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IPPNW-Students Finland Reports
2004
Many activities of IPPNW students in Finland have been organised in co-operation with the national affiliate of IPPNW in Finland, PSR (Physicians for Social Responsibility) Finland, and with FiMSIC, the national affiliate of IFMSA in Finland. On a national level, three national seminars for medical students were organised: one about refugees and medical practice, one about HIV/aids and one about drugs. The aim was to provide information about important topics that have so far been poorly covered in the Finnish medical curriculum; consequently, all the seminars gathered plenty of interested students together.
Peace Test is an international study coordinated by the University of Texas, aiming to investigate teenagers’ attitudes towards peace, violence and racism. In Finland, 500 teenagers from four cities answered to the Peace Test questionnary, and, afterwards, IPPNW students led a discussion about the questions in the classrooms. The answers were collected and analysed in a report which clearly showed that peace education is needed in schools. IPPNW students also gave sexual education in secondary schools. Seminars about reproductive health and sexual education were organised for educators.
Local activities were numerous and diverse - they included organising teach-ins and information campaigns about contemporary matters (e.g. HIV/aids, iv drugs) for medical students, singing and playing music in rest-homes (!), selling PSR-Finland T-shirts (“The world is not saved. Do you want to save it now?”), collecting medical text books to Tansania and organising blood donation competitions. One of the most succesful and best-loved project was to arrange teddy bear hospitals to nurseries, with first-year medical students playing doctors and children taking their teddy bear to see a doctor. Finnish IPPNW students participated to the IPPPNW students’ European meeting in Berlin. One IPPNW student also attended the Dialogue-seminar in London, as Finnish IPPNW students are planning to start the Dialogue project in Finland as well.
As PSR Finland is a largely student-run organisation, IPPNW students have also been very actively involved in the international activities of PSR Finland (including development-co-operation projects, organisation of an international course on global health etc.). In the near future, planning the student activities for the IPPNW World Conference 2006 in Helsinki will be a major task for Finnish IPPNW students. In addition, plans for starting the Dialogue project in Finland have been made. This is not to say that all the projects mentioned above would not be continued…
2005
Students are very active in Finland, have participated in all European conferences and are right now busily preparing the student conference in Helsinki next year. On a local level, cooperation between IPPNW students and IFMSA is high, to a point where the two groups are identical at some universities. The Finnish students have developed a Peace Test, which they use to measure political and pacifist attitudes and trends amongst high school students and have been able to export this test to other countries, where it is actively being used by IFMSA. Due to the high level of support from the Finnish affiliate and the motivation of the students, the future of this student chapter is indeed looking good, with a steady growth in membership and students who might go on to become active within the physicians’ IPPNW as well.
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