IMAM Conference:Special Guest Dr Jemilah..A review

(This is meant to be an email which I'm forwarding to IMAM Yahoogroups but just thought of sharing a few things gained from the conference with fellow bloggers..pics coming up soon iAllah )

Bismillahirrahmanir rahim

Hopefully this e-mail finds all of you in the best of health and of iman, insyaAllah.

Just would like to share some insights or perhaps a semi-formal report on the event held yesterday ie IMAM Conference: Malaysia’s Achievement in Humanitarian Relief Work, 18 Nov 2007, with Dato Dr Jemilah Mahmood of Mercy as the special guest. Hopefully this email won’t be that lengthy so, keep on reading!

Alhamdulillah, we have managed to organize the events in collaboration with UKEC and MERCY, which in my own humble opinion, went quite well (all praises to Allah). On the IMAM UK-Sc side, our planning and decision-making started as soon as we volunteered to take up the challenge of co-organizing the event (on around 25th Oct). This includes the procedure of booking the hall, projectors, food, preparation for presentation, promotion and some other technicalities. Promoting the event was one of the challenges as time was not on our side. (we had only 2 weeks to get ppl to come to the event! This was difficult-especiall y for ppl outside of London.)

On the day itself, Alhamdulillah the number of people who turned up, was good, and was as expected, (around 50 ppl, if not a little bit more than that).We began with prayers, some morning tea and a welcoming speech by the MC (Zaffiruddin) . Dr Ang Swee Chai, a Malaysian currently working in Royal London Hospital, was our first speaker. Actively involved in humanitarian work herself, she gave us an insight on the roles of Malaysian in the international arena- missions in Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan and others.

Next up, our very own IMAM presentation, comprising of 3 presentations- 1. Introduction on IMAM (by Faizal Zulkhifli), 2. Acheh Relief Mission (Yusuf Abu Shamsi) and 3. Cambodia Relief Mission (Firdaus Rahim). We introduced what IMAM is all about, shared our visions and dreams, and presented our past to recent activities to the audience. Alhamdulillah the message came across well. According to many of the audience, the three presenters have made a very good job in ‘promoting’ IMAM (habis-habisan) to all who were present yesterday. So well done!

The most anticipated talk by Dr Jemilah was up next. Some points that I myself pondered upon was when Dr Jemilah mentioned that to be involved in humanitarian work, passion alone is not enough. Sure, passion drives you to do good things to others, but at the same time, you must have the correct SYSTEM as well. In this context she outlined a few principles and framework that we can apply. For example, being ACCOUNTABLE to the actions we make during relief work.

Another key point Dr Jemilah mentioned was that humanitarian work is not a touch-and-go project. Instead, it is one that requires continuity and follow-ups. She also encouraged us to conduct researches from database obtained during relief work since these reports would make a very good ‘evidence-based medicine’ data which is important in making a difference to more people.

Lastly, Dr Jemilah shared with us the achievements of Mercy Malaysia- missions in India, Cambodia, Pakistan, and others. Also on Mercy’s projects in Acheh (19 projects currently) , some info on their risk reduction unit, Disaster Risk education and others. Very, very inspiring indeed…

UKEC was the last to present their own share of charity work, as they recounted their experiences of being involved in projects such as the: Projek Kalsom, Projek Setinggan, and Projek Chow Kit.

IMAM UK Sc have set up our booth at the back of the hall, with posters to introduce IMAM and its activities, and made some collection for relief mission donation. And we also did a BMI counter (we prepared the weighing scale and meter tape for them to weigh and measure themselves!) . Also, we have managed to get some students to register as IMAM members as well.

The success of any event is not just a measure of whether it went smoothly not.. or how many turned up. But more than that, it’s whether we have achieved the main objective of organizing the event or not. As a reminder our main, stated objective, it is ‘To introduce IMAM UK Eire and its relief work to Mercy and to the community’. Alhamdulillah, we have managed to bridge the networking with Mercy through this program and they have even offer to organize a training course for IMAM members in the UK for humanitarian relief work in the near future (which I think is a really good start.)

May we extend our heartfelt gratitude and thanks to all who have made the event possible..To Mercy (Dr Jemilah and Marissa), MSD, UKEC, IMAM UK Dr Chapter (Dr Burhanuddin, Dr Azlisham), other doctors who have offered their advice as well, to all who came yesterday, and of course to IMAM UK Sc members who have contributed in so many ways. May Allah reward everyone for this effort, insyaAllah….

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Mai Shahira Meor Hazizi
Secretary,
IMAM UK Sc 2007

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