Friends of MSF UK National Committee Updates and National News - Feb 2011

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Friends of MSF National Committee Updates &

National News: Feb 2011

National Committee Updates President: Almas Janjua

Speaker Liaison: Berkin Hack

New Groups Liaison: Lucinda Wahlers

Events Liaison: Dele Sasegbon

Ireland Liaison: Alan Quinn

Co-opted Advisor: Peter Siordet Scolding

National News:

FoMSF International Initiative

Post FoMSF: MSF Hospital Links

Europe! Hands Off Our Medicine

National Committee Updates

President – Almas Janjua

Update: Almas has been involved in a large number of projects. She has been responsible for co-

ordinating the National Committee (NC) members and re-adjusting the way the NC works, as for

various reasons several members have resigned since elections in February 2010. Almas has also

been in responding to the many emails and questions from groups.

Over the last few months Almas has also been involved in the Campaigns and early preparation for

the National AGM. Unfortunately, due to ill health, Almas has had to take some time away from the

role, during this time Pete Scolding will answer emails sent to the President’s account. Almas will be

back as soon as may be.

Contact email address: [email protected]

Webpages: www.msf.org.uk/nationalcommittee.friend

Speaker Liaison – Berkin Hack Update: Since March and following the handover to the speaker liaison position I have been

involved with a number of activities. Over the year I have continued the role of processing speaker

request applications from groups, although the format of this has recently changed. A particularly

large volume of speaker requests were dealt with at the start of the new academic year in

September. Alongside requests, I have been involved with expanding the FoMSF speaker database. I

have liaised with individuals including directors, heads of policy and campaign directors from

organisations including Health Unlimited, Target TB and WHO.

More recently, I have been involved with building the Friends of MSF International initiative with

Pete Scolding. The aim of this is to establish a network of existing FoMSF groups and facilitate the

formation of new groups. We are currently in the process of contacting Canada, Germany and

Ireland.

In December 2010, I created a new FoMSF group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical

Medicine (LSHTM), which is where I am currently intercalating. Since then, we have had a put on our

first speaker event where we invited Andy Dennis to speak. Andy has worked for MSF in Uganda and

Sudan and is currently preparing for a walk from Amsterdam to Barcelona to raise money for MSF.

With students and staff at LSHTM having an extensive diversity of backgrounds with governmental

and non-governmental organisations, I am also hoping to use the group as a platform to develop the

speaker database further.

Over the next couple of months, I will continue working on the development of FoMSF International

and continue expanding the speaker database. Although my role of processing speaker requests no

longer exists I aim to be involved in other national committee activities.

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Would like to highlight: Changes to speaker application procedure. I have emailed groups

outlining the new way to organise a speaker for an event but to confirm: from now on please can all

groups email the speaker request forms directly to Aisha Dodwell at [email protected].

If groups do not have an application form or did not receive the email please get in touch with me.

I encourage groups to contact me with any queries they may have about organising speaker events

or for any advice on event ideas and planning.


Webpages: www.msf.org.uk/nationalcommittee.friend

New Groups Liaison – Lucinda Wahlers Update: I have been in regular contact with the groups, dealing with any queries or problems

anyone may have been having. I sent out a welcome presentation for the year with a few ideas for

the forthcoming year, whilst also finding out what they've had planned.

Liaising with groups to try and build and develop them to try and keep them established year to

year. I have also updated the new groups’ resource handout.

New Groups: Dundee University FoMSF, Glasgow University FoMSF

Currently being set-up: Bristol University FoMSF, Oxford Brookes FoMSF, Keele University FoMSF

Would like to highlight: Whilst we are here to help with any queries or problems, we do also love

to hear news about successful events and campaigns that you've had so don't hesitate to let us know

what you've been doing.


Webpages: www.msf.org.uk/nationacommittee.friend

Events Liaison – Dele Sasegbon

Update: Since commencing my role as FoMSF events coordinator I have:

- Sent out an email to all FoMSF societies on our mailing list informing them of my appointment,

and my willingness to help with any events related issues they would like to ask me about.

- Checked my email account on a daily /bi-daily basis to establish if anyone or any FoMSF societies

have written to me asking for advice, or with information I need to know.

- Forwarded a speaker and equipment request from the president of FoMSF Manchester to Aisha

Dodwell, with the kind help of Almas when it didn’t go right the first time.


Webpages: www.msf.org.uk/nationacommittee.friend

‘Co-opted Advisor’ – Peter Siordet Scolding

Update: Dear all, over the past seven months I’ve been involved in a number of different things.

The 2009-10 Annual Report and 2010 AGM Reports are now both available online. I continued to

work with Alison on the foundations for future FoMSF Advocacy campaigns, with a draft manifesto,

containing some loose but key aspirations for FoMSF involvement in advocacy, aimed for our 2011

AGM in April.

I have also been working with Berkin on building contacts with FoMSF groups and interested

students beyond the UK, in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Malta and other

countries. We hope to bring national FoMSF movements together into a closer international FoMSF

family over the coming year.

I have been working with former FoMSF members in the UK (now qualified as doctors) and with

MSF-UK to initiate a more informal network, based in hospitals, primarily for junior doctors. This

network of ‘MSF Hospital Links’ aims to bring together junior health workers with an interest in

working abroad, to give them a chance to find out a little more and to socialise together.

If you have any advice or comments on any of these things I’d love to hear from you!

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I am also currently working to organise the 2011 FoMSF National AGM, have collated the newsletter

and will be answering emails sent to [email protected] until Almas returns.

Would like to highlight: The FoMSF facebook fanpage – www.facebook.com/fomsf - is a great way

to interact with other interested people. Please join and feel free to post anything you think may be

of interest – whether it is photos from group events, a blog you’ve written, an article you’ve read or

whatever!


Webpages: - www.msf.org.uk/nationalcommittee.friend

Ireland Liaison - Alan Quinn Update: Since the 2010 AGM my main aim was to facilitate the growth of FoMSF groups in Ireland.

The main issue I tried to resolve this year involved helping the Trinity College group to be officially

recognised by college authorities and gain access to proper society supports. The Central Societies

Committee are very conservative in their attitudes towards new groups and this situation hasn’t

been fully settled yet but hopefully it will have a positive outcome in the near future.

The Cork group was established in 2007 so my main focus here was to ensure that there was a

proper hand over to the new committee and maintain continuity. This was one of the main

stumbling blocks of the past few years with each new committee effectively starting from new. I’m

glad to say the Cork group is going from strength to strength.

Apart from this, there has been some expressed interest from Queens University Belfast about

setting up a new group so hopefully a group will form soon. For the rest of the year I will continue to

try and contact the remaining universities without a FoMSF group to try and promote group

formation and overall interest in FoMSF.

Would like to highlight: If your FoMSF group is solely/mainly composed of medical students, I

would urge you to make a particular effort to recruit members from other courses and faculties and

break down the myth that FoMSF is only relevant to medical students. At the end of the day MSF is a

multi-disciplinary organisation and your FoMSF group will only benefit from this increased diversity

(especially for discussion nights)!

Contact email: [email protected]

National News

FoMSF - International!

MSF is an international organisation, with volunteers working all across the world. Support for MSF,

and interest in their work also exists all around the world.

We are aiming to try and get in touch with students in a number of countries to let them know

about the FoMSF movement, and look at their options for doing something similar.

There are currently FoMSF groups in the UK, Ireland and Canada, and we are also aiming to increase

communication between these movements and work together on spreading our ideas further.

If you would like to find out more about this, to suggest contacts or share ideas then please email

[email protected] or [email protected]

Post-FoMSF: What can you do as a junior doctor?

Over the past year, we have continued to explore the options for graduates and junior doctors, who

are less able to be involved with the Friends of MSF university societies. An idea for a new, loose

movement, focusing on global health and with links to Médecins Sans Frontières, has started to

come together. It will have several key parts to it:

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1) A social emphasis - bringing staff with field experience together with interested juniors, and

helping like minds to meet in this way several times a year

2) A focus on promoting relevant opportunities within the foundation programme

3) Providing some direct information, for example on events, health developments and news.

4) A link with Médecins Sans Frontières

There are a number of junior doctors around the UK interested in being part of this new initiative,

which aims to 'lift-off' in 2011.

If you would like to find out more about this, or to become a part of it, then please email

[email protected] and [email protected]

'Hands Off our Medicine!' In December 2010, a number of FoMSF groups joined in supporting MSF in the "Europe, Hands Off

Our Medicine!" Campaign. https://action.msf.org/en_CH

The campaign is focused on the ongoing trade negotiations between the European Commission (EC)

and India. The EC is pushing trade policies and agreements that will greatly restrict access to

affordable medicines for people in developing countries. If these policies are accepted into practice,

then people who rely on these medicines to stay alive will be left without a lifeline and many are

likely to die.

The campaign calls on the EC Commissioner, Karel De Gucht to do three things:

• Stop pushing for provisions in free trade agreements that will turn off the tap on production of

affordable generic medicines.

• Stop detaining generic medicines that are in transit through Europe on their way to patients in

developing countries by amending the EC customs regulations now.

• Stop pushing for restrictions on production and supply of generic medicines through anti-

counterfeiting policies like ACTA, the secretive international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement.

The trade negotiations are still ongoing. For links to news coverage and comment see

www.facebook.com/fomsf or at MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines -

http://www.accessmed-msf.org/

Friends of MSF UK National Committee Updates and National News - Feb 2011

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Transcript of Friends of MSF UK National Committee Updates and National News - Feb 2011