First F4F Shipment – Packing Party (August 8th 2010)

A year after its first ever meeting, and a mere 10 months after its official launch, the Friends4Fiji Initiative (a partnership between medical students of Victoria, Australia and Lautoka, Fiji) converged at Mannix College, Monash University on Sunday August 8 2010 for an historic packing party, marking the first and surely not the last shipment of medical textbooks, equipment and other learning resources for our pioneering colleagues at the fledgling Umanand Prasad School of Medicine in Saweni, Lautoka, Fiji Islands.

A handsome array of textbooks and equipment had been painstakingly collected by medical students of Monash, Melbourne and Deakin Universities, supplemented by donations from the Victorian Students Aid Project,  Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, Textbooks for Sudan and Engineers without Borders Monash, and countless other friends including the venerable Professor John Murtagh of Monash University.

This humble token of support and friendship for Fiji’s future medical practitioners was very gratefully received by the staff and students of the very new medical school, who were all present as the boxes were opened on August 13. “Fabulous, just fabulous” remarked Dr Fred Merchant, Professor of Surgery at UPSM, “your gifts will bring joy and happiness to all of us.” We look forward to photos from the opening in Fiji.

In our next post your humble narrator will report on his experiences in Fiji as part of the Sai Medical Camp and Conference. Run annually by a group of Australian medical practitioners in conjunction with Fijian doctors and medical students, the Camp organises a free medical clinic in and around rural Viti Levu, which provides a fantastic clinical placement for our colleagues at UPSM. This year a Monash student Matt Bray (F4F Chair) will join our UPSM student colleagues for a week, living with them. experiencing the camp together and sharing and comparing notes on what medical school is like across nations, cultures and oceans. It is hoped that in the future more F4F members will be able to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity in building links across the Pacific with our colleagues in this way.

Until our next post, keep smiling and sega na leqa (no worries!)

Matt Bray

Pictures of You, Pictures of Me Edition: Class Photo Fundraiser

Well friends we hope this update finds you happy, healthy and harmonious!

For many of our readers this new semester represents their last on campus. Soon enough we’ll be flung to to the farthest reaches of Victoria in pursuit of our medical aspirations! It’s been a fantastic year and a half, surrounded by so many talented, fun, interesting future doctors.

Wouldn’t it be great to preserve the memories of these great colleagues, some of who you may not see again until graduation, or perhaps even later for those who will defer, do honours, or in the case of your humble narrator, probably repeat?

Well the sentimental folks on the Friends4Fiji committee have come up with a fantastic idea for MED2 nostalgia, and a great fundraiser for our upcoming Fiji Trip in August: a Year 2 Class Photo!

Now obviously, trying to get everyone together to take a photo would be a logistical nightmare, so instead here’s how we’re going to do it:

(1) You (or a friend/parent/sibling/pet) take a lovely photo of you (your face and shoulders will suffice) against a plain white background. It can be funny or serious, howsoever you wish to be remembered!

(2) Email the picture you want used in the class photo to year2photo@gmail.com, with your name as you want it written. Friends4Fiji then collates all your happy faces onto one A3 poster for purchase in Semester 2!

(3) If you want to be on the poster you have to send in your pics! If you only want your name, thats okay too, just email us to let us know!

We want to create a high quality keepsake of these precious years of social interactions, before the hospital system and ruthless hours make these but distant memories. Get excited, get snapping, and remember this is all for a fantastic cause – supporting our colleagues at the rural Umanand Prasad School of Medicine in Fiji.

Don’t hesitate to post your excitement or questions here and we’ll be sure to respond as soon as possible

Thanks for your support as always

F4F Committee