International Activities

Ideas to Inspire you!

Here is where you get ideas about activities you can do on the local level to celebrate World Refugee Day 2017. All activities are described below, so check them out and be sure to submit your work to us so that we could share it with millions of medical students around the world. 

Keep in mind that you can submit your contributions by emailing us at [email protected] until June 15, 2017 @ 23:59 GMT. Click on any of the icons below to browse submissions we’ve received.

Article and Poem submission

Your thoughts and ideas are our most important asset in SCORP. We would like to gather your insights on the topic, and share them with the world! Therefore, we now open the call for articles and poems.

Why not share your knowledge and opinions through an article or your feelings and perspective with a poem? You can submit an article or poem on any topic related to refugees and displacement – such as the struggles refugees face, what you can do as future healthcare professionals, refugee rights, experience being a refugee/displaced person, etc. Make sure your submissions are no longer than 600 words!

We are looking forward to hear from you! Send your submissions to [email protected], before June 15, 2017 @ 23:59 GMT, but keep in mind that we will assess and publish submissions continuously! Please include your name, age, and country and indicate if you want your submission to be published anonymously or not.

Can’t wait to see your amazing work! You can also review received submissions here.

Video Activity

In SCORP, we talk a lot about refugees and displaced persons. But do we talk to these people, and hear their own views on the situation? Conduct video interviews with relevant people, and submit these videos to us.

Instructions for IFMSA Members

• Reach the people you want to interview
  • Use contacts that you might already have. Your friend, your family or yourself might have refugee background? After all, around one in 115 people has been forcibly displaced.
  • Contact people you know or organisations who work with this target group to collaborate
  • You might want to give potential interviewees some time to think about their participation and have a look at the questions before the actual interview.
• What to ask (be sure to adapt the questions and the follow up depending on what the interviewee wants to talk about)
  • Where were you born? / Where are you from?
  • When and why did you to leave your country/home?
  • What do you do here? How is life here? How does a normal day look like for you?
  • What are the challenges you face living here?
  • What kind of things can you do here? Are there things that you cannot do, but that you’d like to do? (Access to services, opportunities)
    • If yes, what / why?
    • Have you needed any medical / health care service here? How was that?
  • Who/what (eg projects/activities) has helped you since you left your country? How?
  • What do you think youth and students can do to address challenges faced by refugees?
  • What would you like to do in the future?
  • What have you achieved since you came here? Are you happy with how it has turned out?
  • What do you think when you hear the term “refugee”?
  • Anything else you would like to talk about? / Anything else you want people to know? / Any other message for (medical) students around the world?
• How to film
  • A cell phone is fine but be sure to shoot in HD
  • Film in landscape to get the wide range of the camera (meaning that if you’re using a phone, hold it horizontally, not vertically)
  • Find a silent and private place
  • Film in a way with which the interviewee feels comfortable (distance, focus etc)
  • After the filming, let the interviewee watch and approve the video
• Instructions for submission
  • The interview can be conducted in any language but it should be submitted with subtitles if done in language other than English
  • Submit the video by sending your contribution to [email protected]
  • Deadline to submit the video: June 15, 2017 @ 23:59 GMT

We are looking forward to watching your videos.

Refugee Quiz Game: “In Someone’s SHoes”

This is an interactive story, where you will get an insight into the life of an asylum seeker and the challenges that she faces. You need to make decisions, and answer some questions. You can play it here.

Webinar

The World Refugee Day Webinar will take place on June 24, 2017 at 13:00 GMT!

Who are the speakers?

• Julia García Gozalbes from Médecins Sans Frontières will share her experiences and give you a glimpse of what medical work can look like at a refugee camp;
• Yahia Alkadri, who used to study medicine at Damascus University in Syria, will tell you about how he left his home to find a safer future, and the challenges that he faced;
• Our own Director on Human Rights and Peace Jessica Zhang will summarise some key facts related to the refugee situation today, and discuss the work done by SCORPions across the world;
• Our Liaison Officer on Human Rights and Peace Issues Majko will tell you more about advocacy, policy and the external work that we are doing.

Social Media

There are 21.3 million refugees in the World today and 51% are children. We as medical students should do our best to raise awareness about the struggles of refugees and advocate for their rights.

Social media is one of the most powerful tools we can use to spread a message and raise awareness. Here’s how you can use your social media pages and join the campaign.

• Change your Profile Picture to add the frame our Small Working Group has created. To do so, please visit this link.
• Change your Cover Picture and #defendtheright! Click here to find a collection of cover pictures for you to choose from.
• Share our infographics to help raise awareness. Find them here via this link.