Here starts the GA

Here comes the GA!
After leaving Istanbul exhausted by the pre-GA, I didn’t’ think I would make it through the GA. However, arriving to Antalya has been a new adventure itself. The accommodation is beyond great, food is delicious and it is the dream place for baklava lovers.
On our first day of arrival, we assisted to the official opening ceremony of the General Assembly. The ceremony was a success and my “coup de Coeur” was definitely the solo played by a violinist. I can’t explain the feeling of realising that you are surrounded by people from over 116 countries in one single conference room. You can actually feel the energy and the power that we represent together being over 1000 medical students regrouped for the same cause, a better healthcare worldwide. I felt very proud of actually simply being part of it. I met friendly people from countries I didn’t know much about, with names that I have never heard before and with all the range of English accents.
For the first day of session, I attended the session of the Standing Committee of Humans Rights and Peace (SCORP) .As a teambuilding activity we did a form of speed dating during which we had to find at least three points in common within one minute as a way to get to know each other. We then had a quiz to learn more about SCORP, its foundation, structure and its main themes which are political∕civil, cultural, social and community. I learned more about the history of human rights such as the fact that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was created in 1948 and that Ellen Rosenberg played an influential role in humans rights.
We then discussed the problems faced by SCORP such as inactive members, the passing down of knowledge from mentors to new members, the access to information to all members, economic issues faced by some NMOs making attendance to GA difficult. Different solutions were brought up to face those problems such as better communication and the collaboration between SCORP with other standing committees like SOPH (public health) or SCORA ( sexual and reproductive health). It is also important to present SCORP based on a healthcare approach so that students feel it is relevant to their medical education. The official team then presented to us SCORP future plans and it introduced to us the reform which is making a transition from project to programs and how it would affect SCORP. We discussed the policies statements of “ Global Policy on Human Rights and Peace” and the “ Global Policy on Social Determinants of Health”. Those policy statements regroup together the main beliefs and stands of IFMSA on healthcare related issues and are proposed for adoption at this GA.
After lunch, I attended a regional meeting of the Americas, some potential future NMOs were discussed, opportunities of internships and congresses within the Americas and again a return on policies statements which had raised some concerns.
Later in the afternoon, I participated to a training on motivation and empowerment.
As you can see, so far the days are full of different content ranging from the history of human rights to working on personal motivation skills.

Cheers Quebec from Antalya,

Weronika Jakubowska