The EV Service Scholars Interns cordially invite you to…

All proceeds will go towards supporting students in China recovering from congenital heart diseases continue their education.

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Dr. James Orbinski

One of the speakers was Dr. James Orbinski, the former president of Medicins Sans Frontieres. The perspective that he shared was very different from what his colleague had discussed. For Dr. Orbinski, leadership was a dialogical space. The leader leads through the power of conversation and understanding those that he or she leads. The leader exists because of and for those he or she leads. It has been often seen in the past that the leader is a superior figure in the group that he or she leads, that he or she has all the power and calls all of the shots. However, this is not the case. The leader sees the needs and wants of whomever they lead, and acts accordingly.

In addition, in a group, there is also an official and an unofficial leader. In this case, the official leader should take into consideration the progress that the unofficial leader has made because there is a reason why this person has been considered the unofficial leader. This individual knows and understands the needs and concerns of the group, as he or she has approached members of the group on a more personal level.

Dr. Orbinski continued with a discussion concerning apathy. He explained that there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, and that this could seem overwhelming. However, it is important to realize that there isn’t one specific solution that could be applied to every single issue. The action required will be difficult, and will not necessarily solve the situation right away. Ultimately, it is important to see the world for what it really is – no better or worse than it actually is. Once this realistic view has been achieved, then will action and change be possible.

Karen Ngo

McMaster University

Toronto, ON

Team 5: International Health

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Participate in the telethon and join the Asian Liver Center and the Ping & Amy Chao Foundation in raising awareness about Hepatitis B!

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McMaster students at MonWHO

This year’s MonWHO topic of discussion was Child and Maternal Health. Before attending the conference, delegates were required to formulate a position paper outlining their country’s current actions concerning MDG4 and MDG5. The simulation lasted three days and two nights, consisting of two regional block times and two plenary sessions. There were four regional blocks – The Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The purpose of the two regional block times was for the countries within each region to amalgamate their ideas and create a working paper to present to the other regional blocks during the plenary session. During the plenary session, each of the regions discussed their working papers and pitched their ideas to the rest of the delegates. It seemed that the four working papers were very similar in content. Each region wanted to increase training of rural health workers, strengthen health systems, and improve communication between rural and urban areas.

During the course of the weekend, I represented the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos). Although initially I wanted to represent Vietnam, I reveled in the opportunity to learn about a country that I knew absolutely nothing about besides the fact that it was located geographically beside Vietnam. While writing my position paper, I realized that Laos had already implemented a few strategies to address child and maternal health. They were mainly focused on increasing the training of rural health workers.

During the regional blocks, I witnessed political power at its best. The delegates representing countries that seemed to have more political power, stability, and resources spoke up the most and had many ideas to suggest. The most outspoken delegate represented China. The delegate often suggested a myriad number of innovative policy ideas. In addition, another interesting aspect to note was the collaboration between the delegates from Afghanistan and Israel. They would often bring arguments concerning cultural and religious sensitivity to the table and the incorporation of religious beliefs into the suggested solutions. This often initiated a number of arguments as several countries did not want to discuss religion. At the end of the regional block, there were two working papers that were produced – one that addressed health systems strengthening and another that addressed the training of rural health care professionals.

During the first plenary session, again, delegates representing countries that had the most political power and resources spoke more frequently. These included Canada, the United States of America, China, and the United Kingdom. It was interesting to note how long it took to accomplish anything as there were a number of formalities that needed to be addressed before anything could be done. It is understood that the purpose of this was to ensure that all countries had a chance to speak and that no conflict concerning etiquette arose from the discussion.. The first plenary session ended after the presentation and discussion of all the working papers.

The second plenary session involved more debate and discussion regarding the working papers. Some countries felt that various clauses in each of the papers could be amalgamated in order to create one unified paper. However, it was again interesting to note how easily it became an issue of pride as opposed to practicality. Each of the countries wished to have power over which paper was finalized despite the fact that many of the papers were very similar and proposed policies that were exactly the same. The only difference was that they were worded differently. At the end of the plenary session, an agreement was finally reached and a resolution was made.

After experiencing the World Health Organization simulation, I wondered about the frustration that one must experience when working with the World Health Organization. I also pondered about the frustration that one must also experience when working with policy makers, national leaders, and global health leaders. This has run parallel with the perspective I have developed after learning about the formation of policies. The debate between the effectiveness of the top-down and bottom-up approaches has been ongoing. It seems to me that every individual who has expressed interest in global health has been discouraged at one point or another because of how the process of inducing top-down changes can be potentially difficult and slow. I was exasperated at how long it took to come to a conclusion at MonWHO, and I realized that perhaps it does take that long for the WHO Assembly to make decisions. It seemed that half of the conversation and discussion during the conference were formalities to ensure that none of the delegates felt offended.

However, after this experience, I realized my preference for the bottom-up, or grassroots approaches. I started realizing how important it was to empower people to advocate for themselves. This was after learning about Avaaz.org, a website where citizens can petition for causes that they believe in. The most touching means for empowerment that I learned about this semester was the Mother-to-Mother knowledge transfer that occurred in The Gambia when mothers used song and dance to demonstrate the importance of including the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the Gambian national vaccination program.

Participation in MonWHO helped me realize a number of aspects about global health that I had not considered before. Although I am intrigued by the formality of the World Health Organization and was able to learn a great deal about inducing change from a top-down approach, from this experience, I realized my preference for activity at the ground level.

Karen Ngo

Hamilton, ON

4th Year, BHSc

McMaster University

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Fundraising comes in several depending on both a person’s perspective and how money is attained. Here’s a list of a few fundraiser types that any organization can use as well as the benefits and drawbacks of using each type of fundraiser:

• Fundraising through selling products: This is an extremely common type of fundraiser. Usually this type of fundraising is done individually and through either carrying products with you to sell or to take orders by paper to be delivered at a later time. At my school, students usually purchase candy bars, popcorn, donuts, jewelry, or make baked goods to sell to other students as a fundraiser. On occasion, you may also see this type of fundraiser along sidewalks with people selling bouquets or fruit.

• BENEFIT: A lot of profit can be made off of this kind of typical and easy fundraiser if done often and with dedication. You learn how to be a better salesman and who is most likely to be a repeat customer.
• DRAWBACK: The product and the person demanding a certain product varies day-by-day. You could sell a lot of one kind of product for one day and sell out quickly, or you could sell little of another kind of product and not make any profit at all. Also, you are not only one trying to fundraise for something, so competition and competitive prices are problems to face.

• Fundraising through restaurants, cafes and other businesses: What some clubs tend to do to fundraise for any cause is through setting up a fundraiser with a small business like a restaurant, a bowling alley, an ice-skating rink, etc. To get a small business to help you with fundraising for a cause is to tell them directly what cause you are working for, where the money will go and how it will help out the cause and those in need. From what my school clubs have done, they usually call, email or meet up with the business manager and work out the date, time and financial issues concerning the event. Once all details are finalized, this is when club members begin to advertise. Flyers are put up, announcements are made, and if public advertising is a hit, so is the fundraiser.

• BENEFIT: This requires less work than individually vending some product for cash. Also, it is much easier to attend this kind of event with friends and family.
• DRAWBACK: Without decent advertising, this can be very unsuccessful when hardly anyone shows up. One result could be that the business makes little money, therefore you make little money. It’s also important to make sure you can trust the business manager. From my experience with fundraising, one business my club worked with ended up reaping little profit from a fundraiser that was actually a hit mainly due to miscommunication and possibly some trickery.

• Fundraising through recycling: This form of fundraising is particularly new today in how we can recycle a myriad of old products and receive some money out of it. What most schools already do is set up designated trash cans as recycling bins for paper, cans or bottles. Some clubs have set up recycling fundraisers for ink cartridges, old cell-phones, CDs, DVDs, glass, old antiques, toys, clothing and much more. As the saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” right?

• BENEFIT: You help the environment and make money for yourself. You also get rid of the clutter around your house, neighborhood and school.
• DRAWBACK: There might be difficulty finding organizations that are willing to recycle these products if you don’t know where to look. Some organizations require you to have an abundant or specific amount of recyclable items in order to actually pay you for what you want to recycle.

• Fundraising through donations: This can be the easiest or the most difficult kind of fundraiser. My club ran a fundraiser for trick-or-treat for UNICEF where we collected coins individually for charity. This is a very simple donation fundraiser. There are other organizations that set up websites where they ask a person to donate a certain amount of money that will be used for the cause in a certain way.

• BENEFIT: With a simple coin donation fundraiser, almost anyone from any class can donate. It’s easy, seems harmless and the amount of change grows in financial and physical weight.
• DRAWBACK: With certain donations that require electronic cash or a set amount for donating can lead to problems in how most people who want to fundraise for a cause may not have the resources or set amount of money to donate due to classism. In addition, having a set amount can be distasteful as opposed to just asking for any random donation.

These general fundraising ideas are the most commonly used amongst organizations and clubs. Trying to make a decision on which fundraising method to use always depends on how you measure success and the most beneficial for your group or for yourself. Just remember to have fun with making a difference, big or small.

Images from Google Images and by Adara Lui

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Introduce yourself (age, grade, school, favorite subject in school, hobbies, what you do in your spare time). “Hi my name is …..”

My name is Karina. I am 21 years old and a senior at Emory University. My favorite course while in college has been Contemporary Chinese Politics. More generally speaking, however, I enjoy anything related to international relations and political science. I enjoy photography and film, and chase my family’s new puppy around the neighborhood in my spare time.

When did you start the idea of doing community service? How did this all start?

Initially, I began volunteering because it was mandated by my high school in order to graduate. My passion for volunteering actually started when I went to China specifically to volunteer. I always loved playing with children, and I have a soft spot for orphans, so I decided to volunteer in orphanages for disabled orphans in China. Seeing the direct impact that my actions had on making the lives of the orphans a little brighter made me truly love volunteering.

Growing up, what are some of the events/reasons that lead you to see a need for this project?

Living in America, it seems that we are separated from many of the crises and disasters going on in the world. Furthermore, as young people, there is a stereotype that we are lazy, self-centered and materialistic. I hope that this conference will prove that at least some of the young people of today care about the problems happening in other countries.

What are you learning through the EVSS Internship so far?

I believe that I am learning a lot about leadership through this conference. Having to be prepared for each team meeting and organize conversation for an hour is a more difficult task than it seems. But I have a wonderful team and I think we’re working together equally and successfully.

What are your future dreams in regards to helping others?

I want to live my life as someone who brings hope to others. My future career will most likely be in academia and research, and even though those areas seem a bit more distant from professions that directly help others like the medical profession, they do inspire hope in the future and future generations. I want to help others more practically in my everyday life. This is a continual process of molding my actions into being a person that I truly want to be.

If you were to say something to inspire your peers to do the same, what would it be?

Patience. It’s so rare today, and it’s a golden quality if you possess it.

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“What I’ve experienced is that I can’t know the future. I can’t know if anything that I do will change what happens tomorrow. I can’t know with certainty, but what I do know is if I do nothing, nothing will change.” – Dr. James Orbinski, former president of Médicins Sans Frontières

Hey there! My name is Karen Ngo, and I hail from the city of Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada. I’m in the process of completing my fourth year in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program at McMaster University, but nowhere near to completing my education. I’m also completing a minor in music, an interest I have maintained since I was a confused child, tinkering away at the piano. I also like to stargaze, paint, and go swimming in my spare time.

I started out volunteering with Scouts Canada. On Christmas Eve about fifteen years ago, my group took part in a Christmas Wish Present delivery drive. The moment that stayed with me was seeing how the children laughed and smiled were when we delivered the presents to them. You could say that this was the first official volunteering experience I had with a particular organization because volunteering can be anything, even a six year old child wandering into my kitchen and asking her mother if she wanted help with making dinner. My parents introduced me to more organizations in my community, including one called the Huong Viet Music Group – a group which organized charity concerts to raise money to build houses, schools, and washrooms in Vietnam. Though at first their intent was to have me keep in touch with my roots, as I grew older, I realized that motivation for continued involvement in these groups came from reasons a bit deeper than that.

It is slightly difficult to explain the reasons for the pride and love I feel for my culture and home country, as after all, I was not born in Vietnam. I was born in Canada and all that I know about Vietnam is simply what I read on the internet, what my parents have told me, and whatever I have picked up from attending Vietnamese school. However, it is through these stories that I have developed a special place in my heart for my heritage and culture, despite having no real understanding or experience of the scorching heat during July, nor the difficulty of the backbreaking labour of those working in the rice paddies in the countryside. It comes from this – the fall of Saigon on April 30^th,1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War. Countless Vietnamese people fled from the country. After thirty five years, it is amazing to see how much the Vietnamese community has been rebuilt around the world by the displaced Vietnamese citizens.

Somewhere in Alajuela, Costa Rica

From the start of my internship with East Villagers in September, I have learned about the activity of various non-profit organizations around the world. My group members have provided insightful opinions and perspectives on their volunteering experiences. Most importantly, I have learned about the other side of a lot of the global issues I have been most concerned with. The only perspective that I have received is from those living outside Vietnam and so to be able to learn about the other side has provided me with a better understanding of the issue.

If anything, I’d say that it is impossible to live your life in a closed black box. Volunteering in different communities provides the opportunity to meet different people and broaden your horizons and perspectives on how you view the world. Everyone has so much to offer. There are only so many lessons you can learn individually or from a textbook, but there is so much more that life has to offer if you learn to live it outside of the box in the service of others.

Karen Ngo

Toronto, ON

4th Year, BHSc, McMaster University

Team 5: International Health

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