Activites of MWIA and its Regions
Edition 3, 2021
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This quarter has been another very busy one for me as President and it gives me pleasure to share some highlights with you.
- In the wake of devastating floods, I sent out letters of solidarity on behalf of MWIA to our members in Belgium, Germany, India, Netherlands and UK. I also extend my prayers to families affected by the conflict in Afghanistan.
- The visit of HE Amina Mohammed the UN Deputy Secretary General on 2nd of July was marked with an interactive session where I spoke on the need to include women in the COVID-19 response, end violence against women and girls and mental health.
- As part of our collaboration with other professional bodies, I was keynote speaker at African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) on 27th July 2021 in commemoration of the Day of African Women with the theme: “Achieving Equal Representation For Women: Panacea for Inequality".
- I have recently instituted a historical photographic diary of the President’s medal as part of our time - honoured memorabilia . I have also requested photographs of past Presidents wearing the badge as part of the photographic diary.
- My quest to increase the MWIA visibility continues and I invite you to listen to my latest Feminifesto Podcast:
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- I featured as an expert panelist on 20th August on UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, focusing on accessible and sustainable psychological assistance and support.
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Figure 1. Receiving the KOWGO Award as Enabler for Women’s Economic´s empowerment.
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I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude at the recent awards and recognitions accorded me:
- I was listed in MWAN 2019-2021 Biennium Book of Fame which documents names of members who have contributed to the success of the Association as well as in The Encyclopedia of WHO is WHO in the Medical Profession in Nigeria 1950-2021.
- Rotary International honoured me with and Excellent Service award in recognition of meritorious contribution to Development and I also received the KOWGO Award of recognition in appreciation of my role as Enabler for Women’s Economic empowerment (Figure 1).
- The Western Pacific Regional Conference of MWIA led by VP Dr Des Yap, was held virtually on August 20 &21 2021, hosted by Korea Medical Women’s Association. I participated in the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote address (Figure 2). I heartily congratulate to Dr Cissy Yu for being the first Dr Kyung Ah Park awardee.
- I am immensely honoured at theinvitation to the 9th Central Asia Regional Conference led by Dr Mandakini Megh, VP of CARC as the esteemed Orator and requested to deliver the Usha Saraiya’ Oration on the topic Eradication of domestic violence a global Treaty the pinnacle of commitment for ending violence against women and girls. I invited members to please register and attend.
The planning is underway for the 2022 MWIA Congress in Taiwan. We are hoping very much that we can meet face to face and I look forward to seeing you there!
Warmly,
Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi
President
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Figure 2. Screenshot from the Western Pacific Regional Conference 2021.
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Greetings Colleagues and Friends,
As we are entering the latter half of the year, it is disheartening to know that COVID-19 is continuing its onslaught on global communities with new variants. Amid this it is really heartening to note that we as a global community of physicians are working to protect our families, friends, and our communities where we live and work. To compound to the ongoing crisis there is the humanitarian crisis of unimaginable horror of the recent events which have unfolded in Afghanistan. The media makes us aware everyday of this tragedy and the enormous burden it has placed on girls and women who have their human rights being violated in more ways than one. I am sharing with you the link to statement which we as members of American Medical Women's Association released (this was drafted by Dr Eliza Chin, Executive Director of AMWA and myself as global health lead on behalf of AMWA).
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It was indeed an honor and a privilege to attend and present at the excellent MWIA Western Pacific regional conference co-organized and hosted by the Korean Medical Women's Association last week. The scientific sessions were educational and information, it was nice to connect with many colleagues and friends virtually and I would like to congratulate the local organizing committee and the members of the MWIA executive committee who were involved in planning and executing the conference. The art gallery was a visual treat, and I am sharing the evocative oil on canvas painting by Dr. Ko, Mi Kyung titled Covid-19 Pandemic which has beautifully captured the role of health care providers (Figure 3).
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Figure 3. Dr. Ko, Mi Kyung titled Covid-19 Pandemic - Member of Korean Medical Women's Association
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Women leaders who are heads of state (I refer to countries and the various states/provinces in countries) have been at the fore front of addressing of the COVID pandemic effectively as they chose to put the practice of public health over politics, and this had a positive outcome. Similarly, for the good health and wellbeing of any organization selfless leadership is crucial which needs to be respectful, ego free inclusive and supportive of all those on the team.
August 26th is celebrated as Women’s Equality Day in the United States Since 1971, Women’s Equality Day has been celebrated annually on August 26. The celebration falls on the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote. The Woman Suffrage Amendment was first introduced on January 10, 1878.
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In conclusion I would like to close that we should live in harmony with others and nature (see Figure 4) and in that spirit I am sharing the link to this beautiful piece of music featuring various musicians which I often listen to as the language of music is universal and non-discriminatory!
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Figure 4. The Golden Lion Tamarin from the local zoo in Trevor Zoo, Millbrook NY. This is native to South America
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Thank you for all you do
Stay safe!
In Health and Human Rights!
Dr Padmini Murthy
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I was attending the Central Asia Regional Conference 11-12th of September 2021 and was honored to be invited to present the CARC MWIA guest lecture. The title I chose for my talk was “Female leadership in medicine- still a lot to do to move from vision to reality!” (Figure 5)
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Figure 5. CARC 2021: Screenshot of the virtual lobby and a few snapshots on my presentation
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While preparing for my talk, I realized (again) that progress is still too slow to fulfil the SDG 5.5 “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life" with its commitment to achieve gender equality by 2030!
In a nutshell: female physicians are doing a lot of the clinical work but don´t lead!
I enjoyed the inspiring conference and meeting many friends and colleagues virtually! Congratulations to Dr. Mandakini Megh, MWIA Vice president Central Asia and her team for organizing this interesting event with many international faculties.
However, this was not the only MWIA regional meeting I had attended. I also had the honor of being invited to submit two video presentations on demand: one on “sex and gender-sensitive medicine” and the other on “domestic violence during the pandemic” at the MWIA Western Pacific Regional Meeting on August 20-21, 2021. Due to the large time difference between Germany and South Korea, I was not able to participate online live. However, the organizers allowed participants to view the recordings and presentations for another 30 days. The meeting was excellently organized by the KMWA team led by Dr. Baik.
Even though we are all aware that meeting virtually is not the same as meeting face-to-face, but it is a way we are still connected with each other against all odds. This is something we can build upon, when we will meet again in person and hopefully at the upcoming MWIA international congress in Taipei in Taiwan!
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The MWIA awards committee being chaired by me had been approved by the MWIA Executive and started working meanwhile. We have received the first submissions for the MWIA funds. Please find more information on our MWIA website:
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Please don´t miss the great opportunity to receive some financial support for projects dear to your heart by MWIA (see as example the Waltraud-Diekhaus Fund, Figure 6) https://mwia.net/about-us/mwia-funds/waltraud-diekhaus-fund/
Second, I am editing the MWIA website (www.mwia.net) continuously being part of MWIA´s web team and worked on the MWIA newsletter, as well on our new E-MWIA activity update being published every 3 months.
Last, but not least, the MWIA finance committee - I am chairing - drafted guidelines of various MWIA funds. The descriptions of the funds can be found here: https://mwia.net/about-us/mwia-funds/.
For a pilot phase (1st July 2021- 31st May 2022), a MWIA awards committee will be installed to assess the various fund applications and to recommend to the MWIA Exco what to fund. Most funds have no deadline and one can apply for them any time, however the Waltraud-Diekhaus-Fund (https://mwia.net/about-us/mwia-funds/waltraud-diekhaus-fund/) and the LoveJoy/Jubilee Fellowship (https://mwia.net/about-us/mwia-funds/lovejoy-jubilee-fellowship/) have as deadline October 1, 2021.
We are looking forward to your applications!
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Figure 6. Invitation to apply for the Waltraud-Diekhaus-Fund.
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Activities of MWIA and its Regions
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The present Biennium of 2019 – 2021 led by Dr. Minnie Oseji is about to hand over to the next Executives for the 2021 – 2023 biennium led by the current National President-Elect Dr. L. Adekemi Otolorin by 17th September, 2021 during the Ibadan Biennial Conference come September 14th to 18th, 2021. We have had a very active biennium and have impacted many lives with the theme male involvement in Maternal and Child Health as well as our subthemes.
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Quarterly Report from AMWA to MWIA (3rd Quarter 2021)
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The Finnish Medical Women Association
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Dutch association women doctors
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１）Press Conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan
２）COVID-19 status in Japan
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Western Pacific Regional Conference 2021 of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA)
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Report on the activities of the Hong Kong Women Doctors Association
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Reports from MWIA Representatives
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Representative: Prof. Dr. Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer (Germany)
MWIA representative to the Standing Committee to European Physicians (CPME) is MWIA Past President Prof. Dr. Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer.
CPME is planning to have its next General Assembly and Board Meeting in Oslo, Norway on November 26-27, 2021. Everyone is holding their breath to see if this can become a reality, as it depends on how well Europe tackles the fourth COVID-19 wave in late fall. There will be also new elections to the Executive committee.
Despite summer time, when usually everything is going a bit slower, CPME had been quite active. I want to draw your attention here to CPME´s feedback on Artificial intelligence (AI), as this is something we need to know more about physicians in the future: Feedback on Commission Proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence" https://www.cpme.eu/cpme-feedback-on-commission-proposal-for-a-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence/
Last but not least, I would like to point out the latest CPME newsletter of July 2021, which contains highly interesting guest articles on the COVID situation e.g. in Spain or the USA, on violence against health professionals and on fictions and myths around COVID-19 (Figure 7).
The newsletter is definitely worth a read: https://www.cpme.eu/wp-content/uploads/adopted/2021/7/NL_July_2021.pdf
All previous CPME newsletters can be found under this link: https://www.cpme.eu/newsletter/
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Figure 7. CPME July 2021 newsletter-article on violence against healthcare professionals.
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Representative: Prof. Dr. Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer (Germany)
MWIA past president Bettina Pfleiderer is the current Vice president of the European Women´s Lobby and part of the EWL ExCo. We were able to meet in Brussels (Belgium) for the first time face-to-face (September 22-24, 2021) since being elected in June 2021 (Figure 8). It made such a big difference to not only talk to each other online but face-to-face.
One of the highlights in the last 3 months was the participation of EWL at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing declaration globally. The forum was organized by the governments of France and Mexico together with UN Women (https://forum.generationequality.org/home). EWL was a leader of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence (https://womenlobby.org/EWL-is-a-leader-of-the-Action-Coalition-on-Gender-Based-Violence?lang=en)
Sadly, in mid-July EWL´s Secretary General left Joanna Maycock after 7 years working at the Lobby, fighting with passion and determination to improve the life of women and girls in Europe (https://womenlobby.org/Celebrating-Joanna-Maycock-7-years-as-EWL-Secretary-General?lang=en). EWL just finished interviewing for a new SG. This interim period is a challenge, but everyone in the secretariat and the ExCo is doing its utmost – in a collective effort – to keep EWL and its projects going forward. The new SG will hopefully be on board at the beginning of 2022.
While being in Brussels we discussed how to work with each other in the new Exco, the work plan till the end of the year, and the new strategic framework 2022-2025. Major areas of EWL´s work will continue -among others- to be violence against women and girls in all forms, reshaping Europe after the COVID-10 pandemic and to tackle poverty of women (https://womenlobby.org/Our-work-lang-en?lang=en).
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Figure 8. The new EWL Executive committee met for the first time face-to-face in Brussels (Belgium), September 22-24, 2021). MWIA past president Bettina Pfleiderer is the current EWL Vice president (second from left).
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Keep updated with upcoming events in the MWIA Calendar listed on our website.
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MWIA Executive 2019-22
President: Dr Eleanor Ann Nwadinobi
Secretary - General: Prof Dr. Padmini Murthy
Treasurer: Dr. Helen Goodyear
Past President: Prof Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer
Regional Vice Presidents
Central Europe: Dr. Edith Vecsei (Austria)
Northern Europe: Dr. Elisabeth Lichtenstein (Sweden)
Southern Europe: Dr. Antonella Vezzani (Italy)
North America: Dr. Vivien Brown (Canada)
Latin America: Prof Dr. Magda Maria Sales Carneiro Sampaio (Brazil)
Near East & Africa: Dr. Christine Sadia (Kenya)
Central Asia: Dr. Mandakini Megh (India)
Western Pacific: Dr. Desiree Yap (Australia)
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