I’m currently attending an early morning plenary session listening to medical students from medical schools around the globe describing some of their community engagement experiences which have inspired them and in some ways changed them as individuals.

An inspiring presentation by a 3rd year medical student from South Africa who has initiated an HIV education program for local schools in the hope that this will improve the perception about this illness which either affects or infects almost everybody in South Africa.

An illuminating presentation from a medical student from the Phillipines who undertook a community engagement project to improve the maternal mortality rate in a small rural community. They built a halfway house out of PET bottles so that mothers could deliver their babies in a safer environment.

At the end of these student presentations, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room and all students received a standing ovation. So very well deserved.

Laura Major

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2012 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Conference report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.