Dear friends,
27 July 2019 marks a significant day in the history of Stiftunglife health care support in Myanmar. On this day the Stiftunglife Scholarship Program for medical school students was merged with Stiftunglife Swimming Doctors medical aid in the Irrawaddy Delta. In 2015 the idea was born to bring Stiftunglife medical school scholars aboard the ship "Swimming Doctors". After a thorough discussion with all people involved we are now happy to inform you that we were able to put all ideas to work and have sucessfully linked the "Stiftunglife Scholarships" and "Stiftunglife Swimming Doctors" programs. This new project is already in place and working. The first student to join this program was Nanda Zaw. The next 4 students will join the December 2019 and January 2020 mission of the ship. We are all hopeful that this project will be just another small step towards better health care in the beautiful country of Myanmar. To give you a impression of our inauguration event please klick the following link: https://youtu.be/2AYvvlBkqOg
And this is how it works:
1. It is mandatory for each Stiftunglife Medicine Student to serve a 3 week mission on Swimming Doctors. This is a prerequisite for scholarship funding after medical school, during the House Surgeon year.
2. Students in Nursing and Community Health are very much welcome to serve one mission aboard the ship. However they are not obliged to do so. Since they can apply for a fully paid job once they have commenced their education, there is no need for further funding through Stiftunglife at this point.
3. Students go aboard in pairs of two. Eligible times are the holidays in May each year (all students) and December each year (only for those who finished final part II and start their House Surgeon year in January the following year).
4. All students are obliged to participate in a "Whats app group" and other activities, together with all other fellow Stiftunglife scholars, within the city of their medical school. Khin is following up on the groups activities and has already set up groups of 5-6 students. Each group has a leading guardian. Usually this is a older student. jd