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Alex Rosen
Heinrich-Heine
University
Düsseldorf,
Germany
Currently European Student Representative
Expected Year of Graduation: 2006
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Having begun my medical studies in Düsseldorf, Germany
in the year 2000, I've been a member of IPPNW for almost four years
now. Starting off by myself in
Düsseldorf, I eventually managed to find other students, equally
keen on expanding their horizon and set
up an IPPNW student group
at my university, which now numbers over twenty members. After two
years of organizing local and regional projects in Germany, meeting
fellow students form all over the country and writing for the IPPNW
student magazine I was, much to my own surprise, elected European
Student Representative during the Berlin conference in
2003.
As European Student Representative, I've had ample
opportunities to get to know the international student movement of
IPPNW. While my term has only lasted for a little more than a year now,
I've been to two European Student
Congresses, the last one in Dublin.
During these meetings,
I've held talks with many students from different countries, trying to
come up with ways to spread the IPPNW message and get more students
involved.
The job of European Rep has been far from boring. On the one
hand, it involved trying to establish networks between people working
on similar projects, on the other attempting to mediate between
opposing views in conflicts concerning the future of the IPPNW
student movement. By talking to so many different people, I've learned
a lot myself and have been inspired by the work of others over and over
again. However, I've also tried to pass on some of this enthusiasm to
others and have actively worked on starting
new IPPNW student groups in
countries like Spain, Poland, Bulgaria and Israel.
During my term, I was able to attend two international
IPPNW conferences in Berlin, the conference "Culture of Peace" in 2003
and the conference "Nuclear Power and Nuclear Arms" in 2004, where I
also had the opportunity to meet numerous physicians and medical
students form all over the world, who've been involved with IPPNW.
Together with Herman Spaanjard, the European Vice-President of IPPNW,
I've come up with the European
Student Recruitment Campaign, for which
I'm currently trying to organize funding. These conferences have given
me the opportunity to meet the physicians of IPPNW and hear their
views. I've also come to realize that the student movement is the big
hope for IPPNW and helping to shape it, a task worth the effort.
As webmaster of the new
international IPPNW student website, I've gotten to know a lot
about IPPNW, its
history, the people
who shape the movement, as well as current projects and campaigns. I
was able to communicate and work with motivating and
inspiring students from Brazil to Nepal, from Pakistan to Ireland and
from Canada to Egypt and also helped the different
international student projects, like the Nuclear Weapons Inheritance
Project (NWIP), creating and updating their websites.
I
worked very closely together with the Refugee Camp Project, helping
them set up their homepage, organize funding and advertise the
project internationally. Additionally, I've set up the MedEx-site,
working together on this with Ahmed and Proochista, but also with the
local organizers in the participating countries. Recently,
we've been working on creating a new MedEx site in Düsseldorf,
which will hopefully join the list of other MedEx-host cities by next
year.
Due to my prior experiences with
IPPNW and the numerous contacts, which I've managed to
establish in the past year, I think that I could, together with my
co-rep, start right where Ahmed and Proochista leave off in
September. Although these are some large footprints to fill, I believe
that, with their help as members of the BOT, we could managed to
continue their work.
Trying to define and structure the IPPNW
student movement, giving it a voice and bringing it closer together
than ever before are the tasks ahead. The website and mailing lists are
important tools in this process, as is the identification of our
"weaknesses" and the realization of our countless "strengths":
the possibilty of a better communication, students'
importance for IPPNW, and the new opportunity to offer
student projects with global participation, just to name a few.
More concrete goals include:
-
trying to extend funding and support for MedEx, as well as increasing
the number of host countries
- working to ensure regular
regional student meetings
- promoting the IPPNW student
movement, especially in countries wirth
little activity
- improving the tools for
effective networking (mailing lists and
website)
- reminding the elder
generations of IPPNW that the students and future
IPPNW-doctors are a great hope for the organization and deserve a
chance to actively participate and make their voices heard
I would very much like to have the opportunity to realize
some of the above-mentioned ideas and hope that you will give me this
chance with your vote ;-)
