Nǐ hǎo! That’s the word that I always hear whenever I come to a new place in Taiwan. IFMSA conduct two big events every year, and this year The 68th General Assembly August Meeting was held in Taiwan once again after they hosted the same event in 2014. Taipei served as the city that gave us a warm welcome from the very first day. With the theme of the event as “Science, Technology, and Innovation for Sustainable Health Care”, we participated in numerous amount of fun and eye-opening session in August Meeting.
On the first day, our delegations arrived at the hometown of the most popular drink in the world – boba! We had a very warm welcome from the OC. Being quite exhausted to travel quite far, our energy miraculously recharged on the very first event of the General Assembly: Opening Party! We met a lot of influencing stakeholders of Taiwan and delegates from other countries around the world. It was really nice to meet new people and made friends.
The parallel sessions of the standing committee were conducted every morning. The SCOPE Session Team has prepared it very well and we had a very interesting session every day! On our first session, we played a team-building game to know all the SCOPEople attending the meeting better. We also had a discussion through the Small Working Group regarding exchanges, technicalities issues we often found daily using the IFMSA Platform, the updates for SCOPE Strategic Plan and Annual Working Plan. For the Strategic Plan 2019 – 2020, we were focusing more on Universal Health Coverage and Health System. We also have other sharing sessions and a training session that was given to the delegates regarding exchanges and global health issues.
Here comes the most anticipated event the General Assembly for SCOPE: Contract Fair! Before we begin the contract fair, we were given time to promote our NMOs and our exchange program in a session called the Exchange Fair. In this session, NMOs had to prepare for the actual event in Contract Fair and looking back, running around to find each representative from the countries was one moment that I couldn’t forget!
Moreover, there is a special session for all of us who are from the same region, Asia Pacific, to meet and get to know each other. In this Regional Session, we met other delegates from the NMO’s in Asia Pacific Regional. We were exchanging thoughts and ideas about our ongoing issues, cultural difference and discussing our next Regional Meeting. This wonderful session was conducted and supervised by Po-Chin Li, the Regional Director for Asia Pacific term 2018/2019, along with the Regional Team.
Every night since we got here, we always have a special and unique social program! We started with Cultural Night, where the NMO’s delegates performed their distinct culture to others. Through this event, we were able to see other culture’s as well as promoting our culture to the world. Next up, there is an event called IFMSA’s Fringe, where the selected participants have to perform any show that they chose to the audience. It was mesmerizing and comical! And the most awaited session was about to come, which is the National Food and Drink Party. As the name clearly states, delegates would bring their cuisine to share with all the other delegates. As a representative for Indonesia, we brought our classic rendang, kripik and of course, Indonesia’s favourite, sambal! All the people who came to our booth had a good time experiencing the flavorsome Indonesian cuisine.
Plenary sessions were held every evening until around midnight. Each of the NMOs presents was represented by their respective NMO’s President to vote about the issues that are currently ongoing on IFMSA like Constitution and Bylaws, update for NMO’s, including candidature for several Executive Board and Team of Officials IFMSA. This meeting marks the end of Tatiana Zebrova, SCOPE Director for term 2018/2019 from HCCM Russia and continuing her torch of passion for our standing committee, Gabrial Macedo of IFMSA-Brazil as SCOPE Director-Elect for term 2019/2020. It was really inspiring to see other people’s passion, vision and mission toward our dearest federation.
