IFMSA - EGYPT International Federation of Medical students’ Associations - Egypt

Founded

About IFMSA-EGYPT

Mission

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Working to offer future Egyptian physicians a comprehensiveintroduction to public health issuesby taking part in the internationalmedical student community tobroaden their spectrum and reachtheir full potential since 1968 .

To offer future Egyptian physiciansa comprehensive introduction to publichealth issues by taking part in theinternational medical studentcommunity to broaden their spectrum .

AboutSCORA

SCORA, the Standing Committee on Reproductive health including AIDS, is one of the six Standing Committees of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) and IFMSA-Egypt.In Egypt, SCORA started to work effectively more than 5 years ago and organizes many events for medical students, from different universitiesaround Egypt to guide them on how toimprove reproductive health issues inour country. SCORA work reached themaximum within the last 2 years. It isnow well established in 13 medical schools in Egypt. This big number ofparticipation allowed the increase in various topics & styles of this committee’s work .

MSSA-Menoufiya WAC

t is taken for granted that our societies face many dangers & risks, one of the most important dangers we face isHIV/AIDS.We should struggle against this severe danger , we should do our best in order to save our world from this monster .Here in Menoufya we got the pleasure to share in this struggle aiming to raise people awareness about AIDS

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because we think knowledge is our best weapon .When people know about AIDS ,they will be able to deal rightly with it & will change their idea about people living with HIV which is our target mainly .Since that is our target , we held our campaign withsupport UNAIDS on 3 from 21: 24 /11/ 2010 .We prepared our team very well &spread among students,nurses, doctors & even workers in our faculty either .

by holding a seminar, setting a stand , distributing questionnaires or by using LCDs , all of this was supported by so much propaganda so that we could attract their attention .Actually we were surprised that even doctors lack some of the vitalinformation about HIV/AIDS, but also we were very satisfied when weprovided everyone we could reach with at least the basic information about HIV/AIDS .We think our faculty is the nucleus of our society , it is a kind of minimized world , if we could raise awareness in our faculty , sure we would be able to reach everyone in the whole world.Finally, we ought not to stop the struggle we started till we finishit with great victor .

Ahmed MagdyMSSA(Menoufya)LORA

Y-PEER Trainer

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WAC in Alexandria

Each December is a time to take note of the toll this awful pandemic exacts: the lives takenthe futures dimmed, the families broken apart .

World AIDS Day is a day when the world joins hands and hearts to address the pain, the stigma, and thegreat loss of so many lives. World AIDS Day is a time for us to unite with the international communityin addressing AIDS to witness, by words and action, as we pray as a people of faith and hope for thehealing of HIV and AIDS .

(Phase I )WAC University CAMAPIGN Being a part of the National IFMSA – Egypt WAC Taskforce, The project was held in Alexandria Faculty of medicine at it’s both divisions; El-Mowasah and Khartoom square divisions .This phase started with conducting PEER education training for the core team, given by a certifiedy-peer peer educator. Then the first Reach out Campaign with the VCCT mobile Unit at the Faculty of Medicine (Besides distributing flyers to promote for the VCCT) Day two Reach outcampaign at elkhartoom square division of Faculty of Medicine using interactive games andmethods that was followed by the third day at the Elmwasahh division .

Phase II )Bibliotheca Alexandrina plaza open day)

Stigma and discrimination, the consequences of this, and often just the fear of these consequences,keep people away from seeking HIV information, adopting preventive behavior, getting tested, disclosing their serostatus, and accessing treatment .

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So we decided to have an open day advocacy where youth sector along with civil societyshare media with all of its different forms as an important partner that could reach and actas a pressure point on the stakeholder to give more attention. Alexandria Students’ ScientificAssociation (ASSA - ALEX) in partnership with Alexandria Scientific

Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (ASPSA) and Caritas Egypt - Alexandria all celebrated the World AIDS Day under the slogan «Your participation means your interest» and which took place in Bibliotheca Alexandrina plaza on Wednesday, December 8th 2010 .Activities along the day were in the form of Awareness stations blended with Live Concertsfeaturing the performance of 5 bands “Rock music” Seizure,Belm2loob, Peace Cake, Station and Portrait Avenue .

A press conference was held covering the importance of media in raising awareness about HIV. Members of the press decided that there should be more focus on HIV from the NGOs, governments and the media to help eradicate HIV.

(Phase III )open AIDS bicycle challenge

On Friday, December 10, 2010 so as a way,to contribute in fighting this disease, Alexandria Students› Scientific Association ASSA) in co-ordination with Rotaract) Alexandria El-Nozha Club had AIDS BICYCLE CHALLENGE and free ride cycling marathon on the Corniche joint with Cycle Egypt under the slogan “The Ride doesn’t end until Aids does” To showour support.

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MSSA-Mansoura WAC

World AIDS campaign is renowned for being the biggest SCORA event. December 2010 witnessed a remarkable & unforgettable WAC for MSSA. The event took place in the faculty of Medicine where MSSA WAC team was all around spreading awareness messages about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, highlighting the fact that as being future doctors we should accept all patients including those living with HIV!

The campaign started two days before the event when 20 members gathered for a peer education training given by 3 senior trainers, showing a role model of sharing experience between senior andnew members. The trained 20 members have taken part in the event, nevertheless, almost all MSSA members didhelp out to ensure the event success. All working

in harmony with energy and motivation like a beehive. Three booths were located through- out the campaign, one as an information desk where students stepped by to learn more about the disease, to get helpful information & material and to fill out questionnaires. Another booth was a wish tree, where students shared their wishes for people living with HIV/AIDS, wrote them down and hanged them over a lovely tree Also we didn’t forget to add some fun to the campaign and that was the third booth, where students painted a big red ribbon andshared their promises towards fighting the disease with beautiful drawings and paintings.The closing ceremony was such a good example of coop- eration between all students, where Malaysian and Egyptian students› music bands «Rob3 Frakh» «Zaero 5amseen» and«Groove band» performed amazingly. It was such an orga- nized event, prepared by a very hard working & enthusiastic organizing committee of medical students. Just to prove that:We are more than medical students..We can stop AIDS!

ByMaha Khalil

SCORA

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Al-Azhar Medical Students’ Association ”AMSA”WAC

Preface : World AIDS Campaign”WAC” is an international Campaign which a lot of countries are used to make around The First of December every year. Al-Azhar Medical Students’ Association ”AMSA” took apart at that campaign as a member of IFMSA-Egypt . Since 2008 and AMSA has nevermissed such a great event like that. And each year, We have a message to deliver to the students. Now in 2010, we are asked to raise awareness on HIV, AIDS and Stigma related issues.

It is Time to Work : AMSA team began to think, brainstorming and work. 25 students made our dream come true. We have done our tasks within 4 days, First We started with the Peer-Education in the first day 21stNov, 2010. We used the Data we received from the UNAIDSwith the updates with the help of our Peer-educator in AMSA . It took about 5 hours to finish the first task successfully,as the team learnt its role, message and activity.

Then It’s the Challenge :We started our campaign from the second day 22ndNov., 2010 at the Faculty of Medicine – Al Azhar University. We made a great campaign, as the pre-campaign questionnaires and flyers have been distributed among the students, and the team discussed the flyers with the students, giving them the needed information, also We made a wall paper to express the students’ feeling about AIDS and the campaign as a general, We have got a good impression among students including Foreigners. At the last day we made the celebration, trying to make something simple and unique at the same time

including a small play to concentrate on the Stigma, and how to avoid it.We made a small seminar with a Doctor from the department of Microbiology, discussing the HIV/AIDS issues and updates. Then the prizes were distributed among the studentswho got the best records in their knowledge Finally, it was a great campaign with its outcomeexpressing the marvellous work and the team soul.

Ali H. El-SherifWAC 2010 local coordinator

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SCORA

AinShams University Student Scientific Society

WAC

It seemed to be typical Wednesday morning at the Ain Shams faculty of medicine campus until I made my way to the New Building; everything seemed to be red! Red signs, banners, posters, and everyone was wearing red! 7amra, I thought to myself. What›s all this commotion? Oh, right! The annual World AIDS Campaign! Every year the AUSSS organize a campaign to spread awareness about AIDS among medical students. Wait a second, why medical students? Shouldn›t they already know everything about AIDS, sheesh these guys don›t lift their noses out of all those books; surely they›re the last group of people that need an AIDS awareness campaign! Truth be told, anyone working in the medical field carries a high risk of contracting a blood borne infection like Hepatitis C or HIV. All it takes is a pin prick from an infected needle in the workplace, and bam, you›re HIV positive. The aim of this campaign is to educate all medical students and help fight AIDS with the power of knowledge. AIDS is a devastating disease that claims a life every 9 seconds and infects someone every 5 seconds, and although Egypt might seem like the last place in Africa to be concerned, truth is there has been a 300% increase in the incidence of HIV in Middle East and Northern Africa in the past 5 years. These societies have risky behaviors such as sharing needles/razors with a rising number of drug addicts that may lead to an epidemic. Not to mention that there’s no enough promotion for preventivemeasures against HIV or safe sex (since heterosexual route is the number 1 mode of transmission in the region). This year›s campaign focused on fighting false concepts of HIV and AIDS patients and the social stigma held against them; the goal is the fight the disease, not the patient. Society has a false misconception that HIV is contracted through homosexuals only, which although that is a method of transmission; it›s not the only way. Blood transfusions, used needles, from mother to child and heterosexual intercourse are all methods of transmission. The campaign coincided with the World AIDS day on December 1st. The WAC event is organized by the AUSSS Standing Committee on Reproductive Health including AIDS (SCORA). The event included training in epidemiology, transmission and Occupational Hazards (as physicians and surgeons) of HIV/AIDS forthose of the outreach campaign. This training is given by a UNAIDS/UNICEF certified peer educator on HIV/ AIDS. The Outreach campaign was held on the 29th and 30th of November, where over 1000 students answered questionnaires that showed that there›s much to learn about HIV/AIDS. These questionnaires were handed out on campus by the outreach campaign members, who took the training, so that they are able to answer most of the questions concerning HIV/AIDS. Celebration Day was held on the 1st of December, AUSSS members organized 3 games: Shoot at stigma darts, HIV mini quiz and Clever/Dumb. The Ministry of Health and Population, in collaboration with the Cairo governorate, sent us a mobile VCCT unit (Voluntary Confidential Counseling and Testing) which helped many students to get tested for HIV in 10 minutes each. Most of the people on campus were wearing red, so the AUSSS photographers made people stand like a huge red ribbon and took an amazing shot. It ended with a seminar given by Dr. Sayed Al Okda, assistant professor of Community medicine at Ain Shams, to the students in which he focused on how physicians can protect themselves and the patient from transmitting HIV or any other blood borne disease. The seminar was followed by a very creative play which included Standup comedian Mo› Love as well as other students, the play focused on how HIV can change the life of a person, who mightbe anyone living around us and how stigma can make him guilty of a crime he didn’t commit. The event was sponsored by UNAIDS which supplied a generous fund as well as materials like flyers, posters,and questionnaires. All in all, it was a fun filled way to make medical students aware about AIDS in our country.

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SCORA

TSSA (Tanta) WAC

Why are we on Earth ? What’s the reason for our existence ? Lots of people spendtheir lives searching for its value ; searching for faith. In SCORA , we believe in a better healthy life style for everybody . As HIV/AIDS is a major problem threatening the middle east and Africa , it imposed itself as the mainproject we work on . In an oriental community , stigma rises to its worst levels .

People hate the word AIDS and hate going into the subject . This miserable fact actually enlightened the theme of our project , we held the campaign under the motto of “Lights for Rights” showing the fact that HIV +ve people areunfairly treated by the community. From this point ,TSSA had the most wonderful world AIDS campaign and ended it by a glamorous celebration on theworld AIDS day.

We started off by making movies showing our message . Under the subjects of “Stigma kills” and “ Stigma separates “ , we made two wonderful movies . This was a main reason for our success . People got concerned with the subject and that’s when we took it to the next level . Our steps were ; a workshop for HIV/AIDS and a theatre based techniques training , then we took our skills to the field were we held a 2 days campaign . We spread in the entrance of the faculty with red ribbons everywhere , our red uniforms attracted attention and our movies were played on the screen . To our surprise , people were eager to get awareness and listen to what we had . We promoted for our world AIDS day celebration which was extraordinary with a gallery full of wonderful paintings about HIV/AIDS . We performed a play promoting the cause and hosted a band . This was a great closure for our campaign . It felt like we achieved all our goals . We found the reason for existence ; to make Earth a better place .

SCORA

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SMSA ( Sohag )WAC

“Manhood, learning carpentry, team work, responsibility, privacy in expressing my opinion and experience the feelings of aneglected segment in the society “These may be just a ward for you but we

learned, felt and experienced so much benefitsbesides ‘how to deal with an AIDS patient’ in this masterpiece of work .These words are the outcome of our successful WAC campaign that took place thisyear by Sohag medical student association (SMSA) as a part of the national IFMSA –Egypt WAC taskforce for 2010.the campaign was done by several steps.

Preparation stage

We did 2 workshops as a brain storming for the campaign and its new ideas.Then we gave PEER EDUCATION to our team to be prepared and we gave the same team a training called “How to manage a campaign”.Finally we did the last work shop to distribute the tasks.

Action stage(the campaign,20-21 Nov 2010)

In the form of two days of direct awareness at Sohag university and building a spectacu- lar booth with the help of our own members to conduct the awareness in an organizedmanner.

Closing stage (ceremony, 22Nov 2010)

As a closure for the campaign we had a bigcelebration including (videos, statistics, pic- tures and prizes) the complete the messagethat we intended to deliver to our audiences.

SCORA

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ASSA (Asuit)WAC

In Assiut, This year we were in front of a difficult challenge, is how we campaignby different from past years which was marred a lot of comments about, what the importance f AIDS awareness with the proportion of ople living in Egypt are very few????! tried this year, road awareness campaign

peer education training targeted 25 students took the full training in 12hours on AIDS and epidemiology, methods of transmission, prevention and the dangers of stigma and discrimination faced by people living with the virus and Was greater emphasis on how to take the necessary precautions to us as doctors whentreatment with people suffering from AIDS.

to convince people of the importance f awareness against AIDS in Short time and

ctive way. we addressed how to protect doctors fromon with HIV.

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All this in the form of:

Campaign was held in a new way a new concept which has been relying on the interaction between the attendees during the Games, which aims to raise awareness of interesting in a way which ensures access information more quickly. There was also an art gallery to attendance to express their opinions in the form of graphics. As there were also display videos dealing with the problem of AIDS in Egypt anddiscrimination and stigma faced by people living with HIV/AIDS.

Celebration we have to give sessions on how to deal with people, especiallystigmatized people.Then we cut the celebration cake bearing the logo of campaign. Finally I think my team made a great work so; I send special thanks to them fortheir great effort And to Reham for her effort in made our campaign see the light. I hope in next year we will see a great change in people attitude in treat with HIV +ve person, especially after 25 January revolution.

Mohamed YassinASSA-ASSIUT

WAC local coordinator 2010

SCORA

SCORA

BSSS ( Benha)WAC

“ This year should be different from any pervious years “ that’s what I told to myteam, and that what we worked hard to do The event began from the moment that we received the mission, we made urgent meetingto BSSS SCORA team and all BSSS member that want to share with us this mission

We divided our project to three parts

1st part to make a campaign for medical students , we prepares fliers and wall papers , we talked about HIV/AIDS ,transmission and how we can prevent its spread It took one day but it was successful day which we spread about300 questionnaires

2nd part to make peer education for 25 medical students for one day, the trainer was Ahmed Tark and Hatem M .shohdy and after this training we had anew peer education trainee that able to spread the message all over the world

3rd to have festival with big competitions and more that 500 students share with us Drawing competition, sport competitions and talent competitions and gave a lot of prizesto a lot of people who sharing with us

Finally we chosed MR and Miss wac this year whoworked hard to success the event

Wait WAC 2011 with BSSS

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SCORA

SCMSA WAC My friends are always asking me why do I

love SCORA?! Well, it is really hard to say…I love it and that’s enough. May be, because SCORA aims to raise awareness on a variety of reproductive health issues amongst the public, to spread knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections and to decrease stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. May be, because SCORA members are called SCORAngels.

May be, because the only way of fighting AIDS is through prevention...The only way of prevention is through education...I don’t know for sure but what I’m sure about is that SCORA simply is the best or the Crèmede la Crème.

So, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure to welcome you all in our SCORA and one of its internationally recognized projects…World AIDSCampaign and day (WAC & WAD).

World AIDS Day and campaign was conceived and adopted unanimously by 140 countries meeting at the World Summit of Ministers of Health on AIDS, London in January 1988. The day was envisaged as an opportunity for governments, national AIDS programs, non-governmental and local organizations, as well as individuals everywhere, to demonstrate both the importance they attached to the fight against AIDS and their solidarity in this effort. World AIDS Day is commemorated around the globe on December 1st. It celebrates progress made in the battle against the epidemic — and brings into focus remaining challenges. Community based actionstake place all over the world, media supported campaigns.

take place to attract people›s attention and remind them that HIV/AIDS is not to be forgotten. World AIDS Day is also important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there aremany things still to be done. Each year a particular theme is chosen for World AIDS Day:• 2003 - Stigma and Discrimination• 2004 - Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS• 2005 – 2011 -Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise And that’s why it came into our minds here inSCORA, SCMSA to create a new form WAC. We decided to make this campaign on a foursteps:Preparations of the Campaign :

This was really the most tiring step. It included the preparation for everything; booth and its decoration materials. It took roughly two weeks.Then we started the….

PEER EDUCATION: - To raise the awareness of medical students about HIV / AIDS, Ahmed Mohamed Tharwat and Mohamed Sameer Ghoweba certified.

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UNAIDS peer educators about HIV / AIDS made a session for that reason. It wasn’t a pure scientific session, but it was intervened by somefunny games like beans and peas game…..

Awareness day and campaign : The operation of awareness went through twosub steps Intervention and awareness sessions Distributing post forms of questionnaires

257 questionnaires were distributed andrecollected waiting for analysis.

I almost forgot that this campaign was under the internationally recognized red ribbon which is : • Red like love, as a symbol of passion and tolerance towards those

affected. • Red like blood, representing the pain caused by the many people that died

of AIDS. • Red like the anger about the helplessness by which we are facing a

disease for which there isstill no chance for a cure.

• Red as a sign of warning not to carelessly ignore one of the biggestproblems of our time.

Celebration day and closing ceremony : We had a celebration party and we presented the importance of awareness

For AIDS and the latest updates and we turned on some tracks that foster awareness and understanding

like:-Together Again, Janet Jackson. Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen. In This Life, Madonna. The Last Song, Elton John. Hold On, Sarah McLachlan. We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off, Jermaine Stewart. Waterfalls, TLC.Halloween Parade, Lou Reed. Too Hot, Coolio. Positive, Spearhead.

We had a football games between the educators and theparticipants, and one of the matches was a match

between the team of Support and the team of Stigma and of course the Support team won the match. We also invited the faculty›s dean, the Vice-dean for Students› Affairs and heads of hospital›s departments. And the Vice-dean attended as well as the head of community medicine department. And they encouraged us for holding up more projects especially for theReproductive health and AIDS.

Students’ Scientific Society ( Kasr Al-Ainy )

Ain Shams University Students’ ScientificSociety

Alexandria Students’ Scientific Association

Menoufiya Students’ Scientific Association

Benha Students’ Scientific Society

Mansoura Students’ Scientific Association

Suez Canal Medical Students’ Association

Tanta Students’ Scientific Association

Zagazig Medical Students’ ScientificAssociation

Sohag Medical Student Association

SSS

AUSSS

ASSA

MSSA

BSSS

MSSA

SCMSA

TSSA

ZMSA

SMSA

www.ifmsa-egypt.org