project booklet (extended version)
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
INTRODUCTION Hi PAMSA family, it is awesome to have this opportunity to share some lines with you… I am pretty sure that you have been working with all kind of projects and that is what can keep our NMOs alive! Someone asked me once: “Why do you guys take your time to this kind ofwork for the community?” “Where did you find enough strength to make all these projects happen?” There’s no really right or wrong answer to these questions; everyone can have different motivations or reasons to give time, money, knowledge and ideas; but I’m sure about something, every time that you see the result of your job, that’s enough! When you realize that your efforts paid off… that’s the real reason for working even harder next time. Remember that it is important to share with everyone what are we working on! This time our issue is to take a step into some of the projects that we shared in our first PAMSA’s booklet for the RM. We get so many ideas and great projects to share within PAMSA, and this time and at this time we are approaching them to learn more about what we can improve or change. We wish that these projects can be included in your NMO. Thanks for the great and awesome work that the publication team have been doing, to make this magazine a reality once again! Always remember: Promote them in your NMO’s Reunite as many people as you can Observe what others are doing Join them, and do always your best Execute them in your hometown Create a movement of change Today is the day for working Solutions for many challenges, you’ll find I’m sure about My best to you Heber Morán DA of Projects PAMSA
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CONTENTS (by page): 4. being (+) to happiness 5. crianças em Ação 6. healthy and proud 7. illuminaids 8. libras 9. first gynecologycal consultation
10. osmose 11. peace construction 12. pre-departure training 13. project nazaré 14. sembrando esperanza perú 15. sharing in health 16. sensibilizarte 17. seswo 18. teddy bear hospital This Project Booklet is an IFMSA Publication. © Portions if this Project Booklet may be reproduced for non political, and non profit purposes mentioning the source provided. Notice: Every case has been taken in the preparation of this document. Nevertheless, errors cannot always be avoided. IFMSA cannot accept any responsability for any liability. The opinions expressed in this Project Booklet are those of the authors and do not necesarily reflect the views of IFMSA.
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Being (+) to happiness NMO: IFMSA - El Salvador COMMITTEE: SCORP WEBSITE: www.ifmsaelsalvador.org COORDINATOR: Samuel Cortéz E-MAIL: norp@ifmsaelsalvador.org The first cases of HIV / AIDS in children were described in 1982 in the USA. Since then, the number of infected children has continued to increase, being the main cause of this problem being child sexual exploitation. More than 25 years after the first few cases of the epidemic of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), children with this disease are still in major risk. It is estimated that 2.1 million children under 15 years in 2007 lived with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), children affected by HIV / AIDS may suffer from poverty, homelessness, school dismissal, discrimination, lack of basic opportunities and ultimately lead to premature death.
Every day many of the rights of these children are violated. The theoretical base of all, Article 1 of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of the Child says: “These rights are granted to all children without exception whatsoever and without distinction or discrimination based on race, Therefore, we decided to develop a project where we color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, could have direct access to these children and where we national or social origin, property, birth or other status, could set up various links to each of them and learn about whether of himself or his family”. It is evident that this their needs, concerns, desires so we can be able to obtain basic right is not always granted to these children. information about the quality of life of each child. The objectives of this project are to: -Identify the primary needs of the orphanage, contributing to the development of all the kids. -Make available, in a complete and accurate way, the needs of the population at risk. -Develop Health Care Programs in collaboration with the Public health system. One of the project’s goals is to develop a Health Plan in conjunction with the Public Health System, and thus increase the quality of life of this children. We also want to motivate these kids to go back to school and finish their education if they have dismissed it. What we need??? Just SCORPions and SCORAngels… with a HUGE HEART…so come and JOIN US!!!
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Crianças em Ação
NMO: IFMSA - Brazil COMMITTEE: SCORP WEBSITE: http://ifmsabrazil.org/ COORDINATOR: Cinthia Jaqueline Baia de Souza E-MAIL: norp@ifmsabrazil.org
In addition to reinforcing their overall potential, children are encouraged to consider future careers and construct pathways that will lead toward success as productive members of their community. This program provides additional opportunities to practice critical thinking and The project “Crianças em Ação - CEA” (Children in Action) problem solving skills in a pleasant, non-didactic setting. was adapted from the Einstein Youth Violence Project (EYVP) of AMSA USA. As a prevention program that Furthermore, this project not only provides a safe, positive uses new strategies and techniques to serve as tools for and enjoyable after-school experience, where children developing individual and community level interventions, interact with caring adults as potential role models on a it directly addresses the risk factors for youth violence, long-term basis, or one day per week during the elevenand thus can lower the risk of violence. This project not week duration . only directly benefits youth, but also allows future health professionals the opportunity to address youth violence in By offering opportunities for children to express themselves their communities. creatively through drama, writing or song; we encourage children to explore alternative and effective ways to Through this CEA project, children learn nonviolent prevent and resolve conflict. In addition, we supplement strategies for dealing with conflict in a supportive this main goal by using these small group settings to teach environment. These strategies promote children’s feelings basic concepts of personal health, particularly in the areas of self-worth and importance to their community. of substance abuse, nutrition, first aid and safety. 5
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Healthy and Proud NMO: IFMSA - Québec COMMITTEE: SCOPH WEBSITE: www.fiersetenforme.com COORDINATOR: Arianne Bédard E-MAIL: nogh@ifmsa.qc.ca Healthy and Proud is a peer education project that promotes positive body image as a novel approach to prevent eating disorders, obesity, and at-risk sexual behaviour within the adolescent community. The workshop is very interactive and was created to encourage youth to speak up, give their opinion and debate. The content of the workshop was developed from a thorough scientific literature review and has been revised and approved by medical experts, including Dr Jean-Yves Frappier (President of the Canadian Pediatric Society), nutritionists, and a psychologist whose area of expertise is eating •We have created our own website: www.healthyandproud. disorders in adolescents. com . Our training guide has also just been translated to English to enable its spread to other Canadian provinces Accomplishments: as well as other countries. •We have trained 39 workshop leaders that are now •We have held at least 4 focus-groups to date in order ready to lead workshops in English and in French, in three to validate the content of the workshop with Quebec main Quebec cities. Requests can be made for other adolescents. regions. •Our project was awarded in June 2010 with a 7500$ •We have presented our project at the Canadian grant from the Canadian Paediatric Society to ensure its Association for Adolescent Health’s 14th Annual National development. Conference, where it created much interest. The outcome •We currently have a project coordinator that facilitates was that many school staff invited us to lead workshops our interactions with new partners. in their schools.
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
IlluminAIDS These stigmatizing actions not only undermine their dignity, but also lead to a fear of being tested or to disclose their HIV status. This project shares similar ideas with the UNAIDS vision statement: zero new HIV-infections, zero discrimination, zero AIDS-related deaths! In 2008, 63% of countries reported having policies that impede access to HIVrelated services for vulnerable populations. The project IlluminAIDS aims to address the knowledge, the attitudes and the behaviors of medical students. One way would be to conduct a study among medical students and use the results of the study as an advocacy tool to integrate HIV/AIDS education and associated stigma into NMO: IFMSA - Québec medical school curricula. COMMITTEE: SCORA PLWHA will be involved in the project, following the GIPA COORDINATOR: Julie Hebert principle (greater involvement of PLWHA), in order to E-MAIL: mcgill@ifmsa.qc.ca share their own experiences of stigmatization and how it affects their relationship with their physician as well as This project was created in Montreal during the AM the quality of their treatment. The goal is, in the end, to 2010 as a result of a small working group led by the RA develop a comprehensive approach to care and treatment SCORA of Europe, Joško Miše. A lot of students involved of PLWHA. in SCORA were taking the issue of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in health care settings very One part of the project includes international and local seriously and as a result, this project was created. advocacy activities in efforts to raise awareness among The term ‘discrimination’ refers to a lot of principles: the general population so that people who are guided prejudice, negative attitudes, abuse and maltreatment. by misinformation about HIV/AIDS will be less likely to Stigma and discrimination against people living with discriminate. HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are also seen in other areas, in law for example, but this project intends to target mostly the In the future, our goal is to expand this work on HIV/AIDS health care settings, because PLWHA should feel secure stigma and discrimination to as many NMOs as possible. to use them, to come to their physicians and to disclose For the moment, most of the NMOs participating in this their status without fear of being refused treatment. It is project are from Europe (CroMSIC, ANEMF, MMSA, IFMSAalso one of the main obstacles in the fight against the CZ, HelMSIC, TurkMSIC, IFMSA-Serbia, LeMSIC, IFMSAHIV pandemic, since it can hinder health care access Quebec), so we expect and encourage NMOs from the (prevention, treatment, quality of care and support) due to PAMSA region to join forces with us ! As medical students, fear of stigmatization. Within focused group discussions, we already have a key role in society as well as great medical students have reported witnessing these types of potential to advocate for change. We will succeed through stigma and discrimination of PLWHA in medical practice: awareness campaigns, advocacy training in regards of - Testing without informed consent HIV/AIDS and acquiring as much information as we can in - Lack of confidentiality order not to develop prejudices ourselves. Moreover, we - Breach of doctor-patient confidentiality are already witnessing human rights violations of PLWHA - Refused and/or postponed treatment and how their health needs can be neglected. Humiliation - PLWHA called in a manner that is undermining their as well as fear can have profound effects on people and dignity such as: ˝AIDS sufferers¨, ¨doomed-to-die¨ people we hope PLWHA will find a health care settings free of or ˝AIDS victims¨. discrimination in the near future. 7 PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
LIBRAS: Life through your hands NMO: IFMSA - Brazil COMMITTEE: SCOME COORDINATOR: Guilherme Sperling Torezani E-MAIL: guilherme_torezani@msn.com “– It was my first duty as a graduated doctor and I was alone at my office when two women came in for a consult. I said, “Hello, good morning,” but all I got was silence. The women then signed pointing to their ears and waving “not” with their fingers and so I understood they were hearing impaired. All of a sudden I felt completely powerless; all these years of study and adapting to regular questions and a specific type of patient-interaction seemed now useless. I found myself mimicking as a child to do the proper anamnesis and help my patients the way they deserved.”
The Local Committees organize courses on - what we can call - instrumental sign language, focusing on signs that are essential for an anamnesis. In a short period the participants have the opportunity to familiarize with the basics of LIBRAS and are capable of a much more reliable interaction with these patients. When doctors demonstrate their proficiency in sign language, hearing impaired patients gain trust, thus improving the treatment plan and overall patient-provider relationship.
Stories, like this example, are common for young doctors and interns all around the world. Our current medical curricula seldom teaches us how to deal with hearing impaired patients, making us either resort to their companions or use primitive signs. IFMSA-Brazil’s local committees thought this project was a way to avoid these situations by teaching basic Brazilian sign language (LIBRAS) to (future) doctors.
Guest doctors, audiologists and hearing impaired patients are some of the major players in the project, where each individual provides precious contributions that help sustain the classes. We have five different cities working with LIBRAS and are currently instructing over 300 medical students in Brazil. If we can stand together in similar projects, we will be working towards a more humane medicine – a medicine for all!
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
My First Gynecological Consultation We decided that the “peer education” method is the best to reach the teenage girls, particularly talking about such an embarrassing, difficult and private topic. We want the young girls to associate a gynaecological examination with a step into the future of their health, not an unpleasant duty. The medical students who develop this project realized what a big problem that gynecological issues are for young girls and even older women. We decided to change the situation starting with the education about these subjects from a younger age. NMO: APEMH - Perú STATUS: Transnational COMMITTEE: SCORA COORDINATOR: Mardelangel Zapata Ponce de León E-MAIL: mzapatapdl@gmail.com First Gynaecological Consultation is a project that was created in 1996 by the SCORA Team of IFMSA-Poland. Since our birth we have been growing constantly. Now more NMOs are involved in this project (SloMSA Slovakia, APEMH Peru, IFMSA-Brazil, MMSA Malta, IFMSA-Mexico, IFMSA-El Salvador). It is addressed to young girls either attending high schools or in the last semesters of secondary school -age 14-18- who, in their majority, have not had their first gynaecological consultation. The goal of this activity is to give the young girls the necessary knowledge about a “First Gynaecological Visit”, we also share information about “Early Prevention of Breast Cancer and Cervical Cancer” and the reproductive health problems that they may face beginning in the second decade of their lives. The topics are discussed during 45- or 90-minute-lessons. We try to help the girls in solving problems like: - Fear before first gynaecological examination - Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infection - Incompetence in the self breast examination - Limited knowledge about prevention of uterine cancer 9
In the beginning a common gynaecological consultation is described. Many young girls feel a huge and unreasonable fear against the gynaecological consultation, which we try to dismiss or at least minimize. The students explain in an uncomplicated way about the examination. They explain every step, showing some instruments just to accustom girls with this topic. They also emphasize the importance of regular examinations. Then the students provide the girls with the information about early symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and early prevention of breast and cervical cancers. Visualization and promotion of the regular breast self-examination and doing cytology play a significant role in our lessons. We try to include information about contraception methods as well. Some girls are usually experienced and knowledgeable about reproductive health in general, this is the reason why we would rather have them talk and share information with other girls while we control the medical property of the topics and lead the conversation in the right direction. During the lessons we try to be just more experienced friends. For the medical students who carry on these lessons it’s a great experience. They gain a lot of experience and satisfaction from the help they give to their younger friends in solving their doubts.
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
OSMOSE NMO: IFMSA - Québec COMMITTEE: SCOPH WEBSITE: http://www.ifmsa.qc.ca/en/scoph-activites/ scoph-osmose COORDINATOR: Sarah Brabant E-MAIL: npo@ifmsa.qc.ca OSMOSE is a French acronym for Open Dialogue on Mental Health in High School. It’s a peer education project that has been influenced by the SCORA’s “Sexperts” project, but with a wholly different focus. Through a dynamic form of presentation, we encourage frank and open discussion of mood disorders, depression, anxiety, food disorders, schizophrenia and other issues pertaining to mental health. Our target audience: high school teenagers, ages 15-17. Our mission is: - To raise awareness and understanding of mental illness among teenagers; - To break the taboos associated with mental illness and to open up discussion concerning mental health; - To prevent mental disorders and suicide among teenagers and young adults.
In Canada, statistics show that 1/5 of the population will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives. Of these, only 50% will receive any form of help or treatment for their condition. In this context, we think that it is important to help eliminate the many misconceptions surrounding mental illness, and open up discussion around mental health. Over the past 5 years, we have built a strong presentation with the collaboration of many psychiatrists and experts. This presentation is reviewed and improved each year. We presently visit between 30 and 40 schools in Montreal per year, and deliver our presentation to an average of 2000 students each year.
We are working on expanding the project by developing: Depression is currently the second most common cause of – Our bilingual services; DALYs for men and women, ages 15-44. The World Health – Additional promotional material (e.g. video and other Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be multimedia;) the second main cause of DALY’s in all age categories. – New content for our web site.
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Peace Construction NMO: IFMSA - El Salvador COMMITTEE: SCORP WEBSITE: http://www.ifmsaelsalvador.org COORDINATOR: Samuel Cortez E-MAIL: norp@ifmsaelsalvador.com “Violence is the most serious epidemic with big impact in El Salvador and Central America” said Marcela Smutt, an expert on Public Safety from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Violence and insecurity have become a major concern recently in EL Salvador. The annual rate of homicide, over 60 per hundred thousand habitants, is one of the largest in Latin America. As such, it is affecting work and social performance of the population and having a negative impact on Human and Economic Development.
As our main purpose, we tried to promote an attitude based on Peace in the child and teenage students of a Public School in El Salvador (approximately 800 Student). In a specific way, we are looking towards reducing dropout rates and at the same time, reduce and prevent the involvement of minors in conflicts and/or criminal activity by promoting a peaceful attitude. The biggest problem with such a large student population is the human resource requirement because we need estimate of 60 people working in different areas. The most important area is inside classroom because that is where we are going to make a progress. Most importantly: SCORPions are working for a New Peace Culture with minimal levels of violence and higher education rates.
Therefore, it is necessary to create a strategic plan of action directed primarily to Children’s of El Salvador with Reloading a Peace Culture as central axis. A lot of kids are involved in criminal activities, but without highly reliable data, we can’t have effective actions. That is why we created the project; we created it as an overture to facilitate a change of habits. It is obvious that with one project we are not likely to get real lifestyle change, which is why this is a long-term project with teachers, parents and kids involved. 11
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Pre-Departure Training The aim of the CFMS PDT project is to ensure that all medical students are prepared and have access to safe and fruitful clinical elective experiences. Over the last several years, incredible gains have been made in PDT nationally and all CFMS medical schools currently provide PDT for medical students who participate in global health electives. However, the criteria for mandatory PDT for medical students, as well as its content and form, vary widely across Canada. To this end, our goals are focused on ensuring that standardized and sustainable quality PDT becomes part of the culture in all Canadian medical schools. NMO: CFMS - Canada STATUS: Endorsed COMMITTEE: SCOME WEBSITE: http://cfms-pdt.org COORDINATOR: Eileen Cheung E-MAIL: echeung2011@meds.uwo.ca Global health electives can offer medical students the opportunity to gain medical knowledge, clinical skills, and exposure to working with underserved and marginalized populations that are not within the realm of most medical schools’ curricula. However, if students are not adequately prepared – logistically, physically and mentally – more harm than benefit may come out of the experience for both the learner and the community he or she is working with. Pre-departure training (PDT), designed specifically for medical students, attempts to address this gap in knowledge and prepares for clinical electives in resourcelimited settings.
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As of the IFMSA August 2010 Meeting, the CFMS PDT project has become IFMSA-endorsed, which we are sure will help us continue our work. Nationally, we are working on three fronts: 1) knowledge development and resource sharing for PDT implementation, 2) advocacy, and 3) continuous quality improvement through standardization and research. We are promoting the use of the National Pre-departure Training Guidelines that were co-authored by CFMS student leaders and faculty members from the Global Health Resource Group of the Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada (AFMC) in 2008. We are also looking to update our current knowledge on the best practices in PDT and to evaluate the effectiveness of our current PDT efforts through literature review and original research. Internationally, we are looking to collaborate with other NMOs with experience in PDT implementation to share their expertise, and to work on outlining a set of PDT guidelines that would be relevant to all medical students engaging in electives in resource-limited settings.
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Project Nazaré NMO: IFMSA - Brazil COMMITTEE: SCORP WEBSITE: http://ifmsabrazil.org/ COORDINATOR: Cinthia Jaqueline Baia de Souza E-MAIL: norp@ifmsabrazil.org In 2007, this project was created in Brazil to target elderly people’s needs. It stemmed from the perception that information regarding societal rights as well as access to preventative healthcare was not available to this population.
The project’s primary goal is to provide educational and recreational mornings, sedimenting knowledge and life experiences for both educators and students. The roles are reversed: students become teachers and elders, who have much to teach us, turn into active learners. Another objective is to develop an approach and achieve successful exchange of ideas between different generations. With that, the students contribute in this area believing that we are giving not only information and prevention advice but also a bit of companionship and joy. The project is multidisciplinary, covering mainly the theme “Quality of life in the elderly” and with the participation of health students from the departments of Medicine, Dentistry and Physiotherapy. There are 8 weekly meetings on Saturday mornings. Each day a different issue is discussed with all the participants (elders and employees) in a didactic method. After that, the recreational activities of the day begin.
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Sembrando Esperanza Perú NMO: IFMSA - Perú COMMITTEE: SCOPH & SCORP COORDINATOR: Paola Aguirre Camino E-MAIL: paolitasits@gmail.com Hello everybody! Here is our latest update about the project from Lima, Peru. Jenny, president and teacher of the NGO Sembrando Esperanza Peru, met a 14-year old boy who was dying from Tuberculosis. Although our carehome had limited resident space, we are now taking care of him while he adheres to his Tuberculosis treatment. Other current residents of the carehome include: • Marina (34 years old) and her daughter, Estrella (4 years old) returned to the carehome after staying with Marina’s mother for a short time period. • Willi (20 years old) remains extremely ill and weak. • Alex (12 years old) remains contagious, but continues to adhere to his Tuberculosis treatment. Extremely thin and weak, he is able to attend school daily. We have purchased his school uniform and class materials. • Julio (24 years old). • Victor (19 years old). • Raul and Marwin have been treated successfully. They feel well and work for a cleaning company. Through us, three other people living on the streets have received employment at the same cleaning company, but are not currently living at our home. • Leo, who does not live in the carehome, helps our residents cook and travel to the clinic for medication.
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We have had numerous economical difficulties. Our biggest expenses are rent, food, electricity, water, gas and transportation. Transportation has turned out to be an enormous expense because many individuals must travel to the clinic daily for their Tuberculosis medication. Unfortunately, our major sponsor, IFMSA-Sweden, was unable to financially support this project as planned in October, but submitted funds in November. In the meantime, our NGO had to borrow money to pay the necessary expenses. We hope to obtain more sponsors in the future in order to finance the project’s expansion throughout the nation as well permit the search for a larger carehome to improve quality of life of the residents. For more information or to donate, please contact us via email sembrandoesperanzaperu@gmail.com. PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Sharing in Health NMO: CFMS - Canada STATUS: CFMS - Canada COMMITTEE: SCOME WEBSITE: www.SharingInHealth.ca COORDINATOR: Ian Pereira E-MAIL: ipereira2012@meds.uwo.ca
We are a non-profit initiative supported by medical student groups from around the world, including IFMSA, and we rely on volunteers to grow our work. Topics and cases are written by students and reviewed by professors, clinicians, and residents. To facilitate this, we have simple, clear guidelines for authors and reviewers, and have students at various universities who are working to engage their www.SharingInHealth.ca is an open-access textbook community. All resources are created under a Creative Commons license, making them available to everyone. designed for health care students around the world. The benefits to authors include an increased knowledge We have a deficit of over 4.3 million health care providers of the topic and a valuable addition to their educational globally(1), and by providing free resources to students portfolio, especially for those interested in teaching in where they are needed most, we hope to increase training careers. capacity in areas of critical shortage. A recent Lancet Commission has, as its vision, that “all health professionals We invite you to visit the site, to consider contributing a in all countries should be educated to mobilise knowledge topic that remains to be written, and to ask your peers to and to engage in critical reasoning and ethical conduct do the same. Areas especially in need right now include so that they are competent to participate in patient and reproductive health, adult health, and infectious disease. population-centred health systems...”(2). In keeping with this, SiH aims to provide access to knowledge and learning For more details, please visit http://www.sharinginhealth. opportunities to apply it. The backbone of our work is ca/site/authors.html It is amazing what is growing from freely available content - text, images, and videos - that this international effort, and we’d love for students from covers the foundations of health care training. Alongside your country to join our community! - The SharingInHealth team this, we are developing cases for key topics, specific for individual countries and designed for individual- or small group-learning. All materials are meant to be accessed 1. Kumar P. 2007. Providing the Providers — Remedying Africa’s Shortage of Health Care Workers. N Engl J Med 356:2564-2567. through small computers or smart phones. Information can 2. Frenk J et al. 2010. Health professionals for a new century: transforming always be accessed online, but can also be downloaded education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet. 376(9756):1923-58. for use when internet is not available.
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Sensibilizarte NMO: IFMSA - Brazil COMMITTEE: SCOPH WEBSITE: www.ifmsabrazil.org COORDINATOR: Gabriela Cristina Moreira Galvão E-MAIL: npo@ifmsabrazil.org The Project Sensibilizarte was created to provide the medical students with a more sensitive concept of humanism and holistic view of the patient, as well as encouraging the medical student to think about the role of health professionals within our society. This approach seeks to create an even stronger doctor-patient relationship, capable of improving the quality of health care. The project is developed in four different areas: clowns, music, storytelling and crafts. Sensibilizarte was born in 2007, when two medical students, Rodrigo Aralios -former president- and Marina Papa Penteado -former NPO for IFMSA-Brazil- inspired by the work of Patch Adams, created a project where there would be clowns, storytellers and singer of songs for children in the hospitals. More people got interested in this new project, and they began to seek ways to put the idea into practice. Then came the question: why do not also have crafts? And then, in this unusual way, the crafts You can find very good and very funny videos on the area arose in the project. internet to train the clowns. Music training consists of meetings where songs are chosen and practiced. You can The project was put into practice, and since then has not make origami; develop designs for the children to paint, stopped growing in Brazil. Currently there are over 120 among many other possibilities for the crafts. And, for the students in two different cities working in this project, with storytelling training, you can choose stories to enact with the support of teachers, actors, musicians and experts in puppets, or tell stories for the adults. You can also make medical humanization. We have not only Medical Students, two areas come in one day. In this case, the trainings can but also nursing, psychology, pharmacy, dentistry and be together. physiotherapy students. Moreover, there are even more Colleges interested in implementing Sensibilizarte. In the Humanitarian work is very rewarding! It’s great to bring beginning, we only visited the pediatrics area, but now moments of joy to patients; there is a benefit for them we also visit the adults. but also for volunteers who develop a more humane and empathetic way to deal with suffering. Are you also interested in pursuing this project for your college? It’s very simple! First, you need a hospital where We will be, surely, different professionals! you can make weekly visits. Also, it’s very important to train the volunteers in each area. It’s not necessary to hire If you need any help with Sensibilizarte’s development, a teacher to train people as the volunteers themselves can write to: npo@ifmsabrazil.org. train each other. I’ll be very happy to help! 16
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
SESWO NMO: APEMH - Perú STATUS: Endorsed COMMITTEE: SCORA WEBSITE: http://seswo.blogspot.com COORDINATOR: Alonzo López E-MAIL: aloeko_007@hotmail.com The illegal sex worker industry in Peru is appalling. The vast majority of sex workers develop their job in the informal sector where they lack health protection. This has caused other problems, like the increase of STDs including AIDS. Our country presently reports around 23,000 AIDS cases and 36,000 HIV+ cases, although prevalence of HIV among sex workers is quite low when compared to statistics from other countries. The other main problem with this job is the mistreatment that most of these women suffer. Finally, sex workers not only have to fight their own personal problems every day, but also must constantly endure the judgements of society.
We know that work in this area is extremely controversial, but we had to eliminate feelings of prejudice or discrimination. SESWO is a valuable project that requires energy, patience and interest, because contacting these workers is a challenging task. Fortunately, there are organizations that can help us, like the “Miluskas” (Sex Workers Association in Peru), and we can achieve a partnership with them to work together. Working on this project has been a wonderful and rewarding experience, which has fulfilled our expectations. We feel that we are improving our community and fighting ignorance. If you are interested in this amazing project for your NMO, feel free to contact us. We assure you that you will not regret it!
For this reason, SESWO (Sex Education for Sex Workers) was created as a small solution for this big problem. This project began theoretically, but this time, we wanted to address the issues that we recognize as medical students. The aim of this project was to educate commercial sex workers on human rights issues, sexual and reproductive health, as well as provide them with information to help care for themselves and their co-workers. Furthermore, it emphasized the women’s empowerment by making them aware of their rights and thus becoming responsible for their lives. We try to help the sex workers understand the importance of prevention of STDs, like HIV, and health issues, such as regular gynecological and psychological check-ups and consultations. 17
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
Teddy Bear Hospital NMO: IFMSA - Brazil STATUS: Transnational COMMITTEE: SCOPH WEBSITE: www.ifmsabrazil.org COORDINATOR: Gabriela Cristina Moreira Galvão E-MAIL: npo@ifmsabrazil.org
Visits are made mainly, but not always, in public schools, with the authorization of the Ministry of Education for completion of the project. Per edition, we serve around 50 to 200 children. About 10 Local Committees carry out this project in IFMSA-Brazil, and this number tends to increase as many others are interested in implementing it.
In 2005, IFMSA-Brazil implemented the Teddy Bear We even have some Local Committees that take kits for Hospital project. It was brought to our NMO by the student children’s oral hygiene. This is very important because Geisa Graziela Peres. encouraging oral hygiene is a great way to prevent oral diseases. Teddy Bear is a project to humanize hospitals that work with children -age 3 to 7- to help them cope, or better Promoting peace and humanization in the hospital yet, eliminate their fear of doctors, hospitals and medical environment is a duty for us all, future health professionals. procedures. It’s very productive to have projects like Teddy Bear to put this concept into practice because, in fact, this not only To achieve this purpose, a clinical setting is built with a benefits the children, but also the volunteers. reception room, a medical care room, a procedure room and a pharmacy. The child is asked to bring a teddy It’s such a rewarding project! bear for a medical appointment, once the appointment is done the child can go to the pharmacy to withdraw the medicine (which is actually cakes or sweets), or they can be sent with the teddy bear to the procedure room or surgery center if the bear has “suffered” from fractures, wounds, bruises, etc. The goal for this project is to create an atmosphere of trust where children can cope with their fears of doctors and hospitals when they are healthy, without the weaknesses and apprehensions that might arise during a medical consultation. After this contact with the medical play the child will be able to, when taken to the doctor, be more collaborative and at peace during the consultation. Moreover, the adherence to treatment is more likely to increase, because the child will have an awareness of its importance. In addition, the project helps us to create a bond and learn ways to interact with the little ones, which can be of great help when we go through Pediatrics, both in a clerkship or in a rotation in this area, or even in the future if we choose to follow this specialization. 18
PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)
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PAMSA Project Booklet (Extended Version)