MMSA NEWSLETTER
message from the president Dear friends, What an eventful month! Congratulations to the newly elected Board of Directors! MMSA will now start a handover period where we share our experiences, learning points and plans for the better of our association and students. Continuity is the key to keep up our strong momentum. I wish to thank the Secretary General’s office under Amy’s leadership, for the smooth running of the AGM and electoral processes. The student body’s involvement in these decision making processes ensures that we keep our members’ interests and needs as a priority. Through the AGM, our policy papers and strategic plan got approved and this paves the way to our advocacy on vaccination and domestic violence on a national level. Well done to the VPE’s team under Laura’s and Catherine’s guidance. The strategic plan 2021-2024, aims to outline goals and prospective concepts which are currently deemed fruitful to continue to drive the MMSA as one of the best organisations on Campus. Prosit u Grazzi !
message from eb VPe IFMSA MMSA Malta participated in the 2021 Online March Meeting held in the first week of March. This was a great opportunity to virtually discuss with people from around the globe on important matters. I would like to thank the Board of Directors for attending their respective sessions, and the following MMSA members for helping out and learning more about the international aspect of an NMO: Gillian Pace, Rachel Muscat Baron, Rebekah St John, Robert Pisani, Edward Thake, Abigail Micallef and Nicole Mifsud. Furthermore, Julia A Zahra, Suhrid Roy and Nathalie Attard will be representing MMSA at the online European Regional Meeting between the 23rd and 27th of April. EMSA The online EMSA Spring Assembly is going to be held over 2 weekends: Plenary sessions – 10-11th April and Pillar sessions – 17-18 th April. The delegation representing MMSA at this meeting is: Enya Aquilina, Emily Diacono, Julia A Zahra, Gerard Zammit Young, Nicole Mifsud, Rachel Muscat Baron, Rebekah St John and Rosie Attard. I would like to thank everyone who applied and congratulate these selected members for this opportunity.
Collaborations MMSA will be collaborating with KSU’s Social Policy Office in an online panel discussion on Thursday 15th April. Mick Zammit, as SCORA officer, will be taking part in this discussion on Malta’s National Sexual Health Strategy. We highly encourage you to view this discussion live on the KSU Facebook page. Policy Our two new policy papers have been adopted at the online AGM 2021. I would like to thank both small working groups for their stellar work in creating these policy papers. Stay tuned for their launch soon!
VPi Events Within the first 2 weeks of March, MMSA hosted 5 events and held 25 online peer education sessions. Starting from the 22nd of March, together with the help of the AGM and Electoral Commission team members, SecGen Office coordinated this year’s election week. A big well done goes to the newly elected Board of Directors! We wish you all the best for the upcoming term. SecGen:- AGM - Session 1 and 2 - Debates - Announcement of Election Results PR :- PR Workshop SCORP:- Peace of Mind | Seeking Help - Medico-legal Conference - Gender-Based Violence in collaboration with SCORA and ELSA
SCOPET:- Training Tuesdays l Debating Skills - Teddy Bear Hospital and Health Ed Sessions at St Theresa Lija School SCOME & SCORA:- Research Conference - Presentation of Minima Medica and Materna Magazine SCORA :- RUDI? sessions for St. Aloysius College Thanks for all your contribution. Looking forward to seeing you at future events! Quarterly Assessment Form - January -March 2020 Nine months of our term have gone by in a flash! After February exams, our work continued from were we left off with many events and updates filling up our calendar. With the help of the VPi’s feedback coordinators, the 3rd quarterly assessment form is currently being drafted and is to be shared with all our members in the coming days. Stay tuned!
SecGen MMSA held its 2nd ever online AGM this week in the lead up to the General Elections which took place online this Friday 26th March. The agenda of the AGM was split over 2 days to make sure that we would have enough time to cover everything adequately and to prevent Zoom fatigue as much as possible. On both days we had an attendance of over 100 members present, which is amongst the highest ever number in recent years! On Monday the main aim was on the presentation and approval of the Board of Directors and Supervising Council’s End of Term Reports. These are a summary of all the work that was done throughout the term by each of our officers. Other reports that were presented were the Impact Report and Feedback Report by the Vice President for Internal Affairs. Additionally we presented 2 policy papers thanks to the Vice President for External Affairs which were on Vaccines and Domestic Violence. Tuesday was definitely the highlight of the AGM as it was the candidates’ turn to shine. Each of our 20 candidates had 3 minutes to present their candidature which for the majority was sent in as a pre-recorded presentation. After this each candidate had 1 minute to answer questions with the priority given to the current respective officer to pose their question. In the instance were the full minute was not used to answer, questions were taken from the members which had the option to send in the question anonymously or to ask the question.
SecGen The AGM was all possible thanks to the AGM team: Jonathan George Grima, Kimberly Callus, Andrea Vassallo, Abigail Magro and Mireille Pace. As per tradition, on Wednesday we held our candidates’ debate which was organised by the Electoral Commission which was comprised of Rebekah St John, Nathalie Attard, Gerard Zammit Young, Michael Pio Cilia and Omar Chircop and were lead by Chief Electoral Commissioner Dr Jessica Darmanin. Contested candidates had 3 questions to answer that were set by the EC followed by 2 questions from the audience. The candidates had the option to rebuttal if they wanted to. With regards to the uncontested candidates the EC set 1 question for each candidate and 2 questions were taken from the audience. This event had an attendance of 103 members which was the highest ever attendance for a candidates’ debate in recent years.
ELECTIVES As the term for this team comes to an end, the hard work hasn’t stopped! We are currently working on increasing our social media presence, with many more posters coming out soon. Having previously published an Incomings Coordinator booklet which outlines the work of the coordinator and aids the coordinator in most difficulties encountered - we are now working on finalising an Outgoings Coordinator booklet with the same intent. We have also been working on restructuring the On Arrival Training programme, improving it and having it ready for use for when we start receiving incoming students once again. Unfortunately, the arrival date for Elective incoming students is yet to be determined. The previous tentative date in April has been retracted and postponed until further notice. However, we are in constant communication with the faculty, looking for updates and aiming for concrete answers in an ever changing environment caused by the pandemic. On a brighter note, we have finally finalised the contract with faculty to ensure MMSA receives its due from the Electives programme for the foreseeable future. Thanks for tuning in, see you guys next time!
SCOpet Peer Education Continuation of our yearlong Children’s Health Campaign. 29 MMSA members delivered 15 Teddy Bear Hospital, Our Adventures with Dr Cuddles and Basic First Aid peer ed sessions to children at St Theresa College Lija Primary school in the month of March. Looking forward to continuing this peer ed campaign throughout the rest of this term!
Training Training Tuesdays 3 workshop: Interview skills, in collaboration with SCOME. During the first part of the workshop, the trainer delved into the theory behind how to prepare for an interview, how to behave during an interview, different types of interviews and some common questions that can be asked, and the importance of preparing a detailed CV. During the second part of the workshop, the participants were allowed to practice being interviewers and interviewees in breakout rooms. 42 MMSA members participated in this workshop!
SCOpet Training Training Tuesdays 4 workshop: Debating skills. During the first part of the workshop, the trainer, a local trainer from JCI Malta, delved into the theory behind the structure of a typical debate and some general strategies for debating. In the second part of the workshop, participants were pitched against each other and asked to debate a random topic on the spot. The trainer then offered each pair of participants feedback on how they debated and what they could improve. 31 MMSA members participated in this workshop!
SCOPH For SCOPH, the months of February and March were characterized by the Covid vaccine. We tirelessly advocated for clinical year medical students to be vaccinated in the interest of patient and student safety. This was successful and all clinical year students are now vaccinated. We are also helping in the coordination of Vaccination Voluntary with over 150 medical students across all years helping in various areas in the rollout of vaccination. We are incredibly proud of having such a high number of students and thank you for all their work. In mid-February, we once again moderated another of tabib.mt’s Tabib talk sessions live on Facebook. This time we were joined by Dr Charles Mallia Azzopardi and tackled the topic of vaccination specifically about the Covid vaccine. In February, we also hosted a webinar on Climate Change and Health which aimed to raise awareness about the various effects of climate change on human health. The speakers included Dr John Paul Cauchi, Dr Joe Cassar and Steven Bajada who gave some valuable knowledge and information to participants. The webinar was the first on topic to be hosted by MMSA and was very well attended and seemed to make attendees aware of the scale of the problem. Another BYOB was being planned to take place in March however due to the restrictions this had to be called off. We now look forward to better times to be able to host such events once again.
SCOME March was awash with election excitement and anxiety, but that didn't stop SCOME from continuing its work! Late last month, SCOME organised a suturing workshop in which was open to all students. This time however, we introduced an advanced workshop into the mix to allow those who had attended a suturing workshop in the past to improve their skills and fine tune their techniques. This month, SCOME also launched the 2021 edition of MMSA's Minima Medica magazine: the perfect entry point for medical students to start publishing their work. This was accompanied by SCOME's annual Research Conference which introduced students to the different research opportunities available to them. It also served as a platform for SCORA to launch their Materna Magazine. We look forward to organising more physical events once health restrictions are relaxed, but in the meantime keep an eye out on a new online event (soon to be released!) as well as the Call for Coordinators coming out in April!
supco A huge well done to Martina Grech for being chosen as this month’s Student Spotlight! Your selfless work among those less fortunate is an inspiration for us all! The theme for next edition of Student Spotlight is Environmental Activist. Should you wish to nominate someone deserving for their work and activism, nominate them by filling in this Google Form: https://forms.gle/4nBD9dD2oezN2MUc8 by the 1st of April at 23:59. We look forward to receiving your nominations! SupCo also reviewed the MMSA Statute and Bylaws. Two bylaw changes were proposed by the MMSA BD during this month’s AGM, both of which were approved. Following this month’s elections, SupCo would like to thank all candidates for contesting! MMSA is lucky to have people as motivated, hardworking and passionate as you! Well done to those elected to form part of the MMSA-BD 2021-2022. As SupCo, we shall now oversee the handover period and ensure that a proper handover takes place between the current BD and BD-elect. Moreover, we would like to remind our members that, should any issue arise, they may approach us either through Facebook chat, via email sent on supco@mmsa.org.mt, or through our anonymous complaints form, available on the ‘Contact Us’ section on the MMSA Website.
from our gallery
SCOPET's Peer Ed Session