Medical Students’ Humanitarian Campaign – Norway (NMSA)

Name of the activity: Medical Students’ Humanitarian Campaign

Country/NMO: Norway (NMSA)

Program: Emergency, Disaster Risk & Humanitarian Action

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

General description:

The medical students’ humanitarian campaign (MedHum) is working together with UNICEF to support their Makani – My space project. The project supports innovative health and learning centers in Jordan that provide psychosocial support, basic education and primary health services to Syrian refugee children and youth living in Jordan.
Syrian refugee children have been affected by the Syrian crisis through the death of loved ones or the loss of homes and communities. These children are at an increased risk for early marriage, child labor and recruitment to armed groups. Access to Makani centers promote psychosocial wellbeing in a safe environment where these children are surrounded by others with similar experiences. The children develop life skills and coping mechanisms and learn to support one another.
Makani centers focus on providing children with opportunities for active participation in constructive social change. The children and youth learn important life skills, such as teamwork, communication, leadership and creative thinking, to help them make a positive difference in their own lives and communities.

Focus area:

Access to care in disaster/emergency contexts

Problem statement:

According to the UNHRC, there are over 650,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan and over half of these are children. Jordanian health, education and child protection resources are overburdened, and the Syrian refugee crisis has made it even more difficult to provide refugees with the help they need.
Children are a vulnerable group that needs special protection during humanitarian crises. They are at an increased risk for early marriage, child labor and recruitment to armed groups. It is important to ensure access to primary health care and education.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Our primary target group is the Syrian children refugees in Jordan. We hope to provide them with access to health and learning centers.
Our second target group is the Norwegian medical students. We believe Norwegian medical students know too little about the Syrian crisis and its effect on children and youth.

Objectives and indicators of success:

We are cooperating with UNICEF to support their health and learning centers in Jordan that provide psychosocial support, basic education and primary health care services to children and youth from Syria who have been forced to flee to Jordan.
Our primary goal is to support these children by providing a safe place to connect, learn and play in a healthy and clean environment. Our second goal is to inform and engage medical students about the Syrian crisis and how we can help.
To achieve these two goals, we set clear objectives for our project. Our first objective is that we want to give 1,350 Syrian children access to a Makani center for one year by raising 2,500,000 Norwegian kroner by January 2019. 2.5 million NOK is an ambitious, but achievable sum for our campaign.
Our second indicator is based on participation of medical students. We want active participation at our events, as well as clear interest for board positions in MedHum on both the local and national level. This involves over 100 students participating at single events and at least 3 applicants for each local and national position.

Methodology:

MedHum is built upon a clear structure. We are an integral part of the Norwegian medical students’ association (NMSA), which again is under the Norwegian doctors’ association. We have a national board that consists of nine board members, responsible for PR, fundraising, finance, and event planning on the national level. We also have four local boards in the four cities of Norway that provide medical education, which are responsible for all local activities and fundraising. The national board and the four local boards together make up a total of 55 board members.
MedHum´s work with UNICEF and ”Makani My-space” will last for two years. This first year is a planning year, while the next year is the official campaign year where there will be a campaign week in September 2018. In the planning year we raise as much awareness for the project leading up to the campaign week, by arranging a lot of fun activities..
In the campaign year, the main happening is the campaign week. This is a week full of activities, social gatherings, contests, all happening for one reason; to reach our goals of collecting 2,500,000 NOK and informing, motivating and engaging medical students.

Plans for evaluation:

We plan to evaluate the impact of our activity based on our goals and indicators. Here are the concrete points we will be able to report on when we are evaluating our activity:
1. Total amount raised and donated to the Makani project in Jordan
2. Number of children who have gained access to a Makani center, and for how long
3. Average number of applications for each board position
4. Average number of participants at local and national events
For fundraising, we use a mobile app called vipps that allows us to have up-to-date insight into when, where and how much money we have raised. That helps us evaluate each local and national event and social media campaign, which allows us to learn more about what is most effective.
By measuring participation and applications, we will be able to get an idea on how many medical students we have reached with our work. This is an important outcome for us, as we hope to inspire and educate as many as possible.