Friends of MSF Group Updates - Feb 2011

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Friends of MSF Group Updates: February 2011

Aberdeen FoMSF

St Andrews FoMSF

Barts FoMSF

Birmingham FoMSF

Brighton and Sussex FoMSF

Bristol FoMSF

Cambridge FoMSF

Cardiff FoMSF

Cork FoMSF

Dundee FoMSF

Durham FoMSF

Edinburgh FoMSF

Glasgow FoMSF

Hull and York FoMSF

Imperial FoMSF

Keele FoMSF

Kings College London

FoMSF

Kingston and St Georges

University London

Leeds FoMSF

Leicester FoMSF

London School of Hygiene

& Tropical Medicine FoMSF

Manchester FoMSF

Newcastle FoMSF

Nottingham FoMSF

Oxford FoMSF

Sheffield FoMSF

Southampton FoMSF

Swansea FoMSF

Trinity College Dublin

UCL FoMSF

University of East Anglia

Warwick FoMSF

Aberdeen FoMSF: News: We were delighted to donate £2000 to MSF UK last year!

For our 2010 Welcome / Film Evening we screened "Hotel

Rwanda" to illustrate the type of work that MSF has

been involved with. Our recent bake sale raised £90. We have

continued to email members our own monthly newsletter which

includes MSF updates, our previous and upcoming events and

student articles relevant to worldwide medicine.

Committee member Ciaran Doyle shaved off his beard to raise £250! We will be holding

our "starved for attention" film evening on November 16th and have also invited a clinician to talk

about assessing malnutrition.

For World AIDS Day on December 1st we are planning a pub quiz due to last year’s success. We are

also teaming up with the charity Marrow this term to produce a tasteful semi-naked calendar to

fundraise over the festive period! Our annual fancy dress Christmas Party (with fake snow) is

planned for December 14th!

Plans for 2011 so far: a Swing themed evening with live big band, Pimms on the Pitches, car boot

sale and a Speaker evening.

Would like to hear more about/ from: We are currently teaming up with the charity Marrow to

make a calendar in time for Christmas. We would be very grateful for any advice from those of you

with experience in this - especially tips for sponsorship! Would Dundee, St.Andrews or Edinburgh

groups fancy a sports day?

Contact email address: - [email protected] and [email protected]

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

Facebook group: - Friends of MSF at Aberdeen University

St Andrews FoMSF: News: So far this academic year at University of St Andrews FoMSF

we have had a very successful time. Having been a new group last

year, we have expanded our committee membership from 4 to 10

members this year, having been successful in our campaign to

include other members of the University society (i.e. non-medics) in

our Committee. We also were successful in attracting new members

to our society, and we now boast a mailing list of over 100 members. We had a very fun and

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successful "Duck Race" which we held in November and raised around £250. We also have arranged

club nights in St Andrews which all have been popular fund raising events. Sadly, our main speaker

event which we organised, in co-ordination with AIDS week which we were involved in, was

cancelled due to all four of our speakers being snowed in! However, we hope to hold this event

again, along with many more speaker events, in the second semester!

Would like to hear more about/ from: more information about speakers and information about

how we ourselves could go about finding them. This has been our biggest barrier to success at St

Andrews. I also believe some sort of blog system would be very useful in order to create inter-

communication between FoMSF groups. There is a similar sort of thing on Facebook for Charity

Societies in St Andrews, and it has proven to be very useful for all charities involved.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=204862960795

Contact email: [email protected]

Barts FoMSF: News: Bart’s Friends of MSF has raised awareness through educational

talks featuring MSF doctors, film showings, fundraising events and

socials. The society is still very much in its early days but there has been

huge interest from all years to become a part of our cause. So far this

year we have held a World Aid’s Day talk featuring our guest speaker

Dr Jane Deayton, HIV specialist, and a cake sale to raise money for

MSF. Our next big event is the Fun Run in Regent’s Park on March 20th

, in conjunction with the other

University of London Friends of MSF groups. Furthermore we want to have more film screenings,

and also organise socials, including our pre Fun Run social in March.

Contact email address: [email protected]

Birmingham FoMSF: Contact address: [email protected]

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2312013604

Brighton and Sussex FoMSF: Contact address: [email protected] Facebook group: www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=59344519688

Bristol FoMSF - *New Group* Facebook group: www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/home.php?sk=group_180802255

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Cambridge FoMSF: News: Since the last AGM, we have held a number of

fundraising, speaker and social events. We participated in a joint

fundraiser for Haiti and started Easter term 2010 with a RAG

street collection for MSF. In April, we organised a fundraising

dinner for students and invited our previous speakers to join us,

finishing the term with a "Without Borders" garden party.

Speaker events have included presentations about the Global

Fund and Neglected Tropical Diseases as well as a general introduction to working with MSF in

October and a more detailed insight into a Vaccination Campaign in Niger. We also showed the film

Living in Emergency, which was very well attended. This term, we held a hugely successful panel

debate featuring representatives from MSF, the Red Cross, Médecins du Monde and PIDG discussing

whether AID organisations should bear witness. Future events include the showing of "The Devil

Came on Horseback", as well as speakers from MSF and Khandel Light.

Contact email address: [email protected] and [email protected]


Website: www.msf.org.uk/cambridge

Cardiff FoMSF: News: We had a brief introductory meeting to welcome new

freshers' and to talk about new reps from our first year, where

we also showed a few stories from the Invisibles. After that we

held a film night in a local pub (Shooting Dogs) and then held a

fundraising Pub Quiz where local businesses kindly donated

prizes and we raised some money.

Then one of our favourite annual events, a very successful

carol service in a beautiful local church where we offered free

mince pies and mulled wine and had Cardiff’s Healthcare music society perform a few festive pieces.

At the moment we are currently awaiting details of a confirmed speaker who will come from MSF to

talk to us (very excited) and have plans for a band night (to be held with the reggae society) which

will also act as a fundraiser. We also hope to show Positive Ladies at some point this year and are

currently trying to organise an information evening with Cardiff based Medsin where we can give

people more information on what it is like to work abroad, what things to think about before leaving

the UK where we hope to have another speaker who can give us more of an insight into what life is

like in the life of an MSF healthcare staff working abroad.

Would like to hear more about/ from: what events have other FoMSF societies held which have

been particularly effective in raising money? Our carol concert is very popular but we would like to

be able to have more events which create as much revenue. Also are there any possibilities

volunteering for FoMSF at festivals and things? I can think of a great many people who would be

keen to represent MSF there, and are there any other things that MSF need doing (except

fundraise!!) which FoMSF could help with?


President: Rosie Tomlins - [email protected]

Cork FoMSF: News: This year has been extremely positive so far. Our first guest

speaker was John Fiddler an MSF nurse talking about his work on

Sleeping Sickness in the Central African Republic, this attracted a lot

of newcomers. We also held a bake sale event raising over 700 euro!

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A joint screening of Paradise Now with the UCC Muslim Cultural Society on International Day of

Solidarity with the Palestinian People was also a great evening.

Our biggest event was on World AIDS Day where we promoted the Hands Off Our Medicine

Campaign by getting around 800 signatures for the campaign and nearly 500 euro selling ribbons.

On the day we had African Drumming and we got people to cover their hands with red paint and

slap it on a sheet of canvas.

We expect to have more fundraising events like a table quiz, another bake sale and more guest

speaker and movie nights. We also are planning a 40 hour fast to coincide with Starved for Attention

Campaign.

Would like to hear more about/ from: Pete Scolding’s discussion set ‘What is Humanitarianism

Anyway?’ was awesome and we had a great evening holding our own discussion event with this.

More sample discussion sets would be great, although we are planning to try some of our own this

term.

Contact address: [email protected]


Dundee FoMSF - *New Group*: Contact email address: President – Thomas Downs - [email protected]

Secretary - Lakshmi Nayar - [email protected]

Durham FoMSF: News: Although recently set up, we already managed to hold a

successful cake sale and a film night, where we screened 'The

devil came on horseback'. We have plenty of other fundraising

ideas, so if you want to get involved join our facebook group.

Contact: [email protected]

President – Madeleine Moat: [email protected]

Facebook: www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=309140392222&v=info

Edinburgh FoMSF: News: We held a film event last term to show the film Living in

Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders. It was very well

received by the whole audience and quite a few medical students left

the event feeling awed and inspired. We have two upcoming events

in March. The first is a talk titled HIV AIDS: WHERE IN THE WORLD

ARE WE which we are jointly hosting with the Scottish MSF Group.

Our second event will be an end-of-term ceilidh which we're also

jointly hosting with Mary's Meals.

Would like to hear more about/ from: At our last AGM, you mentioned potential educational

opportunities (e.g. workshops) for our members. Has any Friends group initiated this and does the

NC have any plans for such programs?

Contact email address: President - Annie Ning - [email protected]


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Glasgow FoMSF - *New Group*

Contact: President - Muti Goloba -

[email protected]

Hull and York FoMSF: Contact emails: Co-President: Emma Lewis - [email protected]

Co-President: Sally MacVinish - Co-President - [email protected]

Imperial FoMSF: News: Hello! This term [autumn] as our first event we showed

'Living in Emergency' for the first time! It was a great success,

and I feel people appreciated seeing an honest and raw insight

into what working for MSF is actually like. We also did a

Halloween Movie Marathon to raise money, and we are about

to have our first speaker event of the year! This Christmas we

hope to do a raffle/quiz.

Things are going well this [Spring], although we're finding it

harder to get our free Pret sandwich incentive which is annoying! We've developed links with

Imperial Engineers without Borders, and also Global Brigades. Our Starved for Attention event was

not as popular as we would have liked, but a recent screening of Triage went down well.

Would like to hear more about/ from: In the spring our committee is doing a tube collect in

London. I was wondering if any other London groups would be interested in organising a larger

event for later next year? Our members really enjoyed watching Living in Emergency and were

disappointed that we could not do another showing of the film as we had many requests (and we've

never had requests to reshow a film before!!!).

Contact email address: [email protected] or [email protected]

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

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=2220273561&ref=ts

Keele FoMSF: News: Keele Friends of MSF is at present in the exciting process of

formation! The group developers have been meeting and emailing to

set up the group. Support had been gathered from interested student

medics and pharmacists and there are plans to reach out to students

of other healthcare professions very soon. An encouraging response to

our promotional emails and some initial networking with other

Friends of MSF groups, has prompted the group to set up its own

email account. The FoMSF run in London is the main aim this term. French evening classes are a

popular potential future development and certainly we aim to bring a guest speaker from MSF to

Keele very soon.

Would like to hear more about:

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Keele FoMSF would be very keen to participate in an online discussion board with other FoMSF

groups around the UK. Each group would be able to post messages and interact with other groups.


Kings College London FoMSF: Contact address: [email protected] Webpages: www.kclmsf.com and

www.msf.org.uk/kingscollegelondon.friend Facebook group: www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=8803433742

Kingston and Saint George’s University London

FoMSF: Contact: [email protected]

Leeds FoMSF: Contact: President: Alice Rima Findlay - [email protected]

Secretary: Katie Newman - [email protected] [email protected]

Leicester FoMSF: News: This year has been very successful. We kept on the things we

did last year and also did as much fundraising as we could with a lot of

focus on our Rapid Response Team. We have shown Living in

Emergency which went very well with about 35 people attending. We

also held our annual International Christmas Dinner and Raised over

£250. On World AIDs day we went out to the university campus and

collected signatures for the Europe, Hands of our Medicine!

campaign. We also worked with Medsin and braved the snow to raise awareness, we released

balloons over the city and main park, had speakers come in and talk about their experiences with

AIDs and also held a social. We collaborated with the medical student society in an event called

Funday Sunday, we had our own little part where we provided Pimms and other drinks.

On the fundraising part of things our Rapid Response Team has done very well and has raised over

£500 for the Pakistan floods. As well as doing street collections we have also tried novel ways to

collect money, the best has to be making foods from South East Asia which we sold.

Would like to hear more about/ from: We would like to thank the NC for all their help. The only

problem we have had is getting a speaker. It’s been very difficult to get anyone to come to Leicester,

we have offered to pay for travel and accommodation yet the response has been very slow. We

would also like a list of resources that are available to us for example pens, posters, t shirts etc that

we could order.


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


London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

FoMSF: Update: The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Friends of MSF group was formed in December 2011. The

School has students from broad and diverse backgrounds, many

of which have experience with governmental organisations and

NGOs including MSF. With intercalating medical students and

those keen on pursuing careers in the humanitarian sector, forming a FoMSF group was a good

opportunity to maximise on the interest within the School.

Since starting, we have had a speaker event where we invited Andy Dennis to talk. Andy is walking

from Amsterdam to Barcelona for the ‘Walk a2b’ charity event to raise money for MSF. He spoke

about his experiences with MSF in Uganda and Sudan and the build up to his walk. We are currently

organising a panel discussion where we will invite speakers who work in various disciplines within

MSF to answer questions about careers with MSF.

Would like to hear about/ from: It would be nice to establish links between LSHTM FoMSF and

other local London groups to communicate and potentially coordinate events and other activities.

Additionally, there may be scope to develop links between students who go on to work with MSF

from LSHTM and the ‘Post-MSF’ group.


Facebook group: www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_137916519608974

Manchester FoMSF: News: The current committee is fairly new. Despite this however,

we have been fairly busy and have organised several events. We

work quite closely with the UMSU (University of Manchester

Student Union) and help organise their events. During the "Black

and Ethnic Minority Week" we had a screening of "The Invisibles"

and made Congolese inspired baked goods in the cookout. We

decided to raise money for a specific campaign each semester and

last semester it was for the work MSF is doing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We also

organised a screening of "The Positive Ladies Soccer Club" and got a speaker from BodyPostive for

"AIDS awareness Week". We rounded the term off by organising a Christmas Market, which

unfortunately wasn't that successful - the event itself was good but we had exams and X-factor finals

to contend with and not a lot of people showed up! We've been doing bake sales, selling glow sticks

and selling plain t-shirts and hats that people design themselves in various events.

At the moment we're working with Medsin Manchester to try and promote the upcoming Global

Health Conference. I have secured a workshop in the conference and we plan to focus this on

Sleeping Sickness and Chagas Disease, showing parts of "The Invisibles". We are also organising for

some of us to join the Fun Run in Regents Park and we're planning to screen "Triage" and we have

secured two speakers - who have worked for MSF - to come. We are currently preoccupied with

these events but we have several plans: organising a weekend with a Mountain Rescue Volunteers,

possibly a sports day type of event at the end of the year and maybe a night of world music. We are

currently trying to raise money for the flood victims in Brazil. Contact email address: [email protected]

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

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=49088236938

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Newcastle FoMSF: Contact address: [email protected]

Facebook group:

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=322527902755&ref=ts#!/gro

up.php?gid=48017935662

Nottingham FoMSF: Contact address: [email protected] Facebook group: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=133158911916

Oxford FoMSF News: The OGHG (Oxford Global Health Group) have been

extremely busy this past term and we have two large and exciting

events coming up in the next month. The wine tasting event held

on the 15th

November raising just over £400 in aid of Médecins sans

Frontières and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative was a particular

success with a fantastic presentation given by Dr Peter Bourne

(former special assistant for health to President Jimmy Carter).

Contact email address: - [email protected]

Webpages: - www.oxfordghg.co.uk/ and http://groupspaces.com/OxfordGlobalHealthGroup

Sheffield FoMSF News: The Sheffield group has enjoyed the success of Medstock

2010 in March, where bands representing the first and second

year medics showcased their talents. We also were able to

organise a couple of speaker events. Students were given the

opportunity to ask questions and as a result gain a better insight

about working with MSF in the future.

Together with Medsin, we were able to hold a number of cake

sales outside lecture theatres to raise money for the victims of the Pakistan earthquake. We feel

that collaborating with other societies within the university is the key to raising awareness and

funds for MSF.

In the near future we aim to organise a film night, a pub quiz, more cake sales and speaker events.

Would like to hear more about/ from: We are also keen on collaborating with other Friends of

MSF groups in the same region this coming year, to organise events on a much larger scale. We are

still in the process of planning and discussing these, and it would be helpful if other interested

FoMSF groups with similar ideas contacted us.

Email address: [email protected]

Webpage: www.msf.org.uk/sheffieldfriendsofmsf.friend

Facebook address: www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=32394312373

Southampton FoMSF: Contact address: [email protected] Facebook group: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27596958118

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Swansea FoMSF: News: We held the Medsin Conference in November and had a

MSF stall which was a great success, with huge interest shown and

all the flyers etc you sent us being taken home by over 200

delegates. At the conference we had Dr John Pratt, give a talk on his

experiences within MSF, which was greatly received and had an

excellent turn out. We were very thankful for his time and efforts.

The starved for attention campaign videos were also shown throughout the conference weekend to

raise awareness and support the campaign. During World AIDS Day the Hands OFF campaign was sent out to all students and staff within the

med school at Swansea.

Would like to hear more about/ from: Will the Living In Emergencies film be shown in Swansea?

Would Cardiff be interested in holding a joint fundraising event in 2011?

Contact email address: Anna Woodman – President: [email protected]

Webpages: www.msf.org.uk/swanseauniversitymedicalschool.friend Facebook group: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120904407933913&ref=ts

Trinity College Dublin: Contact: James De Boisanger - [email protected]

Ariella Abramovitch - [email protected]

University College London FoMSF News: We began the term with an workshop on

humanitarian aid and a freshers' social, followed by a

symposium evening a week later entitled "What can students

do for global health", with a range of high-profile speakers

including Sid Wong (MSF) and David Heymann (WHO).

We also held a lunchtime Pakistan fundraising event selling

food and raffle tickets, and offering henna art; together with

Jean-Marc Jacobs (MSF) talking to us about their work after the floods: these events raised just

under £450! We have also done bucket collections at various UCL plays and events, and held a

Christmas Pub Quiz to finish off the term.

During AIDS week we screened 'The Positive Ladies Soccer Club' and raised awareness about the

Hands Off campaign.

Our main focus this term is the 'Starved for Attention' campaign: at our launch event we screened

the films, offered Plumpy Nut samples, and encouraged members to sign the petition. We will be

raising money for the campaign this term at UCL's very own Battle of the Bands and at the medical

school Music Concert, and we are also holding a workshop entitled "Is aid dead", highlighting the

issue of malnutrition. We also have two more speaker events planned: Andy Dennis will be coming

to talk to us about his 'walk a2b', while Jean-Marc Jacobs will be talking in French about MSF's work

and his experiences. It has been a busy year!

Would like to hear more about/ from: We would love to hear from anyone who would like to

get more involved with any of our events! This term, much of our time and energy has been

dedicated to the Fun Run 2011 - so if you'd like to get more involved with the planning then do get

in touch with us at [email protected]! The run will be taking place on Sunday 20th March, a

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collaborated event between the Friends of MSF around London and the south-east England - do get

in touch!


Webpage: www.msf.org.uk/ucl.friend


University of East Anglia FoMSF: News: UEA FoMSF has held two speaker events so far this year,

both of which have been very well received with a great turnout.

We have held a bakesale which we raised just under £100 in and

are planning another very soon. In the summer we teamed up

with Cambridge for a Street collection, raising over £1000. We are

currently running an MSF tea towel project where we are making

year group tea towels, where everybody gets to draw their face,

and are planning to sell them raising money. We are involved in the UEA charity week where we

hope to do another bake sale and speaker event. We are also trying to team up with the drama

society to run some kind of sketch representing the work of MSF. We have had requests to do a

screening event of the documentaries about the work of MSF. Contact email address: Group President - [email protected]

Warwick FoMSF: News: Last term we showed "Triage", "Invisibles" & "Living in

Emergency", interspersed with talks discussing issues covered in the

films. We were pleased to invite Dr Helen Liebling Kalifani to talk

about her research in Uganda around the effects of sexual violence

on former child abductees in Uganda, & MSF speaker Alison Criado-

Perez, to talk about her experiences nursing in Colombia, Uganda &

Nigeria. Later in the spring term we are planning an Elective Photo Competition, talks on Sexual &

Reproductive health, & social fundraisers.

Would like to hear more about/ from: The future of NGOs taking into light the recent criticism

as to how much good NGO's actually do?


Facebook group: Warwick Friendsof Msf [sic]

Friends of MSF Group Updates - Feb 2011

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