In March 2003 Trygve Otterson from Norway, Richard Fristedt from Sweden and Caecilie B. Buhmann from Denmark travelled to India for 7 days. The delegation was arranged by IDPD physicians from Chennai and Sangamner, IDPD students from Hyderabad and IDPD Secretary General, Dr. Arun Mitra. The delegates undertook 5 dialogues at medical colleges in Chennai, Hyderabad and Sangamner, a 1-day training in Hyderabad and participated in a press conference in Chennai. A total of 25 students were trained and aproximately 600 students participated in dialogues.

The first delegation in the project set out with a tremendous experience bias between the delegates, both when it came to medicine and nuclear weapons. In spite of this heterogeneity, I think we succeed quite well in our primary task; to raise consciousness and train local students. The program was ambitious, and the attitude and response in the dialogues quite variable. However, we hardly ever faced a response of indifference, and that must be considered a sign of both goal attainment and not at least; promise.

 
Not in spite of, but much due to the mentioned heterogeneity between the delegates, the second intention of educating first time delegates on conducting dialogues was met. There is probably no better way learning than being an integral part of the delegation and learning by both watching and doing. For a first time delegate and novice, the trip was extremely informative in numerous ways.

 
Trygve Ottersen
Medical Student, Bergen

It was one and a half years ago that we at our college heard about the NWIP project, which was being led by Caecilie and Richard. Initially we had no idea of what the project’s aims were but after we came in contact with these students for the first time we got a faint idea and were inspired to start to work with it. As a part of the project we organized a conference where Dr. Ian Maddocks from Australia spoke to students about the need for them to form groups like ours. After this meeting many students were interested in joining the group. Then the international students came in the month of March 2003 and we organized the program in three places in India and there were a tremendous amount of medical and non-medical students that attended. We also formed a yahoo group to share information and communicate (nwip-india@yahoogroups.com).

 
The program of educating students regarding the various consequences of a nuclear war is an important step in preparing them to fight against the indecent and shameless proliferation of nuclear weapons. It does not only educate these students on the effects but also prepare them to address these issues in the future, raising their concerns with their colleagues. The project is an important link between the doctors and the students working in IPPNW - the doctors advocating the issues with decision makers and we, the students, (future doctors!) advocating these issues with the future decision-makers. It is, I believe, a good project but it requires committed people since it takes much time.

 
The Indian students were (and are!) interested in the program right from the  beginning, but do need the support of local doctors and some financial assistance to conduct these programs. The planning amongst students from the developing countries is particularly difficult because of the lack of proper communication. Even though communication is present it is only by e-mail and there is no personal contact. It might also be wise to have national meetings exclusively for students, since students have little time during the national seminar. The NWIP is well received among the Indian students but hard work needs to be done to ensure continuation of the activities if this project is to succeed in the end.

Naranath Reddy
Medical Student, Hyderabad

In October 2003 Christian Stampe and Caecilie B. Buhmann from Denmark participated in the MedSIN-UK National Conference in Nottingham where they undertook four workshops and gave a short presentation of the project. A total of 10 students were trained and the planned training in November was widely advertised. In November 2003 Hannu Vessari from Finland, Marieke Blokzijl from the Netherlands, Richard Fristedt from Sweden and Christian Stampe and Caecilie B. Buhmann from Denmark travelled to London for 5 days. The delegates undertook a 2-day training of 15 international and British students, met 25 students in dialogue and participated in Dialogues with Decision-Makers at various embassies of nuclear weapon states.

Planning for the Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project delegation to Nottingham and London, UK, Oct./Nov. 2003, I had the pleasure of being head of delegation and nurse the NWIP contacts with the British medical students international organization, MedSIN and the UK IPPNW affiliate, MedACT. The NWIP delegation to Nottingham, prior to the IPPNW dialogue with decisionmakers in London, was my idea, in order to attract attention to the project among medical students. Our presence at the meeting turned out to be a success, as we succeeded in getting a number of students involved in establishing a UK NWIP group. On a personal level, I gained a lot of experience from presenting the project to 200 students and being in charge of running four workshops on nuclear weapon issues in Nottingham.

 
During the London meeting, I participated in the training session of a number of international IPPNW students as well as students from various parts of the UK. We had our own agenda, separate from the IPPNW European Metting taking place at the same time, and in my opinion, we managed to inspire the people present, to continue working in the field of nuclear abolition and link with the NWIP.

 
The major drawback is the recurrent problem of not having enough time to plan training sessions properly, and preparing material ahead of every delegation. I hope to see a higher priority of both issues in the future development of the NWIP.

Christian Stampe
Medical Student, Copenhagen

In November 2003 Christin Ormhaug and Trygve Otterson from Norway and Caecilie B. Buhmann from Denmark travelled to Pakistan for 6 days. It was arranged by students from PDPD and IFMSA-Pakistan. The delegates undertook one dialogue at a medical college in Karachi and a 2-day training. A total of 40 students were trained and 100 students participated in the dialogue.

Being a NWIP Rookie, I travelled on my first mission to Karachi, Pakistan, in November 2003, together with Trygve from Norway and Caecilie from Denmark. As a newcomer I had planned to stay a little in the background, but since our fourth delegate fell ill, I suddenly had to step in and present the medical effects during the dialogue session. The participants were quite unruly, but after a little while I decided to try and step forward to address them more actively. It was a great pleasure to see that some of the most pro-nuclear students from that meeting actually turned up when we held the training sessions (again, with me being a teacher without ever having been a student). The training went quite well, and I would consider the trip a success.

 
What I have learned is that sometimes you just have to do things you thought you were not prepared for – and surprisingly often, it works out just fine. Be flexible, bring all your documents so that you can prepare during the trip, and use the training manual – bring it, read it and re-read it, because you find new learning points each time.

 
Christin Ormhaug
Sociologist, Oslo

The year 1998, is a year every citizen of Pakistan shall remember as that marked us on the map in many ways. We as a third world country, had become a nuclear power and everyone was proud of that fact. It was a well established defense mechanism.

 
Two years ago I was introduced to IPPNW and NWIP and by coincidence I was an organizer and part of the first seminar that was held in a local university hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002. For the past two years I have interacted with foreign medical students and attended conflict transformation workshops and conducted a training in Karachi, Pakistan. I never quite imagined myself working on such issues, as I thought I didn’t know how to, but I feel that as a member of health services it is my duty to spread the word of peace, work on unity and eradicate conflicts and find solutions by working on common grounds. I feel projects like this are fascinating and their concepts are quite ambitious! Of course we have to keep in mind that the process of establishing a forum where everyone agrees on decisions is not an easy task, but I believe that with a positive and open mind there is a lot that can be achieved!

 
So let us work together toward finding ideas and solutions that will help us to achieve nuclear disarmament and conflict resolutions that will lead to a brighter tomorrow for all humanity and peace on earth!

 
Nadia Umar
Student of Dentistry, Karachi

In January 2004 Caecilie B. Buhmann travelled to the USA to participate in the IFMSA-USA National Convention in Chicago. She undertook a dialogue with 75 students and a training with 15 students.

Despite the immense importance of meeting with American youth as part of the Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project it took us years to manage to get there. We tried to make contacts with US medical students through Student Physicians for Social Responsibility since the first year, but every time we thought we had promising contacts the plans fell apart. In the end the door that opened for us was through IFMSA.

 
NWIP have over the years attended a number of IFMSA international meetings and this resulted in an invitation to participate in the national convention for IFMSA-USA in Chicago in January 2004. To our surprise we were given time for a 2 hour dialogue with students as well as a 3 hour workshop. This was a relatively large chunk of the program of the 3-day congress. We had planned to send 3 delegates to Chicago – Naranath Reddy from India, Tariq Jawaid Alam from Pakistan and myself. This would be a wonderful opportunity for two of the most dedicated national student leaders of the NWIP to meet for the first time and to leave their fingerprint on what we recognized to be an invaluable opportunity for the project. Unfortunately one was prevented from travelling due to final exams and the other was not given a visa despite letters of invitation and recommendation from the congress organizers and the Swedish IPPNW affiliate. So in the end I found myself alone in Chicago. A rather unfortunate situation to be in when you consider it is the idea of the project to engage in dialogue and not to use traditional lecturing.

 
So I did what I could to clown my way through the dialogue and was happy to see an audience of around 75 students out of a couple of hundred attending the congress. The workshop also had good attendance and the group ended up with a plan to invite the NWIP to visit on a comprehensive delegation that could both train more students in a weekend workshop and meet students from several schools in dialogue during the stay.

 
Having spent years trying to find an opening to visit the US, I found it was a very positive and surprising experience to find that so many students at the convention who showed genuine interest in the topic of disarmament. I left with high hopes for the future and an understanding that it is not lack of dedication or interest that keeps the students from getting involved, it is a lack of knowledge about the nuclear dangers in the world of today. After the congress we managed to stay in contact with a number of the students I had met during the congress. Currently a group of students from PSR and IFMSA in Chicago are communicating with us about possibilities of us visiting in the coming year. We hope to see a couple of those students at the World Congress in Beijing and to link them with new contacts we have made to other anti-war student groups in the US.

 
Caecilie B. Buhmann
Medical Student, Copenhagen

The Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project was introduced to a number of American medical students and me during the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) United States National Convention from January 16th-18th, at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. The discussions were mediated by Caecilie Buhmann from Denmark, who provided an excellent introduction to the controversial subject of nuclear weaponry and its political and ethical implications for our generation as well as its place in the future of the global community.

 
The simple questions which appeared initially obvious, such as the necessity of nuclear weapons, and whether they should be used, led to more sinister implications of the reliance of modern governments on these weapons of mass destruction, and the vicious cycle in which countries use nuclear weapons as political negotiation tools as well as shields from outside aggression. However, the point of these discussions was not to discuss the politics of nuclear weapons, although they were an integral part; instead, a more fundamental approach was emphasized to the art of discussion itself. Caecilie, in a very organized, informative, and educational approach, taught us how to design a basic framework of how to involve the medical student community in discussing a topic that was previously thought by many to be easily solved by “getting rid of nuclear weapons”, when in fact such a suggestion is rather superficial in its scope and disregard for pragmatic outcomes of such a statement. The ultimate goal was to come up with ideas of how to gradually bring about the disarmament of nuclear weapons, from an academic level as students up to the higher echelons of government.

 
Ideas that were discussed in order to get the general community involved included discussing the effects of a nuclear war, the current international treaties regarding nuclear weapon use; the political power nuclear countries have in the international community, and the potential consequences of nuclear terrorism. Although it was a relatively basic approach, it was an excellent introduction to an extremely crucial and relevant topic that our world faces today. A Plan of Action was formulated at the end of the talks, in which possible discussion forum training sessions were to be planned in the States, in different regions, and NWIP delegates also planned on collaborating with interested student parties in the future as well.
 

Overall, I found the experience to be extremely intellectually fulfilling, and I would highly suggest it to anyone with a social conscience who wishes to find ways to relieve the already high international tensions that are straining relations between countries, especially in the United States with current world events. Although there is no simple solution, it does not mean we should not attempt for one.

 Eric Yang
Medical Student, Chicago