Statement On NMO Participation & Language Barriers

Mardi 07 Février 2017 à Budva , Monténégro

Statement: Language Barriers and NMO Participation Dear NMOs. Dear General Delegates, Dear IFMSA Family,

NMOs supporting this statement :

BeMSA(Belgium), Luxembourg ALEM , Anemf

(France), Associa-Med Tunisia, TurkMSIC-Turkey, SQU-MSG(Oman), IFMSA-Spain, IFMSA-Québec, AECS-Catalonia,

IFMSA-NL(Netherland),

NMSA-Norway,

IFMSA-Jo;

IFMSA-Panama;

IFMSA

Paraguay, KOMS-Kosova; IFMSA PERU, IFMSA-Brazil; PorMSIC-Portugal; ASOCEM-Guatemala; FASMR-Romania, HCCM-Russian Federation, TaMSA-Tatarstan, AMSA-Singapore, SloMSASlovakia, SloMSIC Slovenia, AMSI-Ireland, swimsa Switzerland, SMSA-Syria, FMS-Taiwan, MMSA Macedonia , MoMSIC - Montenegro and Others …

On behalf of IFMSA-Morocco and all the NMOs Raising their Cards, English is the official international language used to communicate between the structures and NMOs within IFMSA, and although it’s one of IFMSA’s biggest strength, we shouldn’t forget that language can be identified as one major barrier in the participation of its Members.

First , we want to thank the SWG on NMO Involvement for all the solutions proposed in MM 2016 and adopted later like the successful Flash-Cards systems and the aid captains .

The SWG identified four main barriers on language: -

Difficulty to comprehend oral English during sessions, mainly because of speaker's accent, speaking pace and pronunciation.

Mardi 07 Février 2017 à Budva , Monténégro

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Difficulties to explain themselves clearly, while they had no barriers of understanding oral and written English.

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The SWG stated also that there were more people struggling with language barriers than what was indicated. However, they’ve found it hard to get the “exact number” of those who suffered from language barriers.

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And Finally , The representatives of each NMO usually have better English proficiency. Yet, some unrepresented NMOs face larger language barriers.

Dear NMOs, we acknowledge all the work done by the SWG and we call the interested NMOs to work closely with them to expand the work of Aid Captains and to mandate them to translate Important Calls and message from IFMSA Team of Officials or General Secretariat to Mandarin, French, Arabic and Spanish. The experience led by translating Calls to French in Morocco shows a Statistically proven increase in participation of Members whether in GAs or external representation calls.

IFMSA Vision states that we should believe in a world in which all medical students unite for global health and are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally. This utopian vision that we seek can’t be reached without the inclusion of all medical students regardless of their language background.

Thank you !

Saad Chaibi NMO-President