Day 5 – Channeling Our Inspiration
We started the session by tying all of the loose ends for our small working group presentations. I presented my work-up proposal and schematized version of the results of our discussion. I was really happy with our results, and hope that it will be used as a platform for future activity planning. We received good feedback from the group, and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the committee will do with it. I also enjoyed the other presentations; particularly the one about the possibility of human rights exchanges in order to promote social justice issues within already established clinical exchanges. I made a note to discuss the opportunity with the local officer in Chicoutimi as well as with the National Exchange Officer. I had a great conversation with 2 delegates from Germany. They have been involved with SCORP for 3 years, and it was nice to see that their enthusiasm hasn’t decreased in the least.
We then proceeded to the Open Mic session. What an incredible moment that was for all of us. Members were able to speak openly about anything that inspired them. The first presentation was about access to hospitals in Ghana, the second, about the importance of small acts of kindness, the third, given by me, about my experience in Uganda, the fourth, about the situation in Syria, and the last, about the situation in Mexico. It was an incredible privilege to be offered such a close, intimate, and personal view into some of these vital issues. We were all awed by the incredible talent and tangible passion we all had to offer.
NMO hour in the pool was excellent. We did a round table about how we found the GA, gave feedback on how we could have improved our experiences, and raved about how handsome our presidents were (very important part in the agenda).
By the end of the GA, I finally got the hang of all this plenary business, and started to understand how to analyze the bylaws and policy statements, with a great help from NMO hour discussions and informal discussions between delegation members. I am confident that next time around I will get a lot more out of the plenary and decision making process. I really appreciated that we were all given a voice, even though some of us were beginners.
We head to the project presentations. I really enjoyed the cardiovascular risk factor presentation by Joud from IFMSA – Jordan. Once again, the importance of prevention was stressed as well as the imperative role and responsibility we have as medical students and as future healthcare professionals to implement and promote prevention to the best of our abilities. I also felt inspired by the Malaria Eradication Campaign. I made a note to contact Kabat from IFMSA – Uganda to work on bringing this project to our NMO.
We then headed to the last plenary. I would have never imagined to be sad that it was the last plenary, but indeed, I was. The closing ceremony was great. Lots of thank-you’s to the Ghana organizing committee who did a great job hosting us.
Time to head to the pool!
What an incredible week it has been. I will be writing a concluding article soon with a more in-depth look at my objectives and what I did to achieve them. Thanks for reading 🙂