LAWRENCE MUKEH BABAWO - Candidature for President, EB 2022/23

MOTIVATION LETTER

Dearest SLEMSians,

Join me as I reminisce on what a long road it has been to get to this point, and with the click of each key on this computer I think of one more thing I can do to make my beloved SLEMSA a better place. My name is , a 4th Year medical student and as you take this journey with me, I hope you feel the energy emanating from the pages because that’s the only way we as Sierra Leoneans can truly communicate – actions full of positive energy.

My journey to this stage started the day former President Dr John Mammie walked into my Premed 1 class and said the words “My name is …” and “I am a representative of SLEMSA”. Without him saying much, I knew this was it, the Association I had wanted to be a part of all this time. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not just selling you what I think you want to hear, but I wanted this so badly. Not just because of the way the message got passed across or because I wanted to make something of myself in medical school, but because I had been following their activities for two (2) years past and I wanted to join this amazing battle of education and advocacy. And sometimes I wonder how a high school pupil even gets obsessed with something like this long before he is even required to participate in any bit of it. But I think at this exact moment, I have gotten the answer. It was not only my right and privilege to express freely how I felt about the things going on around me, but I had an obligation to do those things regardless of passion or desire. As a wise comic character once said “If you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things. Not choice, responsibility”.

Capacity building, Advocacy and Administrative Development have been the focus areas of my work within SLEMSA, from my rst OC appointment to being Secretary General of the Association from 2019-2021, and quite frankly the driving factors towards my life goals. I am constantly motivated by the actions of my peers and what we can make the future be together. In the midst of all the late nights, excess screen time and the toll the job takes on my daily life, I have found the means to balance the more important things in life with the lesser, and in turn acquired the ability to work through pressure. It may seem I am working for the SLEMSA, and rightly so, but I am gaining at a rate that permits me to call this opportunity a learning process

Thank You.

Yours sincerely

PLAN OF ACTION

My proposed plan of action was based on the task description of the o ce, conventional presidential practices, my observations of the management of progressive organizations in recent times, and my vision for our beloved SLEMSA over the course of the next 5 years. My primary focus areas will be the continuity of the building processes of current and past Presidents regarding innovations and SLEMSA strategy, creating a comfortable work environment where O cials can express themselves through their work in a calm and e cient manner, and achieve our goals.

The nal version of my Plan of Action that will go into my Annual Work Plan will be based on consultation at the TO meeting and with SLEMSians

SLEMSA EXECUTIVE BOARD

Due to the mandate of the Executive Board to be the decision-making body of SLEMSA in between GAs, membership in the EB can be a lot to bear. Decisions need to be made on a daily basis that in uence both the individual members as well as the entire Association. They are, more often than not, made on matters related to another member’s position which requires awareness of the entire board in order to make an informed decision. Additionally, the individual tasks still need to be performed by each member of the Executive, making it likely to at some point feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities and the amount of work required to perform in both roles. Having had the opportunity to witness this rsthand during my tenure as Secretary General, I fully understand the struggles, and I will work on ensuring that Executive Board members feel both supported and empowered for their individual team-related tasks. This will be my focus as it is vital to have a capable and functioning Executive Board.

To make this achievable, I will focus on managing the a airs from Day 1 as follows:

Handover: This is an important aspect in the continued development of SLEMSA. As such it is imperative that we ensure adequate archiving and succession of institutional memory and experiences.

1. Facilitate e ective handover in consultation with the outgoing EB

2. Create a handover spreadsheet to guide the process and track progress

3. Ensure EB elect receives the team handover as well as how to function as an Executive Board and make decisions

Unity: Between 2019 and 2021, I had the opportunity of working with the most critical people in SLEMSA leadership. That meant a lot of di ering opinions and strategies. To curtail this, fate helped us build a friendship that eventually resulted in one person’s aim being everyone’s goal. I intend to foster that level of unity in the EB spilling over to the

TO whilst recognizing and respecting everyone’s di erences. Each EB member will be a leader in their own area of work and having ve leaders working in a team is a challenge that needs to be overcome by joint e ort. My role in getting to this stage will be to:

1. Raise awareness of the importance of knowing the characteristics of each member of the team for better working relationships, and focus on this during the handover period

2. Make each EB member’s activity a team e ort. UNITED WE STAND!

3. Facilitate the process of setting expectations, values, and working preferences of the entire team, and help everyone get adjusted to them.

Decision-making procedures: How decisions are made will always vary based on the type of matter in question. Each EB has taken what the previous one did and made adjustments in their di erent scenarios. In our term, we will:

1. Coordinate every decision-making process from the elections till the end of the term

2. Have an informed decision-making process within the EB

3. Ensure the guidelines within the Constitution and By-laws are maintained

4. Ensure that decisions made by the EB are timely, transparent, and consistent.

Meetings: Meetings of the EB are important not only for decision-making but also for nishing many of the tasks between individual members. I will coordinate meetings with the Secretary-General, both online and physically, and ensure EB members are aware of the importance of their attendance to all of them.

1. Establish realistic internal working rules, guides, and timelines for the EB

2. Protect, elaborate, and if needed defend the EB decisions in all circumstances

3. Actively consult Supervising Council as well as Team of O cials members for unexpected incidents.

Workload and Mental Health Checks:

We all know that our main reason for being in medical school is to become good and quali ed doctors in the future. As much as we are trying to do good and give back to society, ensuring a good work-school-life balance should be made a priority. By so doing, I will ensure one person’s task is not too overwhelming and they have the requisite support to continue in both school and work-related issues.

SLEMSA TEAM OF OFFICIALS

Our Team of O cials are divided into groups, all coordinated by dedicated Executive Board members that are working closely with them. As the President I would be tasked to coordinate them, but what would that mean in this sense when we already have someone following up on each o cial and supporting them in their work?

All O cials at one point or another rely on each other to have work completed and support to accomplish their Annual Working Plans. To achieve this, there are a lot of plans in the works:

Assign an Executive Board member to each Standing Committee and Class to give guidance and limit the times taken for approvals.

Ensure transparency in the work of the EB even in the elect in order for o cials elect to be up to date in TOM0 with the work the EB has been doing and their intentions for the term, and also later throughout the term for all O cials

Prepare TOM0 and future TOMs with the EB to be as involving for the TO with attractive sessions aimed at both bringing knowledge to the TO and provide a get to know each other space

Create a support system as well for the TO that will best suit their needs in terms of assistance and burnout prevention, as the work can seem overwhelming

Follow up on the creation and execution of the Annual Working Plan

Following up on the organization and preparations for all TOMs and making sure that they will include a balance between capacity building, working groups and general discussions

SLEMSA STRATEGY

In 2020, the EB 2019/2020 developed the SLEMSA Strategy that was supposed to span 3-4 years guiding the EB on how to develop and maintain certain key aspects of Organizational processing. As this is the turning point of that strategy, I will:

Appoint a Strategy Development Assistant to coordinate the evaluation of the current Strategy and lead the development of the next Strategy that will keep our Association going.

Reassess with the EB the current status of the progress, and estimate the time we should be allocating to the Strategy in order to have it fully completed during our time

I want to keep stakeholders in society engaged from the public and private sectors. I will:

In respect of the Constitution and By-Laws nominate His Excellency the President

Brig (Rtd) Dr. Julius Maada Bio GCRSL, the Ministers of Health and Education, WHO and CDC Country Reps, etc for election as Honorary Life Members.

Assign SLEMSA events to Honorary Life Members thereby ensuring a less cumbersome fundraising e ort and national exposure

SLEMSA SECRETARIAT

Having a working space for archiving and carrying out activities has been a major challenge over the years:

Our Alumni are most times ignored because they remind us all of a very sad truth: This too shall pass. But to me, they represent something far greater than that. They are the memory of our Organization representing what we as medical students can be and achieve. As such, we must keep them close and engaged. I will as President:

Appoint an Alumni A airs Assistant

Seek experience from past Presidents to better understand the issues with Alumni engagement

De ne procedures for registering Alumni and inform NMOs about the process

Follow up on the plan for database creation to be better prepared to execute it

Create the Alumni Pool with sects focusing on di erent roles based on skillset e.g. IFMSA Trainers, Specialist and Consultant Physicians/Surgeons, Public Health specialists, etc. this will help to maximize their intellectual resources based on need.

For a long time, we have also ignored the importance of Honorary Life Members in our Organization. As such we should try to maximize the hold we have over society and the impact we as medical students can create.

In consultation with the University and Honorary Life Members, nd a suitable working space to serve as a Secretariat. Ensure I am there to support the Secretary-General in the development of this space as that will be very crucial to its sustenance in the years to come

1. SLEMSA SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE PROGRAM

In 2009, MTV-Africa rst aired a program called MTV Shuga in partnership with a number of organizations with the aim of achieving an HIV-Free Generation (HFG). This was obviously an uphill climb but without the start of a process like this, our goals are obsolete from inception.

Now picture with me for a moment what we can do to help Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Sierra Leone. The most at-risk population without adequate knowledge on the subject matter is adolescents and school-going children in junior and senior secondary schools in the country. Now, what can we do:

SLEMSA ALUMNI AND HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS

Develop a multi-city health education program for schools in partnership with like-minded Organizations without the manpower we do

Engage pupils within the di erent age ranges on awareness and safe sex Run a nationwide media campaign to further sensitize the nation on unsafe sexual practices and the harmful e ects of that the uneducated growing population Run a health clinic on Sexual and Reproductive Health issues, and set up days for toll-free help lines in collaboration with telephone companies in Sierra Leone with medical students and alumni as volunteers, HIV Secretariat and other organizations as partners, and with the line ministries as guides in this process.

WE SHALL BREAK BARRIERS

2. SLEMSA HOLIDAY INTERNSHIPS

SLEMSA has over the years created internship opportunities for members to gain clinical experience in various facilities across the city. This has been a good step towards building the capacities and con dence of our members. But, as clinical practice is just one slice of the pie that is healthcare, we now have to turn our attention towards making sure we provide the requisite skills and experience for our members to compete with medical students in other countries in administrative, public, and advocacy facets of healthcare delivery. UniversalHealth Coverage is not just a hospital dream. As such I will work to ensure:

Internship opportunities in key areas starting with international health organizations, universities in Sierra Leone, agencies, etc. There are an appreciable numbers of slots for members from all ranges of the association to bene t from That the selection process is free, fair and as transparent as possible

This has created a reduction in the engagement of medical students so far. This however can be curtailed by a very good social events plan for the year to enable SLEMSians to have maximum engagement on all fronts.

MedFest: Maintenance of our current annual Medical Festival and towing the line to make it more of a festival and less of a boring event. However, innovation must be brought back to the table. As such in this term, we will have the following activities:

Miss COMAHS 2.0: In collaboration with the SRC, we will bring back our Miss COMAHS in version 2.0. This will create revenue for the Association and create development opportunities for our beautiful and intelligent student doctors.

Inter-Standing Committee Athletics Meet and the SLEMSA CUP: Sports have always been a bedrock of unity, recreation, and health. This year we will make them paramount by having football and athletic engagements on a scale that will put other student organizations to shame.

SLEMSA Dinner and Awards Night

Over the years, interest in our Association has been dampened. No doubt starting with the advent of COVID-19.

Capacity Building is our usual empowerment strategy for our members, but how can we make it better than just an ideology? Of course, we can organize training on various topics, but this, however, doesn’t ensure life skills. What we can do is have meaningful engagement training on various skills including but not limited to strategies of stakeholder engagement, arts & crafts, music production & videography, fundraising & nancial management, etc. What we can do is: Create opportunities for SLEMSians during our capacity-building weeks over the break when they actually have time to focus and learn new skill sets. Capacity Building should have an e ect on the learner, not be accomplishments for the organizers. We will however not forget the medical eld and organize through the STanding Committee on Medical Education, skills lab trainings, clinical experience opportunities with the USL THC during the break.

3. SOCIAL EVENTS PORTFOLIO

3. SOCIAL EVENTS PORTFOLIO

5. INTER-STANDING COMMITTEE DEBATE AND QUIZ COMPETITIONS

We can never ignore the portion of the ourselves that want to compete and lead. All the knowledge, passion, ego and exposure we build-up in the pursuit of Medicince, needs to be unleashed somehow. We can do that in our healthy corner with our Debate and Quiz competitions that will give medical students the opportunity to not only talk about healthcare but also general and socio-political issues a ecting us on a daily basis. You will nd below my proposed work timeline including key day-to-day responsibilities of the President and waiting the Eexecutive Board Elect to nish the complete AWP.

May to June:

Executive Board Elect Meeting

BABAWO

Team of O cials Meeting 0 Preparatory Session

Thank you tour

Team of O cials Meeting 0

Call for Assistants

Physical Handover Event

Executive Board Meeting 1

Announcement of Assistants

Team of O cials Meeting 1

Election break

Welcome, TOM 0 Prep., Assign Tasks for the Elect Period, Assign Standing Committee Contact Persons, Filling in blank EB spots if any.

Location & Date, Agenda, Thank you tour

All classes

Orientation, Yearly Schedule, Annual Work Plan, Call for Assistants, Protocols for the Year

Combined call for the entire Team of O cials

In consultation with the outgoing EB

Quoted in Minutes

Announcement and the start of term

Quoted in Minutes

July to August:

1st July

Call for GA Organising Committee

Inception of Alumni Pool

Capacity Building Week 1

Executive Board Meeting 2

Start of examination break

Consolidation of plans ansd appointment of an EB contact person

July 15th

1st August

August 10th

GA OC Announcement

End of examination break

Executive Board Meeting 3

Team of O cials Meeting 2

Holiday Internships

Quoted in Minutes

Quoted in Minutes

September - October

Executive Board Meeting 4

Team of O cials Meeting 3

Capacity Building Week 2

Executive Board Meeting 5

Miss COMAHS 2.0

Quoted in Minutes

Quoted in Minutes

2/2

Quoted in Minutes

Proposed

November -

December

Executive Board Meeting 6

Team of O cials Meeting 4

MedFest

Executive Board Meeting 7

Quoted in Minutes

Quoted in Minute

Quoted in Minutes

January - February

Executive Board Meeting 8

Team of O cials Meeting 5

WCC and Ramsy Trophy

Executive Board Meeting 9

Quoted in Minutes

Quoted in Minutes

GA Preparation

GA Preparation

Quoted in Minutes

March

Executive Board Meeting 10

Team of O cials Meeting 6

Plenary and Handover Preparation

Handover Preparation

BABAWO