The Basics

Development Corps: This is a brand-new initiative being planned right here at MEDLIFE McGill!  During our mobile clinic trips, students usually get an opportunity to help build something for the community – a development project.  Our hope is to expand on that project and give students interested in the development side of MEDLIFE’s mission a chance to first use whatever knowledge they have to plan a project, and then get their hands dirty while they build it in Ecuador or Peru!  We’re planning this with the hope that we’ll get our first Development Corps brigade down to South American this summer.  This kind of hands-on experience will be invaluable for anyone interested in development, especially for engineering students.

Fundraising: We have so many fundraising projects coming up!

1. We’re planning a trivia night at Gert’s this Friday! Entry will be by donation, and we’re offering a free pitcher for the winners of every round! Bring your friends, and together you might have an unbeatable knowledge base.
2. We’ll be promoting our Development Corps project at McConnell on February 4th, either selling samosas or candy while also distributing information on our trip.
3. We’ll be back at Gert’s for one last hurrah before March break starts up!  Friday, March 1st we’ll be holding a themed Gert’s night – and we could really use some theme suggestions, by the way, so inbox any and all to medlife.mcgill@gmail.com.
4. We’re hoping to do a club night soon – potentially take over Tokyo for a Thursday night.

MEDx Talks: MEDx Talks sprung from a TEDx talk given by Daniela Papi where she explains what is wrong with volunteer tourism and what can be done to help fix it. She (and we) believes that a lot of good can come from structured discussions before a foreign aid experience.  In that spirit, we’d like to start up a series of 10 – 20 minute talks, given by a mix of students and professors, focused on the various aspects of international development.

Trips: We are, of course, very excited for our March clinic to Esmeraldas!  For the first time, we’re going to offer some Spanish prep classes to prepare our clinic participants.  Register now!

Opportunities to volunteer

Development Corps: We need people not only who want to go on our trip, but also people to help us plan our project before the trip, and to help spread the word so people who might be interested about it can learn about it! If any of these things sound interesting, let us know!

Fundraising: We need some volunteers!  We may need some volunteers at our trivia night, for our tabling in McConnell on February 4th, and for our Gert’s night on March 1st.  Let us know via e-mail if you are available and interested!

MEDx Talks: There will be an information request form available soon for those who want to help set the talks up, and also a speaker application form for those who want to share their knowledge!

Tutorials: If you know a subject like the back of your hand and want to use your academic talents for good, think about becoming one of our tutors!  Contact Alan and Dan at medlife.mcgill@gmail.com, or think about swinging by to meet our current tutors at Bar des Arts in the Arts Lounge this Thursday.

PR Committee: If you’re interested in getting some PR experience, shoot Sameer an e-mail at medlife.mcgill@gmail.com

Any ideas?  Let us know!  medlife.mcgill@gmail.com

Future GMs

We’re hoping to have our GMs every other week in room B-29 in SSMU, but always check our website (here!) and our listserv (sign up if you haven’t already!) for the most updated information.