OIR The target group of the Orphanage Initiative in Romania project are children from 3 to 18 years, living in state institutions. The project’s activity splits in two main periods: during the university school year and during the summer holiday.
Unfortunately, due to the security conditions, the project was brought to hold in the last 2 years. E-mail: melhimaa@gmail.com Website: lebrefugeeproject.tripod.com
During the school year, Romanian medical students try to have weekly activities with the children in one or two institutions in their city. The activities are chosen by the local coordinator and try to meet the children’s specific needs. Generally, there are activities that stimulate the creativity of the children trough games or workshops with specific themes, but alternated with educational discussions about hygiene, alcohol or drugs. During the summer holiday students from all over the world apply to join the project. They help the Romanian students and play with the children, participate in workshops and trips and other activities. The foreign student bring more stimulation to the children, due to the new culture they meet and also due to the language barriers they will have to overcome. With all these activities we want to help the orphan children to develop properly, botht physically and psychologically to become more social adopted teenagers and grown-ups. E-mail: oir@ifmsa.ro Website: www.ssmb.ro/oir
Palestinian Refugee Project The Palestinian Refugee Project in Lebanon was designed for foreign medical students to spend a month (July or August) of work in one of the refugee camps in Lebanon. The primary aim of the project is to expose the participating students directly to the refugees and to their problems by providing medical and social assistance in a camp hospital and NGO. Every summer, about 8 to 12 students participate in the project. 23 International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations
Peace Test Peace Test is a human rights and peace education project. It is based on an internationally conducted survey that uses a questionnaire that qualitatively measures youths’ attitudes towards human rights, violence, war and multiculturalism. The theory behind the questionnaire is called “the theory of moral disengagement”, which helps to understand how and why people commit violent acts. There are several methods by which people can even unintentionally separate their actions from inborn and learned moral regulations. Medical students conduct the survey, combine it with human rights and peace education, and publish the results. The main goal is to raise awareness about these issues among students and, through that, be one method of preventing violence and promoting tolerance and equality. We aim at opening discussion both among the youth and the general public about the topics mentioned above. We try to reduce the level of support both to individual and collective violence and to promote peaceful alternatives.