Annually, IFMSA or International Federation of Medical Students’ Association holds two General Assemblies which are August Meeting and March Meeting. The 69th IFMSA’s March Meeting was held this year in Kigali, Rwanda, Africa. The event took place at Golden Tulip Lapalisse Nyamata Hotel from 1st of March until 7th of March 2020. Through the venue, we could see the beautiful scenery of thousand hills of Rwanda. Theme of this year March Meeting is “Role of Primary Health Care in Achieving Universal Health Coverage” that aligned with IFMSA’s Global Priorities, along with the CIMSA main focus which lead medical students’ as global actor to be responsible as health leaders should not be limited to cure illness but also include to improve other sectors in the health field that currently unequal throughout the globe.
The delegation of CIMSA Indonesia started the meeting with enthusiasm and the desire to learn and also to explore new things from other NMOs. Each day the Indonesia delegates joined different sessions but we always showed our remarkable presences on each session. One of the fruitful things I wanted to share today is the SCOPE Session. There were five SCOPE sessions in this year’s March Meeting which every session gave out the fruitfullest outcome to each participant of the session including myself.
First day of the SCOPE session was filled with games for team building which gave a chance to all participants to get to know each other. Not only the bonding session, there is also a presentation from SCOPE IT Updates which gives us an insight about how SCOPE in IFMSA works and problems they have to tackle and also the solution they have made on every problem they have encountered. Another point in this session is the presentation of the SCOPE Strategic Plan which was useful for every NMOs to take a note about as for development purposes in each SCOPE active NMOs. There were 4 biggest points in SCOPE Strategic Plan which are Capacity Building, Academic Quality, Evaluation and Recognition. Last agenda on the first session was SCOPE World Cafe, we were sharing some concerns and difficulties like having a discussion in the Cafe. I was able to join the World Cafe which has the topic about External Representation and we talked about how to manage recognition packages, to address the problem and also market on exchange.
Second day of the SCOPE Session was one of the highlights of this year’s meeting. It was an Exchange Fair! A lot of NMOs with SCOPE and SCORE active are showing the remarkable exchange program from each of NMOs. We are sharing a lot of information about how in every NMOs arranging the exchange. The happiest moment is when we are able to collect some unique and signature merchandise from a lot of participating NMOs as a gift to be brought home!
Third day of the SCOPE session was filled with SCOPE Regulation Change Proposal Discussion which every NEOs gave an input to amend the SCOPE Regulation. It gave me a lot of perspective about how every SCOPE Leader in each NMOs arrange their exchange program flawlessly by abiding and respecting the SCOPE Regulation as SCOPE Bylaw and Constitution.
Fourth day of the SCOPE session was filled with a joint session about Public Health Exchange; A Highway to Global Health. In this session, we are able to raise our awareness about Public Health within exchange and its importances to be acknowledged by every SCOPE Active NMOs. Another agenda that filled this session is “sharing is caring”. During the March Meeting, there were a lot of concerns that have been successfully addressed about the current situation of COVID-19 and how its impact on our exchange program. A lot of solutions have been given and discussed also to be done so the damage could be prevented. Nevertheless, during this pandemic era of COVID-19 our wonderful exchange program needed to be suspended in order to stop the COVID-19 from extensive level of spreading.
Fifth day of the SCOPE Session which is the last session of this year’s March Meeting. It was filled with some parallels like Communication in SCOPE, How to Organize a PRET, External Representation, and Global Health Framework. To close the session, there was a NMO Exchange Glory; a part for NMO to show off about their awesomeness activities in the exchange program.
March Meeting 2020 was a rwandaful experience. We got to know and spent time with all of the national members of organization IFMSA. We would like to address our appreciation to MEDSAR – IFMSA Rwanda as the Organizing Committee to make this meeting as an enjoyable and memorable experience.
Rwanda touches our heart, see you in the next General Assembly! Gelukwensing!
