Medical Peace Work

Dear MPW students and friends:

We are excited to inform you about our first successful Medical Peace Work MOOC. In case you missed it: The second round will start on October 2, 2017.The six-week course will introduce you to some of the key concepts, opportunities and dilemmas in the field through six case studies on causes, responses, roles, and duties of healthcare practitioners in dealing with violence and building peaceful societies.

Furthermore, we invite you to join the „Health Through Peace“-Congress on September 4-6, 2017 in York, United Kingdom. Read more in this newsletter.

Best wishes

Angelika Wilmen

1. Successful MPW MOOC

2.200 students participated in the first round of our MOOC (massive open online course) on the role of healthcare in maintaining and building peaceful societies. The course included two hours of training per week and helped to understand how violence affects health in multiple ways and how medical peace work has an impact on health, violence prevention and peace-building. Many participants came from UK, Germany, Canada, USA, Kenya etc.

The next MOOC-round will take part on October 2, 2017. Register now at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/medical-peace-work


2. IPPNW World Congress - Health Through Peace 2017

On 4-6th September at the University of York, Medact is bringing together health professionals and peace activists to debate, educate and advocate on conflict and global insecurity at Health Through Peace 2017. Across a series of expert-led panels, workshops and academic sessions, the participants will discuss ways to achieve health through peace – exploring topics from war and nuclear weapons, to the refugee crisis and climate change.

As part of the congress a Medical Peace Work workshop will be offered on Wednesday September 6, from 11 am until 1 pm . The workshop will provide insights into the concepts of MPW, make participants familiar with the teaching material, and show them how they can get involved in teaching and practise. Stories from the field include the Massive Open Online Course, the experience from colleagues in Kenya and MPW activities in Kosovo.

More information, registration and programme: https://www.medact.org/project/forum-2017/
Full programme: https://www.medact.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Health-Through-Peace-Full-Programme.pdf  

    3. Healing under fire – medical peace work in the field

On August 9, 2017, the journal „Medicine, Conflict and Survival“ published the article „Healing under fire – medical peace work in the field“ from Louisa Chan Boegli and Maria Gabriella Arcadu. Both authors have been instrumental in defining and launching the World Health Organisation´s Health as a Bridge to Peace programme in the 1990s, and are now involved in the MPW partner organization 4Change, whose focus is on the education of health professionals in reducing violence and performing peacebuilding actions. In their article, Louisa Chan Boegli and Maria Gabriella Arcadu write about lessons from a project in Southern Thailand and three asessments carried out in Myanmar, along the Syrian Borders and in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Read more http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13623699.2017.1348098

4. Medical Peace Work at IFMSA´s General Assembly in Tanzania

The IFMSA's General Assembly in Tanzania ended on Monday the 7th August 2017. Kelvin Kibet, IPPNW Students Representative to the Board of the Kenya Association of Physicians and Medical Workers for Social Responsibility, presented the Medical Peace Work Project to students from more than 20 countries.