International Student Projects

In the time since the Washington Congress, it has become clear that the IPPNW Medical Student constituency needs unifying and concrete projects that will supplement the more general medical student work conducted in partnership with physicians or in conjunction with the IFMSA. Recruitment and retention of a robust medical student community continues to challenge the student movement. It is our belief that several substantive, defined projects (representing the broad concerns of IPPNW medical students in different regions of the world) are essential to the health and strength of the movement.

The Cross-Regional Projects initiative will address two consequential challenges facing the IPPNW federation today:

extreme difficulty raising funds, and
expressing student concerns about an ambiguous student mandate.

We aim for these projects to follow the three-pronged approach of research, education, and advocacy. These projects will fall under four major categories:

Root Causes of War and Conflict
Local Consequences
Long-term Threats
Preventive Measures

On this page you will find current projects or those still under development. Please click on the corresponding links to the left to learn more about each of these projects.

Med Ex

MedEx is a multilateral student exchange program offered by IPPNW to our student members. With the help of our IPPNW affiliates around the world, we are able to offer students a unique exchange program which encompasses both clinical and social service experience. To date, we have opportunities available in Canada, Kenya, Philippines, Zambia, and Egypt. Programs will run for 8 weeks, with 4 weeks devoted to clinical work and the remaining 4 weeks with an IPPNW social service project.

Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Projects (NWIP)

The Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project is a student project of SLMK (Swedish Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) and IPPNW. The NWIP aims to provide information and start opinion building in nuclear weapon states amongst students and future decision-makers.

The core group consists of international medical students who participate in delegations to the nuclear weapon states. Furthermore, the project seeks to establish national groups of students in the nuclear weapon states who dialogue with peers on a continuous basis.

The international student group will form delegations to travel to the capitals of USA, Russia, India, Pakistan, China, UK and France. Dialogues with students take place at faculties of health sciences, political sciences and natural sciences. In addition to the dialogue activities, trainings of already active and future active students in dialogue technique and nuclear weapons basics are undertaken. The international group serve as resource persons for the national groups after delegations and recruit new members from the national groups as well as from the IPPNW student network. IPPNW physicians will be undertaking dialogues with decision-makers simultaneously with the students dialogues. This gives rich opportunity for interaction between students and physicians.

Target X

In our project Target X, medical students contribute to the international campaign to ban nuclear weapons and help raise awareness locally through public demonstrations. A large red "X", painted on the central square of your city, with white-coated medical students standing around it, handing out information material and engaging in discussions with passerbys can achieve what seminars and conferences never can.

Small Arms

This project is a pilot study conducted by student members of IPPNW in order to provide a comparative assessment of the global health and economic impact of small arms. The objectives are to:

Survey the morbidity and mortality directly related to the use of small arms
Determine the context out of which injures were incurred
Ascertain the economic burden on the health care system
Compare and contrast data obtained from 6 distinct regions: Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, Eastern Europe, North America, and Africa.
Involve IPPNW medical students in an international cooperative study that will culminate in data useful for influencing policies related to the sale and control of small arms

SPARC

The term "spreading the sparks" inspired this campaign. SPARC - Students Promoting Activism and Recruitment Campaign. A recruitment campaign, which would not only include students but also physicians from countries with low student participation, might be just the right way to ensure continuous student activity and lay the foundation for future generations of IPPNW physicians, while at the same time getting them acquainted directly with the experienced physician members.

Brain Drain

This project is a pilot study conducted by student members of IPPNW, a preliminary assessment of health care professional emigration from developing to developed countries. The objectives are to:

Survey medical students in our IPPNW chapters in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia as to their plans after graduation
Determine the context of health professional employment within the respective countries (opportunities, income, and continuing education)
Assess feasibility of emigration and admittance to health programs in Europe and North America
Have medical student chapters in Europe and North America survey foreign medical graduates studying or working there as to their reasons for immigrating and long-term plans (whether or not they plan to return, when and reasons for this decision)
Ascertain the social and economic impact of healthcare professional emigration
Compare and contrast data obtained from 4 distinct regions: Latin America, the Middle East, SouthAsia, and Africa from both the perspective of those wanting to leave and those whom have already left

Refugee Camp Project

Within this project, international medical students experienced one month in a Palestinian Refugee Camp. In the first 10 days an introduction into the social, political, cultural situation of the people in the refugee camps was given by Palestinian medical students at the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Afterwards, the social project was planned and prepared. Some examples include joining a medical health care project, and learning about educational and health awareness projects.

The rest of the month was spent at the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, where the participants not only recieved medical training, but also organized English classes and Drama activitities with children of the camp.

The project's aim was to draw a greater awareness to the actual situation in the refugee camps, to provide medical and social help to the refugees and to work towards non-violent conflict prevention.