dalia Abd Elnasser ,
is a 6th year medical student at Suez Canal university zeina_ga45@yahoo.com
“A woman is always born as a human. It’s us who treat her as a female” a wise man once said. Along the path of “wom-
en rights” lots can be mentioned but it’s kind of a shame that in the time when some women are shouting for their right in policy participation, being in official positions, some women are still fighting for their simplest right to be human! Female genital mutilation, as defined by WHO; is all the procedures involving partial or total removal of the external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs
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whether for cultural or non-therapeutic reasons, and between all the conflict of such “act” religious, social and medical background lots of our girls and women are the victims. Statistically- wise, Egypt is one of the highest rates of FGM in the world where in 2008 the prevalence of FGM in females aged between 1545 years old was stated to be 91.1%! And more over, 75% of such act is done by medical stuff in a phenomenon called “FGM Medicalization” [1]. Such act was officially mentioned in the Egyptian penal code 2008 stating that the performer of such act is to be subjected to jail for a period in between 3 Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
months as a minimum and three years as a maximum beside a fine that reached 5000 LE [2]. All Religions have denied the relation between FGM and any religious background; this is beside the vacancy of all the medical references from FGM to be a known “medical surgery”. Medically wise, FGM can be one of four grades based on the genital parts removed and complications of such act starts with pain, infection, sever bleeding and can end with even death!, this is beside the irreversible psychological damage. And based on such horrible numbers, and as it’s the responsibility of us as doctors to try doing something regards such act, IFMSA-Egypt SCORA started its FGM project with a main goal of “Reducing the Percentage of Medicalization of the FGM Practice in Egypt through raising awareness about the religious, legal and medical aspects of FGM and ensure that medical students adopt a negative attitude towards FGM” And this year, work will include 10 LCs with more involvement of upper Egypt LCs, we are re- starting our project within five LCs with a refreshment training for all the working LCs followed by Local Campaigns, and extending our time line and target group to involve the public in our work as FGM HAS to break through the society’s walls of silence and people need to know that all the myths they have in their minds need to be corrected. Worldwide, the 6th of February is the “International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation” and here in Egypt we have a national day of zero tolerance which is the 14th of June, dating the death of “Bdoor Ahmed Shaker” the girl from El-Menya who died after a doctor performed her circumcision. www.ifmsa-eg.org
So, guess it’s time for us to do something, at least to guarantee that such Medicalization for FGM should end because doctors should not participate in such crime that is started to be more of an insult to the entire medical carrier. So Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines, we got work to do. References [1], [2] Egypt and Health Demographic Survey (DHS) 2008.
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March 2014
Time is NOW, in
Alexandria
our efforts and enthusiasm, dedicated to address that nobody is immuned and that we don’t have the right to judge others.
The late Nelson Mandela said “Let us give publicity to HIV/ AIDS & not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like TB, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of HIV/AIDS, and people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary”.
We started our campaign with an amazing “Fact Vs Myth” game which grabbed everyone’s attention and delivered knowledge in a very joyful way. Proceeding to stories, as stories tend to connect the disconnected, we shared real stories of PLHIV to engage every one of us in their lives and struggles.
As we believe that using knowledge and peer education formulate the golden key for a better future and to get to zero discrimination, we launched our WAC’13 campaign using “Time is now” as a national theme under the patronage of the UNAIDS with all
Then the astonishing part was the “Mirror game” because sometimes we forget that anyone of us is susceptible to HIV infection.
Asmaa Rabie ,
is a 6th year medical student at Alexandria University asmaa_rabie@ymail.com
Our way of breaking down HIV/ AIDS related stigma was different; it was through sharing a poem to support PLHIV and show the role of arts in addressing health issues and in helping to solve them. We ended our celebrating event with demonstrating the role of media in our Egyptian community & we displayed the movie Asmaa 2011 that aimed at changing wrong beliefs. Our spirit was high up for the whole 4 days and all the activities were versatile as we believed that “Time is Now” to end HIV related stigma and to fight discrimination against PLHIV.
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Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
At the first glance, I thought she was one of the workers at the orphanage because she looked older than all the other girls I had seen so far. But when I started a conversation with her, I got to know that she is actually one of the HIV-positive females who live in the orphanage. I was so stunned by the fact that she was doing her BA in Microeconomics and Sociology, and she said that if she didn’t get to achieve what she wants in the field, she will go for Masters in Hindi, because her dream was to be a lecturer. I asked her if I can interview her and she accepted. I began by asking some general questions about the place, whether she liked the services provided by the orphanage or not, and how long she has lived there, so she started narrating her life story, “I was born in North Karnataka, Sirsi. My mum married a Hindu
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A Positive HIV-Positive
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One rainy day in August 2013, I stepped into an orphanage in Mangalore, India. All I knew about the place was that it was only for HIV-Positive female orphans. I went there to volunteer with the kids and know more about their life and the problems they face. We started playing and I took pictures for their pretty shy faces. While playing, I saw some “Microeconomics” papers on the table. Then, a tall, shy, beautiful, dark skinned young lady came; she obviously was the owner of those papers.
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Rewan Youssif,
IFMSA-Egypt NORA 2013-2014 nora@ifmsa-eg.org
guy and she gave birth to a baby boy, my only brother. After 4 years, her husband left to marry another lady, so my mother married a guy from a different religion who was HIV positive, so she caught HIV and since they haven’t had kids for a while, they adopted a girl from the hospital, my older sister. Years passed, and I was born. My brother and my family rejected both my mum and me, just because my mum married a guy from another religion, which is considered a taboo to Indians. After a while, my mother died and then my father also died, so I lived with my sister who got married to my cousin. HIV symptoms started to appear on me by time, so my sister advised me to go and get tested for HIV and unfortunately the result was positive! My sister wanted me to live with her, but her mother in law was against that, so she and her husband took me to this orphanage where I can get educated and have some people who can take care of me. My sister visits me every now and then and she calls me too” Then I asked, “Do people know that you are HIV-positive?” Her reply was so quick and certain “No, no, I can’t tell anyone, they will think I am a bad person. The only one who knew was my best friend at high school, she couldn’t believe me at first but then she cried and hugged me tight.” Tears trickled down her cheeks when she said: “I didn’t choose to have that, and I want to do so many things before I die” I hugged her and said: “You know, so many normal healthy people live without doing anything meaningful, but you did, you are doing and you will do so many things that will leave a mark in many people’s lives including my own. And one day, I will tell the whole world that I met you and I will brag about it”.
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“ Standing Committee On Human Rights & Peace ”
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
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From Bratislava with Love: A SCORP Camp Adventure! Yamen Jabr ,
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The 25th to the 30th of August 2013 marked what could only be described as the highlight of my summer: SCORP Camp. SCORP Camp was a 4-day event packed with creativity, passion and fun, hosted by SloMSA-Slovakia and took place in the capital Bratislava (Dubbed the “Beauty on the Danube”). It consisted of three parallel workshops: TNHRT (Training of New Human Rights Trainers), IPET (International Peer Education Training) and TNT (Training of New Trainers). 70 members from a dozen countries; including Spain, Poland, Romania, Jordan, Tunisia and Mexico, attended SCORP Camp through which the main goal was educating medical students towards positive change in the health care system, by emphasizing on their roles as future doctors in comparison to other aspects of their studies. These organized sessions were conducted with the aim to develop the members’ professional and personal skills, in a highly informative and enjoyable manner. In the case of the TNHRT that I attended, the sessions addressed several key topics in the field of Human Rights and Peace; including: Health as a Human Right, Mental Health, Minorities’ Discrimination, Peace Activism, Refugees & Asylum Seekers’ Human Right Violations, Human Trafficking and many more. Other sessions included Team Building, Intercultural Learning, professional Communication and Project Management.
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Palestinian-Jordanian 6th year medical student at October 6th University yamen.jabr@yahoo.com
the numerous trainers who helped in providing the best possible experience to us during those 4 days. The overall experience has given us the everlasting sense of appreciation for what we aspire to work hard for, and personally I’m so grateful for that. Aside from the sessions and training, we had a NFDP (National Food and Drinking Party) and Hippies Party, went sightseeing in Bratislava and even experienced the traditional Slovak culture; including learning its Folk Dances and trying out their signature dish (Halušky). Following SCORP Camp, I attended the highly anticipated 3-day Post-SCORP Camp tour. We were taken to the Northern and Eastern parts of Slovakia and accommodated in the village of Danišovce. We visited various unique and breathtaking touristic areas; including Dobšinská Ice Cave, Pieniny National Park (Rafting on Dunajec River, which flows between Slovak and Polish borders) and High Tatras National Park (Štrbské Pleso & Solisko Peak) where we hiked mountains 2000+ metres above sea level. These areas introduced us to Slovakia’s natural landscapes, in stark contrast to its pulsating capital city and the historical buildings and monuments it holds within. In conclusion, thank you IFMSA-Egypt for providing me the opportunity to make all this possible, and thank you SCORP for giving me a purpose to truly make a difference.
These sessions were facilitated by some of the most experienced and motivated SCORPions I have ever met; including part of the SCORP International Team of 2012-2013: Fares Al-Fares (Director), Monica Szamosova and Mike Krik (CoRAs to Europe), as well as
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Stop giving excuses, Start giving life! Amal Ali ,
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March 2014
is a 2nd year medical student at Benha faculty of medicine amal_ali_1994 @yahoo.com
Realizing the sad truth that all blood banks have blood shortage and that the rate of death as a result of inability to find blood increases daily, was the main motive to think about vital solution for this crisis. So, as usual in our beloved SCORP, we try to do our best to help our society and to relieve some of its needs. I believe that blood donation project is one of the most effective projects that have a great impact whether nationally or locally. Locally, we started our work enthusiastically by launching an online campaign to let people believe in the importance of blood donation, know its benefits and feel how people suffer because of blood shortage by showing them the statistics that prove the great need for blood in all our hospitals and blood banks. Also, publishing experience and feelings of those who donated blood before under the name of “heroes speak” was one of the biggest motives for others to donate blood.
Two days before the blood donation campaign, we started to spread awareness among medical students by talking to them in lectures and free periods about essentiality of blood donation and how many people die just in need of blood; trying to direct their thoughts and whole feelings towards the greatness of this humanitarian act. Then, the day of our blood donation campaign came to surprise us with the brilliant success as we found many people motivated for the idea. Seeing people insisting to donate their blood and the real sorrow of others, who can’t donate, made us feel the fruitful results of our efforts and surely motivated us to do more. As SCORPions, we hope to deliver our message to the fullest and to have a positive impact in our society helping people to lead a better life.
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Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
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Racism is something we all have witnessed. Many people fail to believe that race is not a biological category, but it is a self-centred falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing that we are right to treat others as we would not like to be treated. Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and destroy, and can be considered as the enemy of freedom. The irregular border of ethnicities touches educational and economic opportunities, political representation, income, health and social mobility of people of different physical characters. So, where did this type of behaviour come from? And how did it begin? Truth is racism began as soon as people started to face those of different races. We have always had the fear of differences, not to mention the unknown. Contact with those of whom we are afraid often leads to dispute, which, by time, caused racism to transform from people simply disliking each other to the perma
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Show Racism a Red Card Nada Basiony ,
MUST-Misr University for Science & Technology nada.basiony808@gmail.com
nent and indestructible foundation of common racism and prejudice. Upbringing is one of the strongest factors that influence & encourage people to become racist, or to have one form or another of the racial views. Another suggestion to how racism makes its way into our heads is through the almighty media. As we grow up, media becomes a factor of our lives whether we want it to be or not, and is a major source of how racism keeps itself active. So how can you as a medical student and a member of the society put an end to racism? You do not fight racism with racism; “The best way to fight racism is with solidarity.” - Bobby Seale. Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is alright to be different and to accept diversity. Your role is to increase the awareness, banish and show a red card to the concept of one person being superior to another. All races are equal and all individuals deserve to be dealt with equality only. “O mankind, indeed, we have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” Al-Hujurat 13. Thus, these verses of wisdom from the Quran teach us that our genders, colours or appearances do not count. It is our nobility and good deeds that make us better no matter what race we belong to.
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Exchange
Testimonials�
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Exchange Testimonials
Megan Catalin, Country: Romania Hosting LC: SMSA
www.ifmsa-eg.org
During September 2012 I attended a research exchange programe in the department of Plastic Surgery at Sohag University Hospitals. For me, the trip to Egypt was life changing and I consider it one of the best experiences I had since I started medical school. I was very excited that I had the opportunity to choose Egypt for my research program. Despite everything I saw on TV, read in the newspapers or heard on the radio, about the difficult situation that Egypt was passing through, I felt safe for the whole time. The people are amazing and that is what I miss the most about that country. Sohag Medical Students’ Association, SMSA, took a great care of us, and they provided us everything we needed. I appreciate that students were able to speak English very easily. We had all types of activities like: playing squash and football, going to swimming pools, organizing a barbeque and playing play station. We were able to visit other places : Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada and last but not least, we visited Cairo (Thank you Kiru for being a such a good host). Everybody knows the Egyptian culture is amazing so I won’t insist on this subject. The accommodation was good, the hostel was clean and quiet and the meal we were served every day at the cafeteria was delicious. The Plastic surgery team from Sohag Hospital was very willing to teach me, they offered me great opportunities to learn about pathologies that are not so common in my country. I bow to them for all the attention and respect they had towards me. Last but not least, I have special thanks to those who I can sincerely call my friends and make me want to return to Sohag: Amr, Cheatstafa, Mina, Big Mina, Kiru and Mohamed. Thank you guys for making my visit to Egypt one of the most beautiful experiences in my life!
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March 2014
Exchange Testimonials
Jacky,
Country: China Hosting LC : SMSA
Before I went to Egypt, Let’s say--Sohag, there were lots of first impressions that came to my mind, like pyramids, Pharaohs, etc ...After this exchange program, there are few things that I want to share with all the people I know throughout my life. First, the close communication between people; people do things in groups rather than individuals, and this is how all the humanity should be, we cannot live alone by ourselves, and this is why we have the merits and the demerits, we complete each other. I believe this idea is born with us, however the capitalism or something like that, the dark side of human masked it trickily, and people start to praise money as God, following all the rules told by the rich one, We lost, and I lost once too. During my exchange, people I knew in this city were praying together, discussing things together, no matter the issue that they are facing being big or not, they share their lives, and this is what I felt in this very very short time.
Purchasing this further, is about the religion, it may be a topic that is a bit sensitive to some of you, but this religion give people a healthy and clean mind to live, and support the community, give them faith and encouragement to finish what they need to, I know nothing about this religion but I guess I saw some good aspects about it. I apologize to the one that disagree with me, but this is my experience and what I have seen by heart. Lastly, is the medical student that I met in this city, I am not interested in politics or any field about it at all, but some of the students I met in Sohag, they want to change something in front of guns and tanks, just want to speak out that there are some imbalance in a system or a community, this is something I have never thought of, or attempted to do, but even they have some different ideas, they will think of it logically and sincerely before making any decision or speaking out a word. I appreciated, so much. Maybe I saw the shining part within this short period of time, but this is my “to take home message� and the most important stories, and this is what I will share with others. I believe there are no ideas or thoughts that would match all the people, but now I have got the encouragement to say what I thought. I tried to take more and more care for the people around me, as this is one of my lost humanity, this is what the medical students from the Sohag university gave me and what I brought from this country. Thank you.
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IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
Exchange Testimonials
Khalid Omayr, LC: SSS-Cairo
Travelling is the ONLY thing that you pay for, that makes you richer. It is amazing how people live everywhere in the world, and how they can be so different, yet share common passion, thoughts and motives... If you are living in a balloon, rubber is all you can smell, so blow it and travel away to smell amazing odors around the globe.
Basim Joseph, LC: SSS-Cairo
Trying new things can be challenging, yet the rush and excitement you get from moving forward to the unknown is worth the risk you take. Travelling abroad gave me the chance to gain experience and most importantly, build ever-lasting connections, friendships and memories. What more could a person ask for than this?
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March 2014
Exchange Testimonials
Yasmine Gamal, LC: SSS-Cairo
20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in you. Explore, dream and discover.
Mariam Negm, LC: SSS-Cairo
This month in Romania wasn’t just a life-changing experience; it was a leap in my thinking and in my perception of how I used to see the world. I’ve learnt and understood more about life. I’ve seen the world by a different lens and in the blink of an eye I became an entirely different person. It’s all about daring to enjoy a once in a lifetime adventure.
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Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
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Projects
Support Division ”
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Introduction from IFMSA-Egypt Projects Director
Rami Abdallah ,
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March 2014
IFMSA-Egypt Projects Director 2013-2014 projects@ifmsa-eg.org
Dear Medical Students Worldwide, First of all, let me introduce myself; I’m Rami Abdallah – IFMSA-Egypt Projects Support Division Director for the term 2013-2014. I proudly present you the projects section in the 2nd issue of IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter. Within the IFMSA the term “projects” refers to activities in many fields of interest to medical students, which is in concordance with the IFMSA principles, aims and policy statements. This may include Projects, Events, Workshops, Surveys, Networks and Campaigns. IFMSA-Egypt has its official national projects running simultaneously with the local projects and initiatives. All National projects must comply with the Constitution and Bylaws of IFMSA-Egypt. Benefits and rights of the projects and their coordinators include: being able to display project information on the IFMSA-Egypt website and the official projects database, receiving letters of recommendation from the Executive Board, support in grant applications and fundraising attempts, and priority in promotional efforts within the IFMSA-Egypt network and our partner organizations.
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Build Your Body
National Coordinator: Osama Mohamed-Osama Hegazy E-mail: osamahegazy5@gmail.com Food; it seems to some of us that it is a secondary or draft issue which does not deserve a systematic schedule. We only eat when we want to without thinking of the benefits or hazards of food. The quote “we eat to live not live to eat” is one of the most famous ones to be determined in our life especially us; Arabs. Nutrition is one of the most important issues in life from the early stages till death. Stages of
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Here in IFMSA-Egypt Projects Support Division; we are working on providing the highest quality of projects within all our branches all over Egypt. Such quality can only be reached with hard work done by all its team starting from Standing Committee members, Local Coordinators, National team of the project to the National Coordinators & National officers. All of them work hard to put the standard bass of the whole project to achieve its goals & objectives within the specified timeline & plan of action. We wish we could achieve more than what is expected, with all our strong projects within IFMSA-Egypt or all the IFMSA worldwide. Be happy and be thankful. More eyes see more, more minds think more. And in the end together we can achieve anything we want. The experiences of others are the clearest example that things can be done. You can also have great ideas, make projects, you can be a leader. You can change your society. And together maybe we can make it perfect.
nutritional balance and systems differ from one stage to another. Early stages of life especially school period is the most hazardous period during life dealing with food due to the bad habits which are spread nowadays in our community that are endanger our students. So, serving the community especially students at that age should be one of our most interesting tasks and one of our duties to spread health education among our community to spread the spirit of the well balanced nutritional life to “Build our Bodies” and “Gain our Souls”. Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
An addict possesses a huge burden on his family both financially and psychologically. With the increasing peer pressure addiction now begins at a very early age, the number of drug abusers among teenagers and high school students has been hugely rising during the past few years making the burden on families much more. There is a shocking fact that the starting age of addiction has decreased to 10 years of age, in the past, it only affected the age groups between 40 & 50 making the situation much worse. Addiction affects both mental and physical health.
What is TB? How does it spread? How is it treated? Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable. TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected. About one-third of the world’s population has latent TB, which means www.ifmsa-eg.org
National Coordinator: Rana Elneanaye E-mail: rana-elne3na3y@hotmail.com
Drug abuse has many adverse effects, some of which are physiological and others that are social. It also has many destructive side-effects that dangerously impair the health of the abuser. Most of its effects are long-term and it is very difficult to wean the body from these dangerous effects. In critically young age, this problem is much more disastrous. Addiction affects the students’ ability to study, practice sports and interact with family, teachers and fellow students, leading to decreased learning outcome as well as many social and psychological problems which eventually lead to complete social isolation and even running away from their family and dropping schools. This results in, not only burden on the family, but on governments since addicts consume governmental resources without outcome return. As Medical students we know the risks, harms and consequences so, we decided to fight this phenomenon, change the behavior of these students and direct them to know their abilities, and how to use them for the best of themselves and making the best use of the available resources for the best outcome. That’s why we are trying to apply this project in almost all schools to prevent the upcoming generations from even try drugs.
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Anti-TB & Smoking
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• 30% after being only 6.4 (Random drug addicts among age groups above 15 years) • 7% regular addicts.
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Anti-Drug Addiction
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Drug abuse has been a huge problem facing governments for many years and with global increased stress, the problem is growing more and more. According to the Egyptian ministry of health, a research that included 40 thousand people among 26 governorates in the year 2011 showed that, the percent of drug addicts has increased in a devastating way in the past 5 years to:
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
National Coordinator: Sharif Adel Ghatwarya E-mail: sharif.ghatwarya@gmail.com
people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with disease and cannot transmit the disease. People infected with TB bacteria have a lifetime risk of getting ill with TB of 10%.
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March 2014
However persons with compromised immune systems, such as people living with HIV, malnutrition or diabetes, or people who use tobacco, have a much higher risk of getting ill.
Smoking: A leading cause of death, illness and impoverishment The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year. More than five millions of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths. Up to half of current users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease. Nearly 80% of the more than one billion smokers worldwide live in lowand middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related
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Anti-Sexual Harassment
of this social disease. Others also defended those who were doing such acts to women in the streets give them enough justification that only made the problem worse.
National Coordinator: Sara El-sayed E-mail: sarah.elsayed92@yahoo.com Sexual harassment arises as a rapidly – growing problem that has affected the entire community. There have been some really huge attempts exerted through activists in the streets and through all media available to address this problem and face it through different kinds of awareness campaigns and even stop-and-arrest campaigns in the street. The problem only grew wider and the acts against females in the streets have become more violent. Moreover, we’ve witnessed an opposing campaign on some media channels accusing girls of being the main cause of the spread
National Coordinator: Karim Magdy Sallam E-mail: sallam_92@yahoo.com
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Women around the clock
illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco users who die prematurely deprive their families of income, raise the cost of health care and hinder economic development. In some countries, children from poor households are frequently employed in tobacco farming to provide family income. These children are especially vulnerable to “green tobacco sickness”, which is caused by the nicotine that is absorbed through the skin from the handling of wet tobacco leaves.
As IFMSA – Egypt activists who have huge interest to make a change in our society this problem took a huge side of our attention. Looking at it from an analytical point of view we realized that the problem has deep roots that extend into the culture and the mindset of the Egyptian community itself. We discovered that in order to solve such a problem we need more of a radical solution for it; we need to change that mindset.
Women empowerment has been one of the global priorities in the past period. For many years, social and political activists have been encouraging people to share ideas on how to promote for and raise awareness about women empowerment until International Women’s Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike.
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
In the critical youth age, the majority of young women lack the necessary scientific knowledge about the base of a healthy marriage. Young couple may face many physical and sexual problems early in their marriage including infertility as a major bad outcome related to inadequate information, sex education and pre-conception examination eventually ending in divorce.
IFMSA-Egypt SCORP is the committee that cares about Human Rights and Peace. Under the upcoming circumstances in the country the role of the committee has increased. Our responsibilities increase and we have to carry it. The first step will be a TOT of peace sponsored by Y-Peer followed by a workshop to train school students and university students. 35 IFMSA-Egypt members will attend this TOT to spread the message to different students’ categories. Then there will be an awareness campaign held in a public place aiming to increase the awareness
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One of the big problems is early marriage (child marriage) that leads to many physical, sexual and psychological problems due to lack of knowledge and experience. Early marriage is characteristic of rural communities. 36% of married women in rural families married under the age of 16, where this percentage falls to 1.9% in urban areas. The Egyptian population census data mentioned that 11% of females between 16 and 19 years old are currently married or have been previously. Results of a research study done by the Social Affairs Ministry, General Direction of Women Affairs “Analytical study of early marriage phenomenon” indicated that 4 out of 14 families of the research study sample in El. Hawamedya and in Badrasheen districts have got their daughters married under the legal age. It is a widespread phenomenon; that is why we would like to raise the awareness of people about its dangers and mainly universities students as a lot of them come from rural communities so they can spread our message among their communities. Another problem is genetic diseases which related mainly to consanguinity.
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Peace
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Since a strong body makes the mind strong too, Women health is an important aspect of women empowerment. And when it comes to the sensitive topic of reproductive health, in our culture, this aspect is a nearly virgin land!
National Coordinator: Mohamed Shouman E-mail: alraees92@yahoo.com of the importance of communication and getting rid of violence. Last phase will be a national celebration in a public place organized with the help of Master Peace The international statistics prove that the Egyptians after being recorded the most evolved society after their morals during the revolution turned into the most violent society who can’t be tolerated.
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Rights of Blind
National Coordinator: Ramy Abd Elfatah Fetouh E-mail: dr_ramyabdelfatah@yahoo.com When an individual becomes blind, he faces two major problems: First, he must learn the skills and techniques which will enable him to carry on as a normal, productive citizen in the community; and second, he must become aware and learn to cope with public attitudes and misconceptions about blindness which go back to the very roots of our culture and permeate every aspect of social behavior and thinking. The first of these problems is far easier to solve than the second. For it is no longer a theory but an established fact that, with proper training and opportunity, the average blind person can do the average job in the average place of business and do it as well as his sighted neighbor. The blind can function as scientists, farmers, electricians, factory workers, and skilled technicians. They can perform as housewives, lawyers, teachers, or laborers. The skills of independent mobility, communication, and the activities of daily living are known, available, and acquirable. Likewise, the achievement of vocational competence poses no insurmountable barrier. In other words the real problem of blindness is not blindness itself, not the acquisition of skills or techniques or competence. The real problem is the lack of understanding and the misconceptions which exist. It is no accident that the word blind carries with it connotations of inferiority and helplessness. The concept undoubtedly goes back to primitive times when existence was at an extremely elemental level. Eyesight and the power to see were equated with light, and light (whether daylight or firelight) meant security and safety. Blindness was equated with darkness, and darkness meant danger and evil. The blind person could not hunt effectively or dodge a spear. In our day, society and social values have changed. In civilized countries there is now no great premium on dodging a spear, and hunting has dwindled to the status of an occasional pastime. The blind are able to compete on terms of equality in the full current of active life. The primitive
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conditions of jungle and cave are gone, but the primitive attitudes about blindness remain. The blind are thought to live in a world of darkness, and darkness is equated with evil, stupidity, sin, and inferiority. Do I exaggerate? I would that it were so. Consider the very definition of the word blind, the reflection of what it means in the language, its subtle shades and connotations. The 1962 printing of the World Publishing Company’s college edition of Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language defines blind as follows: without the power of sight; sightless; eyeless; lacking insight or understanding; done without adequate directions or knowledge; as, blind search. Reckless; unreasonable; not controlled by intelligence; as, blind destiny; insensible; drunk; illegible; indistinct. In architecture, false, walled up, as, a blind window. The 1960 edition of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary says: blind. Sightless. Lacking discernment; unable or unwilling to understand or judge; as, a blind choice. Apart from intelligent direction or control; as, blind chance. Insensible; as, a blind
Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969
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IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter
National Blood Donation Project
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National Coordinator: Shrouk Wagdy E-mail: shroukwagdym@yahoo.com
We have lost 2 main objectives which form the backbone of blood donation (concept & motive): People have lost the concept of blood donation due to the rumors that have spread in the streets about selling the donated blood to the patients with high prices so they think instead of donating blood that will be sold they would keep it or they’d sell it on their own. This is due to many social problems in the community; poverty and ignorance are the most prominent ones. The motive for donation was lost during the campaigns that were conducted by nonprofessional teams and un-experienced staff resulted in multiple injuries and spread of infections that made the affected donor lose the motive to donate again. Blood donation is essential to fulfill the needs of the patients who need blood in a regular manner such as anemic patients, cancer patients, accidents, leukemic patients and so on.
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Projects
Support Division”
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Inspiring Medical Students in Egypt since 1969