THE GLOBAL VOLUNTEERING NETWORK
A party of 12 members of MegaReach including 10 medical students from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD) and Plymouth University, Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (PU PSMD) will be visiting the sunny shores of Sri Lanka from 09th July to 04th August 2015. This, our first major overseas trip, will have a twin educational and charity focus.
The educational focus, aims to train the medical students in Diagnostic Parasitology at the second oldest medical school in South Asia, the prestigious Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colombo. The charity programme involves three overlapping projects that are designed to make a real difference to two separate communities of people torn by prior ethnic strife, as well as bringing them together in an effort to create a foundation of trust and collaboration. A further arm, will seek to provide wheelchairs for a group of needy immobilised persons.
Please peruse this dropdown menu for more details on each of these initiatives.
A word from our Chief Blogger...
I started medical school in 2013 and had the privilege to have been present during the formation of the MegaReach group. The Sri Lanka expedition was one of the first projects to be conceived by the group, and it is astounding to witness the distance that we have covered since its initiation last November. With the project, we hope to develop ourselves in several different aspects.
Apart from attending a short course on diagnostic parasitology, we plan to contribute back to the community, both here in Plymouth and in Sri Lanka. As such, we have organised several events that include collaborations with the Laira Railway Social Club and HealthWatch, in order to fundraise for our expedition. With the number of events and projects occurring concurrently, we have created a blog and have integrated it as an important aspect of the group, where we will post reports of our events to maintain transparency.
Through our efforts with the blog, we hope to galvanise a global force for good. It serves as a platform for any well-wisher to discuss and comment about the projects that we run. In relation to our expedition to Sri Lanka, we hope that the blog will provide a stage where we can attract people who think alike, to initiate further long-term innovative and sustainable projects and continue to help Sri Lanka after our expedition.
However, we are a fairly new group and are still working hard to improve our methods and ideas. As such, the blog would also allow people to present any of their concerns, enquiries or advice. We are open to all ideas and comments, including constructive criticism, with the aim of learning from any mistakes.
The Sri Lanka expedition is definitely a project of great ambition, but one that I think is of great value and emphasises moral duty. It is for the peace of mind of those who have suffered on both sides of the civil unrest that occurred over the past 3 decades in Sri Lanka. It is for them that we cannot allow for the future generation to carry on the burden of hate. Nonetheless, we will not impose our views or beliefs, rather, we merely wish to provide a way for the ethnic groups to learn about and understand the views of the opposite party, in hopes of fostering a community of understanding, empathy and tolerance, and the eventual reconciliation of the people.
The MegaTrip to Sri Lanka
