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Khagendra
Vikram
Tribhuvan University
Kathmandu, Nepal
Currently South
Asian Student Representative
Expected Year of
Graduation: 2006
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Motivation
and Goals
International
Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is most probably the only
organization with
international recognition that considers medical students as integral
component
of it. Leading the movement of IPPNW is really a challenging job to do.
It’s
not as easy to accomplish as said since the IPPNW students comprise
students
from around the world representing diverse culture, thoughts,
languages,
ideologies and nationalities. But, the students have one thing in
common; they
strive for building a peaceful world, and want to work for peace,
health, human
rights, human dignity and disarmament. They want to ensure nuclear
disarmament
at international level for lasting peace in the world.
Invaluable
help and cooperation of
the friends from around the world and especially south Asia region have
encouraged me to run for the position of IMSR. Moreover, we share a
common
dream and goal that is to make this world a better place to live than
we have
now in terms of everything - peace, democracy and human rights.
But,
while we all are striving for
peace; we should try to imagine the agony of a person during war and
conflicts.
Most of the time we tend to ignore the suffering of a person and just
try to
talk in statistics. People are talking about peace which seems to be a
distant
dream as such. Unless we try to find the root causes of conflicts and
war and
resolve accordingly, we will be merely longing for peace that will only
be a
mirage.
Biography
I have been
involved with IPPNW student
movement for around two and half years. Initially I worked as the
national MSR
of Nepalese affiliate. For 5 months now, I have been involved as the
Regional
student representative (RSR) of south Asia region, because of
persistent
encouragement from the friends in the region and also the current IMSRs
to
consider assuming that position.
During my
involvement with IPPNW
students’ movement, I have worked at the national, regional and
international
level. At national level, I, with the help of friends, consolidated the
preexisting chapter and tried to make it more functioning. We started
organizing talk and interaction programs regularly once a month on
different
issues of health, human rights, peace and nuclear disarmament. We have
organized interaction programs on around a dozen important health and
human
right related issues. Besides, we also, for the first time, organized a
nation-wide
seminar on “Students’ for Peace and People’s Health” in which we talked
about
peace, conflict management, human rights and nuclear disarmament.
At regional
level, I worked as the
organizer of IPPNW regional meet held in Kathmandu, Nepal and tried to
coordinate students at regional level. Earlier this year, I joined the
IPPNW
delegation team to India and Pakistan, which talked to decision makers
in
respective countries. Later, I assumed the position of regional student
representative
and tried to reorganize the students’ movement in the region.
Organizing the
regional student meet on peace through nuclear disarmament is on the
pipeline.
At
international level, I have been working
actively to design a project on “Children and War”, and strengthen the
project
on “Brain Drain”. Besides, I have actively expressed my voice on
various
international issues and also been involved in planning the China meet
in one
way or other. I have personally shown interests in joining the NWIP,
which is
one of the best among students’ projects.
Currently a
fourth year student, I
have interests in writing as well. I have published a number of
articles in the
national press and also a few in the StudentBMJ and the Lancet at
international
level.
Few months
ago, I was selected to
represent the Student World Assembly in California, US along with a
dozen other
students from around the world. This is the organization of all
categories of
students worldwide, and works for global peace and democracy.
Plan
of
action
For next two
years, my priority will
be on the following:
1:
Strengthening the different existing student projects and making them
more
functioning and result–oriented.
-NWIP:
Since NWIP is one of the
best projects of the Student
Chapter, first priority will be to reach to the larger medical and
health care
students to build a group of aware and motivated activists to work for
nuclear disarmament.
-ReCap: Work for
making this
project go in full swing and making it
sustainable in long run
-MedEx:
Strengthen
this project to help students gain exposure to
diverse social and cultural perspective
-Other projects like Brain
Drain and Stranger and Strangeness
will all be made stronger
2. Resources management
-Look for necessary man
and
monetary resources to make these projects well-functioning
3. Partnership with other
organisations:
-Look for possible
partners to work in collaboration for achieving
common goals
-Strengthen relationship
with IFMSA
4. Organizational:
-Coordinate to
establish new student chapters around the world
-Make the
student chapters in the conflict and war affected areas more active
5. Participation:
-Ensure equal voice and
participation of all regions
especially those of developing and underdeveloped regions, so that, the student
movement will become more participatory and democratic.
-Look for necessary
funding resources to achieve this
6. Relationship with the
mother organization:
-Work hand in hand
with IPPNW to support its goals and philosophy.
