Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteering for non-profit organisations can be a worthwhile and rewarding experience. Despite busy schedules, medical students across the country are getting involved in community activities and helping to make a difference. This page is designed to give you a few ideas of the volunteer opportunities available to students in New Zealand!

The information given below is the experiences of individual medical students and is here to be a guide to help you find the volunteer activity that would suit you, and in no way reflects NZMSA’s position on the individual organisations.

If you are keen to get involved contact the various organisations and remember that every act, be it big or small, can make a difference!

Global Poverty Project

In 2009, our launch year, GPP had a myriad of achievements and exceeded even our own expectations:

  • 100+ Presentations in all major cities and towns across Australia and New Zealand, and showcase events in Toronto and New York
  • 16,000+ Attendees with an average audience size of 160 – the largest event being in Dunedin with 1000 attendees (over 1600 NZers signed up on GPP Website)
  • 18,000,000+ Media reach globally

This year we will be looking for people to help organise local presentations to community groups, business, school groups and others. We will also be training skilled presenters with a strong understanding of poverty will be sourced from communities and demographics across New Zealand to be trained to deliver the presentation (much like the Al Gore lectures that led to the movie an inconvenient truth).

Check out the website http://globalpovertyproject.com/ for more information. If you have any questions email Luisa.Schroder@globalpovertyproject.com.

Refugee Services

- By Elizabeth Carr, NZMSA President and Christchurch Medical School Student

http://www.refugeeservices.org.nz/

Refugee Services is Aotearoa-New Zealand’s principal refugee resettlement agency.

It is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation committed to supporting the successful resettlement of former refugees within a welcoming and inclusive society.

I started volunteering with RS in Christchurch this year. I attended 18 hours of training which took place on Saturdays and Wednesday evenings.

The (free) training was well organised, interesting and valuable for both working as a volunteer and also improving my clinical/cultural understanding of what a refugee might be experiencing when they arrive at hospital or in a GP practice.

I enjoyed the group of people I met and trained with. After training, volunteers are invited to work with a team of people to help resettle a family.

Key jobs include household management, education and learning english, and addressing health needs. Socialisation is very important to make the families feel welcoming, and is also quite fun!

Time Commitment

While there is some flexibility, and it is possible to work after school hours, the training and first month with the refugees is busy. It is important to commit to working with your team and people will depend on you to get you tasks done. Don’t offer to do more than you can manage, but it is definitely possible to help out, even while you are at medical school.

IFMSA Projects

The Uganda Village Project was created in February of 2003 as an initiative of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations. The IFMSA “Village Concept Project” model was designed in collaboration with the World Health Organization in 1986, whereby medical students and professionals essentially “adopt” a village in a developing country and work to assist this community over time.

IFMSA-USA has successfully applied this model to Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Village Concept Projects under IFMSA can be found from our links page.

http://www.ugandavillageproject.org/get-involved/

Sudan Tropical Exchange Project:

STEP is an internship in tropical diseases in which about 20 medical students  from allover the world come to learn about tropical diseases in Sudan and to enjoy the true African culture. STEP Is an IFMSA endorsed Project and Rex-Crossly award winner 2010 run conjointly by MedSIN-sudan and IFMSA-NL. It’s place every year in University of Khartoum Sudan. All the advents of the program along with the accommodation and every other thing including visa will be arranged by a devoted Organizing committee.

For more information check our page in facebook.com (Sudan Tropical Exchange Project ), or Mubashar Abugossi at medsin.step@gmail.com

Fiji Village Project

Can anyone give us a story? Please email nzmsa@nzmsa.org.nz.