Current and former presidents, Aimee Lawton and Joey Brooke, talk to us about Friends of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) and what it’s like running a student society representing one of the largest medical humanitarian organisations.
Friend of MSF Edinburgh is in a period of transition, as all societies are at this time of year, as we say thank you and goodbye to our old committee, and welcome our new members with open arms (from a 2m distance). Time to take stock of the year, and start thinking of fun events for the forthcoming months.
Like all societies this year, we have battled with Teams links, accidentally muted ourselves whilst introducing guest speakers, and tried to negotiate running an AGM online, but most importantly we made it through and we are excited for sociable barbecues on the meadows, film evenings (in person), mapathons (where we can actually share the pizza) and many more!
What do we do?
We are the Edinburgh branch of the collective known as ‘Friends of MSF’. As MSF only takes experienced and trained medics, these student branches of MSF UK offer a great way for students to get to understand the organisation and learn what they do, whilst contributing to the cause by raising awareness.
In pre-COVID times, we held our annual Jazz night with Edinburgh University Jazz Orchestra (EUJO) which always sells out and great fun. We put on social events throughout the year, like pub quizzes, with all the proceeds going to MSF
Being part of MSF isn’t just about fundraising, in fact the majority of work is about engaging people in topics related to humanitarian aid and global health topics. The main event in our calendar year is our annual conference, where guest speakers from MSF address our audience alongside academics, giving us an insight into their experiences in the field and giving food for thought.
We love to collaborate with other societies, like our recent online-event ‘MSF-ics’, where we teamed up with the Edinburgh University Medical Ethics and Humanities Society to host a fantastic panel of speakers discussing the ethical dilemmas humanitarian aid workers can face.
What inspires us?
I’ve been involved in MSF for the majority of my time at Edinburgh, and no matter how many speakers I have heard tell us about their experience, I always leave having learnt something new, and feeling somewhat full of awe and hope again. It’s very easy when you’re studying medicine to get bogged down in the details you have to learn for exams, and these talks provide the opportunity to remind me what the end goal is – helping people however you can.
Our favourite society meet up place…
Sadly COVID-19 has put a bit of a dampener on this tradition, but we would go out for a committee hand-over dinner at 10 to 10 in Delhi, and we always love a good potluck gathering!
If our society were a drink, what would it be?
A masala chai because we’re warm and wholesome.
Fancy getting involved:
You can sign up to get our fortnightly emails, which will keep you up-to-date with what’s going on with us in Edinburgh and the larger MSF campaigns.
If you want to drop us an email, our address is: fomsfedinburgh@gmail.com
You can find us on social media here:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Our EUSA page is here, where you can join our society for free.
Lovely write up. Really great to hear the society continuing to thrive, engage and inspire in the face of the pandemic. Hope you can get one last AGM at 10to10 before you all graduate!