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

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

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Bula Friends4Fiji,

We hope this update finds you happy, healthy, and harmonious. It’s been a long time between updates because we’ve been so busy at F4F building the groundwork for a great year of partnership with our colleagues at the Umanand Prasad School of Medicine in Saweni, Fiji, hence we now have time to fill you in on all the ongoings in this “Calm AFTER the Storm Edition”. Of course, if you’ve been following the news you’d also be aware of the recent Tropical Cyclone Tomasi which struck rural areas in the Northern and Eastern Island groups, notably Vanua Levu (the second largest island in the country) and the Lau Group. Thankfully our colleagues at UPSM and their families weathered the storm with minimal damage and flooding but their countrymen and women are certainly in our thoughts as the rebuilding efforts commence thanks to support from the Australian and New Zealand governments. Fijians are hopeful and resilient people, and very used to tropical cyclones like this so will band together in support of one another and pull through.

Networking
The Friends4Fiji Committee has been busy at work building a network of businesses, doctors and medical students across the state dedicated to enriching the education of Fiji’s future doctors and through them the health and wellbeing of the long-suffering people of Fiji, especially the rural poor. We have distributed far and wide our prospectus in the hope of attracting donations of textbooks, equipment and funds to send over to Fiji this August. If you have connections who you think would be interested in helping us out by donating resources, money or time, get in touch with us at Friends4Fiji@gmail.com!

Our Friends and Colleagues: Fiji's future doctors at Umanand Prasad School of Medicine

Fiji Volunteer Trip – August 2010
Our collection deadline for texts and equipment for our colleagues in Fiji is this coming August as members of Friends4Fiji committee will travel there in our first volunteer trip! We will meet and travel with our Fijian partners at UPSM and a group of Australian medical practitioners who will hold a week of free medical clinics for the rural poor of Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu. This exciting opportunity will be extended into the future, so your support is vital to the success of our first trip and to the viability of future activities. Be sure to spread the good word of F4F and build up our support base with your colleagues and friends!

Upcoming Events

AMA Victoria Seminar: “Working Overseas in Crisis Areas”

Tuesday April 13th [6.30pm]

Friends4Fiji has been invited to present at this seminar held at the HQ of the AMA in Victoria! A must for those interested in humanitarian work overseas, this free member seminar at AMA House will provide you with all you need to know about equipping yourself to work overseas and the preparation needed beforehand. Come along, hear some great speakers and support F4F!

Friends4Fiji OSCE Training Workshops
In late May, F4F will be holding an OSCE training day for 1st Year students, run by later year students with advice on how to maximise your results in an OSCE, as well as to learn more about our partnership in Fiji and fundraise for the cause. Be sure to join this group to stay up-to-date with the latest progress and registation information.

Semester One Function
Plans are underway for a Semester One FUN-raiser for preclinical and clinical students. We’ll keep you posted: if you have any ideas or suggestions don’t hesitate to be in touch at Friends4Fiji@gmail.com

Meetings
Friends4Fiji meets every 2 weeks and are open to any and all interested people. Don’t hesitate to email us at Friends4Fiji@gmail.com to find out whenw we’re next meeting! We are always looking for more talented, dynamic meddies with a passion for people and improving health in our region! Bring your ideas and energy!
Until next we meet, Sega na leqa (“no worries” in Fijian)

Friends4Fiji

What we’re looking for?

Our friends at UPSM work very hard, up to 9 hours/day in formation for a life of service in the medical profession. However much of their education stems from the clinical experience of their dedicated teaching staff. To supplement that great first hand resource, we hope to provide a collection of new and second hand medical resources as per the wishlist below:

• Medical textbooks
• Medical DVDs / CDs
• Medical novels / nonfiction
• Posters / models
• Stethoscopes/sphygmomanometers
• Otoscope/opthalmoscopes
• Percussion hammers, tuning forks
• X-rays (normal and pathological)
• Scrubs

The primary focus of our fundraising will be to provide quality textbooks and basic diagnostic equipment but we welcome all donations and subsidies from medical professionals and the private sector. In addition to those articles listed in the wishlist, we invite donations or subsidy of things which may enable us to fundraise, such as:

• Auction and Raffle Prizes
• Printing
• Function venues
• Catering
• Funds

What you get in return?

Donors who make a contribution in value exceeding $50 receive a thanks certificate to display in their workplace.

Contributions in excess of $100 are marked by written acknowledgement in all future print and online publications.

Contributors whose donation values in excess of $200 get an A5 advertising spot online and in all F4F printing.

Exposure of your practice/product to a large network of Melbourne doctors, medical students and supporters.

How to donate to Friends4Fiji

Cheque donations can be made out to “Ignite Inc“ and sent into Friends4Fiji, PO Box 8184, Monash University  VIC  3800

Electronic Funds Transfers can be made in favour of Account 25-5015, BSB 033-090 at Westpac Clayton, with narrative “Friends4Fiji Donation [Insert Your Name Here]

Should you have any questions wish to donate goods such as textbooks or equipment please don’t hesitate to contact F4F Chairperson, Matt Bray directly at friends4fiji@gmail.com or on 0416289310 and if you like we can collect your resources from wherever suits you in Melbourne.

Well it’s been a long time between drinks but this is your End-of-Semester update on the activities of your favourite grassroots, student-run, international aid partnership. We hope all your study paid off and that you’re enjoying the fruits of your labour and the spectacular weather. If you’re yet to finish, can’t wait to see you on this side of Exam-ville.

It may seem that we’ve been a little quiet here @ F4F, a little antisocial perhaps (hey you had exams on too and were probs much the same!) but fear not, we’ve merely been concentrating our energies on preparing the array of F4F fundraising initiatives and events that you’ll see in 2010.

With Christmas, Tet, Kwanzaa and Hanukah looming up around the corner, you may be wondering what gifts to get your various medical tutors, lecturers, GPs and med student colleagues? First up, have you heard of Oxfam Unwrapped? (Check it out at www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au) Well we’ve adapted this idea for F4F, but instead of buying a goat in Africa for your medical friends, you can buy various cards which correspond with various texts, equipment and services to support our rural medical colleagues at the Umanand Prasad School of Medicine in Saweni, Fiji! How cool is that? For more information or to express interest hit us up with an email at friends4fiji@gmail.com

We’ve also started appealing for donations of texts and equipment from the many academic staff and lecturers we learn from (Imagine if we 20 SIGNED copies of J Kerr’s “Atlas of Histology”?) and figured this may be a good opportunity for you to get in on the act! We know MANY medical students come from families with medical parents and siblings. Got their text books lying around? Unused steths or sphygs, hammers or forks? You may not even realise how helpful these things may be for our friends in Fiji? Imagine those annoying old books flying to the far flung corners of the Pacific through your donation to our cause. Your donations, however big or small, will make a difference to the education of Fiji’s future medical workforce and the care they provide to their poorer compatriots. Be imaginative, have a bit of a rummage around, and if you espy anything you/your parents/siblings may wish to donate to the cause, give us a yell at friends4fiji@gmail.com. Irrespective of one’s personal beliefs, what a Christmas present it would be to donate your knowledge and privilege to the future of Fiji.

Well thats enough from us for now! Keep posted for more news on the F4F Gift Card fundraiser, plus upcoming events for 2010 like the Ignite/F4F O-Week Beach Party (all years), Booze Cruise and F4F Gala Ball later in Semester One.

If you have any questions, ideas or criticisms, hit us up at Friends4Fiji@gmail.com. Until next we meet, stay outta trouble and keep smiling!
Sega na leqa (“no worries” in Fijian)

Friends4FIJI

Delicious food.
Fabulous company.
High-brow conversation.
Incredible speakers.
Thrilling raffles and door prizes.
Cultural items.

A good cause and a great night out!

Ignite Global Health Group and the Friends4Fiji Initiative invite you to join us for the

Ignite Annual Dinner and Friends4Fiji Initiative Launch
Thursday 8th October 2009
Gopal’s Vegetarian Restaurant
1st Floor, 139 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Programme commences at 6.30pm

Theme: Indian/Fijian
Tickets: $20, available at Clayton campus and Ignite and F4F reps
For more details email Friends4Fiji@gmail.com

The Initiative was started in July 2009 by a group of enthusiastic first year medical students at Monash University, Melbourne, after attending a global health conference that invited them to “Challenge Your World”. Through personal networks, they’ve established connections with fellow medical students at the exciting, new but rural and under-resourced University of Fiji Medical School in Saweni, Fiji Islands.

Why Fiji? Because, in the shadow of the 5 star hotels and waterfront resorts, a crisis is looming.…

Fiji is in desperate need of more doctors. The ratio of doctors to citizens is already 5 times lower than that of Australia and New Zealand, and that workforce shortage is only worsening as more graduates leave Fiji for larger Western lifestyles and salaries. Couple this with a booming poverty rate (conservative estimates suggest 46% of the population) and a highly unstable political state, we see an untenable situation. The opening of University of Fiji’s School of Medicine provides a great opportunity to better the status quo for Fiji’s people.

We in the first world are so very privileged to have access to an exceptional, affordable education. By partnering with fellow medical students in less fortunate countries, we have the opportunity to support and enrich their learning, and in turn the health of the long-suffering people of Fiji, with the bounty of resources and talents we have at our disposal.

The goal of the “Friends4Fiji” Initiative is, at this stage, to provide medical equipment and other learning resources to the University of Fiji School of Medicine. We’re looking to obtain standard diagnostic tools (stethoscopes, otoscopes, sphygmomanometers, percussion hammers, tuning forks etc.) plus surgical scrubs, xrays, textbooks and videos, and anything else anyone would be willing to contribute to Fiji’s future medical force.

We are currently assessing how to approach this mammoth but inviting task. ALL offers of assistance and volunteers are more than welcome. In addition, we’ll soon be looking to engage corporate sponsors for some massive upcoming events. Any interested parties are invited to email us at friends4fiji@gmail.com

Please stay tuned as this exciting campaign is only just getting underway…. Vinaka Vakalevu!

Matt Bray