Special Article
GREEN LUNG by : Ho Rhu Yann
In early 2010 IPSF officially established a collaborative relationship with Green Lung. Wait! Green Lung? Is it something that deals with environmental advocacy? Indeed it does, but to a certain extent. Green Lung does not only advocate for a healthy environment, but also a healthy lifestyle. Green Lung is a Malaysian youth-run organization, which advocates for tobacco-free environment by mobilising, engaging and empowering youths to advocate and walk together towards a smoke-free environment. In May 2009, a workshop sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) was organized by the Clearinghouse of Tobacco Control of Malaysia National Poison Center with the aim of forming a group of undergraduate pharmacy students from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to be active in tobacco control. In July 2009, Green Lung made its debut in USM by organizing its first ever awareness campaign on campus. Since then Green Lung has gathered more than 300 members not only from the pharmacy school but also from other universities and organisations. Within a year, Green Lung spread across five universities in Malaysia; these include: Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa and Universiti Teknologi MARA. In February 2010, Green Lung signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with IPSF and this marked the official collaboration between Green Lung and IPSF in creating and promoting smoke-free initiatives amongst IPSF’s communities. Non Government Organisations (NGO) involved in tobacco control was not new to Green Lung. What makes Green Lung special or different from all other NGO? Firstly, this organisation is the pioneers of a youth-run organization for tobacco control. Because of this, we understand youths the best. We have always believed that youths possess the greatest capacity to change the world because they have the craziest ideas and the most creativity in the world. But how many youths out there have the passion for such an organisation? Let’s share with you Green Lung’s philosophy – Mobilize, Engage and Empower. People especially youths always want to feel a sense of belonging and significance, therefore by mobilising and engaging your target audience they would feel that they belong. Next and most importantly, empower your audience so that their roles are significant to the causes. Once their attention and interest has been piped up they will be more than enthusiastic to partake in a anti-tobacco campaign. Apart from this, what makes us different from other tobacco control groups is that our focus is not on smokers as this area has been well taken care of, but instead the non-smokers of our society. Everyone is well informed about the dangers of smoking but how many of us realize that secondhand smoke does just as much harm to non-smokers? Green Lung’s role is to provide the community with evidence-based information in the hope of creating awareness concerning the dangers of secondhand smoke. We hope to mobilise volunteers and provide a platform for them to express their views against smoking. We hope to empower them as the agents of change so they will spread the information to their peers and consequently a chain reaction will take place. At the end of the day, we wish to break the perception that ‘smoking is normal’. .:1
Nowadays, health promotion campaigns are synonymous to marketing. You need to brand yourself. Don’t be afraid to share your vision and missions with others because that is the only way you will reach more people and obtain support. This is the health promotion revolution that we are implementing for the upcoming years. Our efforts should not only be restricted to Malaysia alone. Green Lung hopes that more people could be a part of creating a change together. Join us today and be part of the change. To know more, please log on to usmgreenlung.blogspot.com or follow our facebook page at www.facebook.com/greenlung Green Lung’s Chronology: May 2009 July 2009 back grounds. September 2009 December 2009 February 2010 July 2010 October 2010 Seoul, S.Korea
: 40 USM Pharmacy students joined WHO Capacity building workshop : Made its debut in USM. Having more than 300 members from various schools and : Green Lung USM Freeze! : Spread across five universities : Green Lung Carnival 2010 and signed MOU with IPSF : Introduced Green Lung to IPSF-APRO members during 9th APPS in Seoul, S.Korea : Presented Green Lung in the 4th Global Conference of Alliance for Healthy Cities in
Prepared by Ho Rhu Yann First president of Green Lung 2009/10 Immediate-past president of Green Lung
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ISMAFARSI
INDONESIA
by : Dwi Ruth Kurniasih
In 2009 ISMAFARSI held its first World AIDS Day. On this momentuous day we organised a small campaign in National Monument, Jakarta which featured the IPSF’s project of forming the Human Ribbon. During 2009, ISMAFARSI held a public health campaign on World No Tobacco Day, which was on the 31st May. The campaign required more than 20 pharmacy students to organise and took place in from Bundaran Hotel to National Monument. In June, the first Patient Counselling Event occurred in the University of Pancasila, Jakarta. This was immediately followed by the national meeting in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The national meeting allowed the organisation to elect a new president whose term would last for two years. Also, one of the highlights in 2009 was the pharmacy student’s involvement in the South East Asia Regional Association for Medical Education (SEARAME) Conference. This involvement allowed the organisation to form networks and aquire better understanding of public health issues. ISMAFARSI has already planned for many projects to be held in 2010. One of the highlights since the year began was the ‘Biggest Drug Campaign’ held during the Pre-national Meeting (PRAMUNAS) in Kaliurang, Jogyakarta. More than 500 pharmacy students participated in this campaign. CP ISMAFARSI-IPSF Dwi Ruth Kurniasih
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NUSPS
SINGAPORE
by : Li Jiahui
Activities of NUSPS 2009-2010 In Year 2009-2010, NUSPS had organized plenty of activities ranging from educational to social activites. Some of the activities include World Diabetes Day, World Tuberculosis Day, Health Bazaar, Xperience Pharmacy Camp, Youth Expedition Programme, Quintiles talk, Xepa Field Trip, Patient Counselling Event, Brown Bagging, Inter-Year Sports Carnival, Youth Alumni Sharing Session, etc. Below are some activities that I would like to share on behalf of my predecessor, Valerie, who was the CP of NUSPS for year 2009-2010. Xperience Pharmacy Camp 2009
One major event that NUSPS organized was the annual Xperience Pharmacy Camp. It is an event organised for the pre-university students to give them an insight to our Pharmacy undergraduate course and also our Pharmacy profession.
Apart from lab sessions, we also have talks during the camp by various professionals including pharmacists to give them a primary account of working life from a pharmacist’s viewpoint and also the current healthcare situation in Singapore. Games related to pharmacy knowledge were also incorporated during the camp to enhance students’ thinking. Students were expected to recall what they were taught during the camp to help them solve mystery cases presented to them during the games. .:4
Patient Counselling Event Patient Counselling Event is also an annual event organized by NUSPS for our own pharmacy undergraduate students. For the recent PCE event, the academic committee of NUSPS invited two guest speakers, one from the hospital sector and one from the community sector. Thus students get to hear about the difference between working in retail setting and hospital setting. We also invited a student to give an account of how his preceptorship was like. This was to give the juniors an idea of what they will facing or be going through during their 6 weeks preceptorship during their holidays. After which, we also had a role-playing game to allow students to have a rough idea of what patient counseling was like.
Brown Bagging Brown Bagging is a project proudly organized by the Essentials Medicine Committee of NUSPS. Brown bagging is actually a medication review event for the elderly in Singapore. It is a good learning experience for all pharmacy students from NUSPS and everyone is welcomed to sign up for this event. With the voluntary help of pharmacists, students will visit the elderlies door-to-door to conduct a medication review for them. Thus students can put what they learn into a good use and at the same time, have an overview of how do pharmacists actually go about reviewing all the medications. Elderlies in this project are counseled on the correct usage of the medications and also counseled to ensure their compliance. This is also to prevent the case of polypharmacy and drug-drug interactions as they usually are prescribed multiple drugs for their various conditions. CP of NUSPS Singapore Li Jiahui
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KNAPS
KOREA
by : Soen Park
What KNAPS has done • 2010.9.11 Pharm-Expo & New executives for 2010-11 were elected. KNAPS participated in the Pharm-Expo held at COEX, as a pharmaceutical students group. We helped the event run smoothly. And, shortly after Pharm-Expo KNAPS held its AGM where the new executives were elected. • 2010.9.13 A Dinner with Mr. Ton Hoek, FIP Secretary General. This was Mr Hoek first time to Korea. We had a meeting with him and had a great time talking about what IPSF does and in particular the future of pharmacists. It was relatively easy being able to speak to Mr Hoek as he had a sense of humor.
• 2010.11.21 Milestone - Industrial Pharmacy Profession KNAPS newly launched a project named ‘Milestone’ to help pharmaceutical students to seek prospective professions so as to prepare what they need for their dreams. The first topic was ‘Industrial Pharmacy’. We invited Mrs. Jung, an executive managing director of AstraZeneca and
Professor Kwon. Mrs Jung gave a lecture what it’s like to work in R&D department and which abilities we should develop. Prof. Kwon introduced us to a course, which enabled us to obtain a MBA with Pharmacy degree from Dongkuk University in Korea.
• 2010.12.5 Plus Day KYPG held Plus Day, which is an annual event. KNAPS also participated by making a presentation on how we prepared for the 9th APPS and what it was like. A senator Mr. Won who graduated with Pharmacy degree was also present and gave a speech. He was the first senator who graduated with a degree of Pharmacy. From this experience we learnt that our professions are not limited to only becoming pharmacists but also politician or whatever we desire to eventually become. These are what KNAPS has done so far. In this upcoming January, KNAPS planned to have a social party to greet a brand new year! CP of KNAPS Soen Park .:6
Member in Association
HMD UI
by : Esther Lamria P
HMD Farmasi Universitas Indonesia is a pharmaceutical students’ organization of University of Indonesia. Like other student organizations we organize many pharmacy programs. Our planning for these programs commences directly after the election of our new Chairperson. Last year, we did an amazing job in organizing an event called ‘Pharmacy Weekend 2010’. This was an international event that included: workshops, community service, posters and an essay competition. We decided to have the theme of Diabetes as well as invited many speakers who were prominent senior lecturers from countries Other small programs we also conducted were bullesuch as Australia and Singapore. The event success- ting news every 2 months, holding an Olympiad for fully held and is illustrated in the following pictures. High School students, social/community service, fostering brother and sisters (where we take care of orphan child whether physically or financially). Through these successful events we have held, we continue to dedicate ourselves more to humanity in different respects.
As pharmacy students, we are aware of the importance of public health and humanity, thus as an organization we created ‘Pharmacy Care’. This event is held annually in November and in previous years we visited General schools and guided children to prevent from Dengue Fever.
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Member in Association
BEM KEMAFAR UNPAD
by : Dinar Azzahra and Putri Wulansari
Through many generations, Indonesian has been developing both remedy and cosmetic brews from many indigenous plants or animals that were believed by the ancestors to have healing effects on diseases or beautify physical appearance. Used by royal family in Keraton (palace), the brew, called Jamu, had limited access to be used by common people. Nowadays, the use of Jamu has been being flourished and consumed by most of Indonesian to maintain health and beauty remembering its ‘magical effect’ not only by royal family but also common people. Indonesian scientists realize that this tradition isn’t just tradition. Jamu is the symbolism of health and is being studied to become a clinical approved medicine since Indonesia has an abundance of natural herbal resources. That’s why lecturers’ team of Pharmacy University
Padjadjaran Indonesia held an event to explore Jamu scientifically. This great idea bears the event of the International and Seminar Expo on Jamu (ISEJ) that was held on 5th-6th November 2010 at Graha Sanusi of Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. A poster exhibition was held at ISEJ on the research of herbal plants and animals and its efficacy to body. The poster exhibition participants not only showed their research poster, but they also had to present and explain their researches to the other participants. So, thats all about the excitements from 1st ISEJ Padjadjaran University Indonesia. Hopely this report will give you new information about Indonesian remedy and cosmetic heritage of Jamu. Please come to Indonesia and join the next International Seminary and Expo on Jamu!
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Beautiful Japan! The SEP experience in Japan certainly enriched my undergraduate experience. Not only was I able to gain more knowledge about medical science, I was also able to learn more about Japan through interactions with the Japanese students. The program placed as much focus on cultural experience as it did on academic learning, and I would recommend it to anyone who is seeking a SEP destination that is balanced on these two aspects. I was placed at two research laboratories during my practice: one was at an immunobiochemistry lab and the other was at a lab that studied health effects of nanoparticles. The members of these labs were all very patient and helpful when it came to explaining their experiments and protocols. Despite the fact that they were not accustomed to giving explanations in English, they tried very hard to overcome the language barrier. I was touched by their efforts to clarify concepts for me with diagrams, demonstrations, and sometimes body language. At the nanoparticles lab, I was able to learn about the newest nanoparticle technologies as well as the concerns about nanoparticles pollutants from top professors and researchers in Japan. I also had the opportunity to see common assays such as microarray and ELISA being run. At the immunobiochemistry lab, I was allowed to perform certain lab techniques myself. I was able to perform a gel electrophoresis, Western Blot, and confocal microscopy, and another international student got to do HPLC and TLC in her lab. I also witnessed a rat dissection, which was something I had
never seen before. What I appreciated most, however, was that I wasn’t simply given a set of instructions to follow when performing a technique. The staff members ensured that I understood the purpose of each step and the ultimate goal of the experiment. I was extremely thankful for this because personally, this kind of understanding was essential for me to fully enjoy what I was doing. As mentioned, the SEP in Japan was planned in such a way that exchange students would also have the chance to immerse themselves in Japanese culture. Exchange students were able to experience daily life in a Japanese family through homestaying. At the same time, we were happy to share stories about our own countries with our host families. During the days of the program where there was no lab practice scheduled, exchange students enjoyed sightseeing with fellows students of APS. This year, some of the places we went to include a firework festival, Mount Fuji, the Ghibli Museum, Nikko, Harajuku, and Ikebukuro. We also took a 3-day trip to the Kansai region of Japan. There, we visited the ancient temples and shrines of Kyoto as well as the infamous Osaka Castle. If I had to point out one minor imperfection, it would be the summer climate in Japan. Japan is very hot and humid in August, and I would advise future exchange student to come prepared for this. Aside from this, I can assure that anyone who comes to this beautiful country with an open mind will leave with a very positive experience. .:10
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Precious Canada! SEP in Canada has been one of the precious memories in my life. I chose a pharmacy in Toronto for SEP and I stayed in the residence of University of Toronto which was only 10 minutes away from the pharmacy that I have been working at. When I landed in Toronto, I was filled with fears since everything was unfamiliar to me. However, right after I met the student who came to the airport to pick me up, I realized the fears I had were all useless. She was kind and nice. She helped me to place my things in the residence and gave me a quick tour around the University. She also took me to the pharmacy that I will be working at to let me know the location. Even though it was the first time for me working at the pharmacy, the pharmacist informed me about everything that I needed to know in order to work at the pharmacy (blister packs, mixture, different drugs info etc.). I worked 4~5days a week and usually had weekends off. She also drove me out to the suburb and had me introduced to her friends and enjoyed a festival together. I also had chance to hang out with the pharmacy students at University of Toronto. Almost every weekend they took me to different restaurants and places to look around. Since the period that I was in
Toronto was summer, lots of festivals were going on so we could enjoy different festivals together. I also had chance to meet other exchange student in Toronto. We both as foreigners in Toronto, could share difficulties we had and also went for a city tour together when we had time. I got to know many different students through this SEP and was a great experience for me to know what pharmacy is like, different curriculums in pharmacy school, and different work areas for pharmacist in Canada. Lastly I want to say special thanks to the pharmacist since she overlooked my mistakes in pharmacy, offered me lots of chances to participate different activities that I can do after work, and cared about me thoughtfully while I was in Toronto. I want to tell students who hesitate to participate SEP, that she/he should bravely throw themselves into this great opportunity to learn and earn variety of things. You will definitely earn more than you think. I say SEP is really a recommendable activity in school life with no doubt.
“You will definitely earn more than you think. “-Choi Jung Min.:12
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Friends from Poland,Netherland,& Spain were doing their SEP in Indonesia .:13
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FriendlySingapore After months of liaising and provision of information and merits of IPSF SEP, the following organizations expressed interested in participating – KTPH, KKH, Guardian Health and Beauty and Unity NTUC Healthcare and Watsons. Below i s a list of students who have successfully completed their exchange here and details of their exchange: No. Name of Student Start Date End Date Country University/ Institution 1. Sheeda Wong 17th May 12th June Canada KK Women and Children’s Hospital 2. Jan Sieluk 12th July 6th August Poland Watsons 3 Marta 12th July 6th August Spain Watsons 4 Hoa 12th July 6th August Czech Watsons 5 Pooja 10th June 2nd July India Guardian 6 Zdenka 5th July 30th July Czech Unity 7 Marketa 5th July 30th July Czech Unity 8 Peter Dios 5th July 30th July Hungary Unity 9 Caroline 6th September 1st October Germany Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) 10 Stella 6th September 1st October Germany Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) Our local students from NUSPS International Relations Committee were in charge of hosting the students from Europe, Canada and India. The students had attachments at a variety of settings. While in Singapore some of them also took the opportunity to attend the Asia Conference on Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP). The committee members arranged to receive the exchange students at the airport and to bring them to their accommodation and workplace. Programmes were arranged for the exchange students and these included sightseeing in Singapore and bringing them to places of interest such as Chinatown, Little India, the Zoo, East Coast Park, Sentosa and savouring local delicacies. Overall, the students had a wonderful time in Singapore. Besides learning the Singaporean approach to patient counseling and protocols, they also learnt about the medical industry and the healthcare system. .:14
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http://www.apps2011-indonesia.com/ come and join us!
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