Have you seen a Korean Drama called Goblin? Where is it? Canada, right? Yeah! And this year, the August Meeting was hosted by IFMSA Quebec in Montreal, Canada. August Meeting is one of the IFMSA General Assembly that serves as an event in which all of IFMSA member from around the globe, gather and empower each other medical students through the activities from the meeting. General Assembly gathers many medical students to create an innovative solution for many health problems that are currently happening in this world. The 68th August Meeting General Assembly IFMSA main theme this year “Social Accountability: Health Beyond the Hospital”.
Social accountability has been defined by the World Health Organization as “the Obligation of medical schools to direct their education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation they have the mandate to serve”. Based on equity and equality, social accountability allows us to direct our questions and decisions toward the ones with the greatest impact on health, using available and community resources, while working with all relevant stakeholders. As participants at the IFMSA August Meeting 2018, we were asked to think, debate, and discuss what health and healthcare mean for them outside the hospital. The discussion took place at the Theme event session with Professor David Gordon from World Federation of Medical Education and Nick Shockey from SPARC. The lucky persons that were chosen as the delegates from Indonesia were Nurul Gina Fadlillah (UNAND), Muhammad Gilang Dwi Putra (UNAND), Nadhira Haliza (UI), Deviena Nabilla (UI), Valencia Ayu (UNRI), Sylvie Dominic (UI), Adinda Permata P (YARSI), Khansa Khairunnisa (UB), I Gusti Novi (Warmadewa) and one of the Team of Officials, Vice President for Member, Satria Nur Sya’ban (UNAIR). We actively precipitated in all of the sessions since the Pre-GA, day 1 of the GA, until the closing ceremony and also the Post-GA. On the other hand, Indonesia got an opportunity to present SPORADIST from CIMSA-BEM KM FK UNAND for the activities fair. The project presented in this event was about disaster management.
The highlight of day 1 was the Opening Ceremony at the L’Olympia. The opening ceremony of the GA is a formal affair on the arrival day. It was marked as the official start of the General Assembly where the members of the Organizing Committee (OC), as well as those from the IFMSA Team of Officials (TO), were introduced. On Day 2, we started to join the morning sessions, consisted of SCO-Sessions, President Sessions, NMO Management Sessions and Regional sessions for having discussions or updates.
Also on this day, we attended National Food and Drinks, where we served some Indonesian cuisine such as rendang, nasi goreng, krupuk, and some snack. On Day 3 we had Exchange Fair for SCOPE and SCORE where every NMOs told us about their NMO’s condition and discussed some contracts with a poster. Another agenda is the theme event. It was about Social Accountability and was presented by IFMSA Alumni Dr. Lawrence LOH (former IFMSA Regional Director for Americas), Dr. Horacio is the Chief Public Health Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health and Social Services for The Government of Quebec and Dr. Usman from EAT Foundation (former IFMSA Vice President for External Affairs). On the following day, Day 4 we had EB Debate sessions and some joint sessions for each Standing Committee, for example, Ethically Volunteering, a joints session between SCOPE, SCORE, and SCORP. At the end of the day, we had a plenary session to see presentations from the Team of Official Candidates such as SCO Director candidates, EB candidates, and Liaison Officer candidates. On day 5, we presented one activity from Indonesia called SPORADIST by SCORP CIMSA-BEM KM FK UNAND among more than 45 other activities from other NMOs at the Activities Fair. The difference for this day was that we attended the contracts fair! That was the time where our Exchange Officer (NEOand NORE or Representative) came together with their peers to make contracts. Our Exchange Officers were very prepared with the poster, merchandise, and power point about Indonesia.
Day 6 was the last day of the meetings and at the plenary was the election of the Team of Officials and introduction of the new Team of Official 2018-2019. We’d say congratulations to Satria Nur Syaban from Indonesia for being elected as the Supervising Council of IFMSA 2018-2020. Finally, we had a closing ceremony and we sang together the IFMSA songs “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion as well as congratulations to “Mental Health Project” by AMSA-Hongkong as a winner of Rex Crossley Award. On our departure day, we had a trip to Quebec, Toronto and Niagara Falls. Overall, August Meeting 2018 was a life-changing experience to remember. I would like to say thanks to the Organizing Committee that has worked diligently providing the best GA ever. Personally, I also would like to thank all of the Indonesian delegates for being so enthusiast and cooperative. I am definitely grateful for having this opportunity as you will get the best of both worlds by joining IFMSA GA, knowledge and friendship. Let’s go to Slovenia 2019 for the next GA! Merci! See you at the next GA!
Muhammad Gilang Dwi Putra