Working with IFMSA is one of the best experiences in my life! This is my first time to Europe, my first time taking part in international conference, but the best part is that it’s my first time to get to know so many people from different countries and to work together with them!
These days have been challenging for me, because I am not really familiar to how everything is working. Due to the language and cultural barriers, I have hard time expressing myself and getting along with people. I know there are differences between people from east and west, but it’s far more away than I had expected. Fortunately, people here are so nice and lovely and they help me get over it. I learned that cultural impact is not an impact, it’s an activation energy to get over and things get the chance to work out.
During the WHA, I got the chance to know how IFMSA is working through it. The debriefing taking place every night were extremely inspiring, I saw how hard people were working on advocacy, and the most amazing was to realize how much the youth can do. In fact, in Asia, we’re not taught to speak for ourselves, and we’re not taught to think independently.
Therefore, hearing people sharing what they have been doing during the whole day and whom they have been talking to is wonderful. I finally realize how powerful and influential the youth can be.
Everything in WHA and IFMSA is so new to me. I learned so many things in few days, absorbing like a sponge. It strongly motivates me to do start to do something. But to be more effective is to extend and sustain. Only when you start doing something back in your countries or in some other organizations after these events do the actions really matter and last.
Entry written by Ivy Chang, from Taiwan, China, IFMSA Delegate to WHA 68
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