The International Federation of Medical Students’ Association IFMSA comprises  98 National Member Organizations from 91 countries on 6 continents and represents more
than 1 million medical students worldwide.
IFMSA was founded in May 1951 and is running by medical students on a non-profit basis.
IFMSA is recognized by the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) as the international forum of the medical students.
Two times a year, delegates from each country have possibility to participate in IFMSA General Assembly-March Meeting and August Meeting to present their projects and new ideas and to discuss them with the representatives from the regional IFMSA divisions from all over the world.
On March 7th, 2010, the 59th General Assembly March Meeting of IFMSA in Bangkok, Thailand,  was inaugurated. The  Medical University of Lodz is  officially represented by:

Małgorzata Żochowska-President of The Local Committee of Lodz,  and  Coordinator of the project "The Sexuality of Disabled Children"

Karolina Mroczkowska-General Delegate, presenter of DAPHNE project

Natalia Leśnik - National Officer of  Human Rights and Peace.

Attending each day of the March Meeting (MM) sessions, we have pleasure to share  with   you  our  achievements, experiences and impressions and we hope that  you would be interested in reviewing our daily short reports.

Your Sincerely,
Małgorzata Żochowska

7th March 2010 - The first day of  MM / 2010

After 15 hours of flight we finally arrived to Bangkok. We got only few hours to get ready to the Opening Ceremony. The ceremony was honored by the  presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn. She officially welcomed us in Thailand and than, added splendid to meet coordinators of the best four  projects of IFMSA. One of them was Polish project
"First Gynecological Consultation" represented by Katarzyna Żochowska and Marcin Bobiński.
After Opening Ceremony we enjoyed opening performance of  the Thai traditional dances from  the 4 regions of Thailand.

8th March 2010 - The second day of MM/ 2010

This day started with Standing Committees, NMO Management and Presidents’ Sessions. During the meetings we had a possibility to talk about the projects, ideas, goals.
We participated in some trainings and Small Workings Group exercises.
A very interesting part of the day was Theme Events. During this  General Assembly (GA)
we were able to learn more about "Complementary and alternative medicines" by taking
part in Hypnotherapy workshops led by Dr David J. Kopsky -the Dutch physician, acupuncturist, hypnotherapist from Expertise Centre for neuropathy and neuropathic pain.
The main goal of the day was to present our project during Project Fair. There were total 90 projects from the world and 9 of them from Poland. The Project Fair is an opportunity for the representatives to present  posters, leaflets, brochures, stickers and other kind of promotional materials about their activities.

In the evening we had a chance to admire the  Cultural Show.

9th March 2010 - The third day of  IFMSA March Meeting/2010 in Bangkok

Today I participated in Presidents Session together with IFMSA-Poland President Beata Syzuł. Presidents of almost 100 National Member Organizations discussed current  and the most vital problems of IFMSA as well as financial reports of March Meeting 2009 in Tunisia and August Meeting 2009 in Macedonia.
On National Members Organization Hour all Polish delegates had pleasure to present to all participants reports from the morning sessions. We also discussed about candidates to Team of Officials: President of the Federation, Vice President for Internal/External Affairs, Secretary General and Treasurer.
In the afternoon we attended different workshops. One of them was the Handover training.
I learned how to prepare new members to take over the function to continue our duties
in next term.
The other interesting  achievement of IFMSA-Poland was  Project Presentation. There are three sessions where some projects have the chance to show and promote.
Today we have presented "DAPHNE" and "First Gynecological Consultation".
The promotion movie for FGC was created by Justyna Szymczak from LC Łódź (Local Officer of Reproductive Health and AIDS).  On 11th March Umbrella Project will be presented. This project include two projects - Eating Disorders (Poland) and Fashion Show Against Anorexia and Bulimia (Mexico).
The Umbrella Project was created thanks to LC Łódź. I have learned about "Fashion Show" on August Meeting in Macedonia and decided to set it up in Łódź. Project Coordinators are Maria Krotewicz and Maria Stawirej. Thanks our hard work, National Officers from Poland and Mexico decided to create the new Transnational Project.
Actually two projects from IFMSA-Poland apply for The Transnational Project - The Umbrella Eating Disorders Project and DAPHNE. Tomorrow we get know delegates decision.
At the evening we could relax during National Food and Drinking Party. Polish cuisine was represented by original  kabanosy, oscypki, kwaszone ogórki, ptasie mleczko, apple-pie juice and more.

Reported by : Malgorzata Zochowska