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Dear IPSF World Diabetes Day volunteers,

Thank you for all the work you put in to making World Diabetes Day 2008 such a global success. I hope things went well with all of your efforts. We aim to encourage all pharmacy students worldwide to become proactively involved to increase awareness of diabetes among health professionals as well as the public. Pharmacists and pharmacy students can promote healthy lifestyle in the prevention and care of chronic diseases while preserving their role as medication experts.

As a key player in providing health care to the public, pharmacists are in the ideal position to act within the realms of preventative medicine and education in order to ensure that the community is aware of all risks associated with diabetes. Promoting a healthy lifestyle is fundamental, and in some instances this may also include pharmaceutical care intervention. In this case, the pharmacist is in the perfect position to combine their knowledge of medication with non-pharmaceutical aspects of patient care. Pharmacists are often the most accessible and most visited health care professionals within the patient care community and must use this position to positively influence patients who may not otherwise seek help for their current or foreseeable health concerns.

This year, we have newly embarked upon the IPSF Healthy Living and Diabetes Campaign Database in order to better assist our members in the campaign process. Information can be found at http://diabetes.ipsf.org .So please take the opportunity to visit the database and let us hear your thoughts on it. We want to collect as comprehensive a record as possible of World Diabetes Day 2008 for the IPSF database, so please continue to send over your activity reports. Moreover, it is inspiring to learn more about your individual activities for the event.

If you or your association was unable to put together a campaign on Nov 14, remember that diabetes doesn’t just happen one day out of the entire year, so it’s important to promote the campaign all year round. If you have campaign materials or events that you would like to contribute to the database, please email me at sharonleung.bc@gmail.com

Sharon Leung IPSF Healthy Living and Diabetes Campaign Coordinator 2008-09

Honourable mention WDD campaigns:

BPSA (UK)

BPSA managed to successfully set up a total of seven stands across the nation;

two in London, and one each in Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Bradford

and Cardiff. In addition, students were encouraged take part in a human blue

circle at Kingston University.

ASPSA (Egypt)

This campaign will be ASPSA's first scientific event in this academic year

(2008/2009). Due to the responsibility ASPSA feels for the development of its

members’ scientific skill, and many other events will be held in the future.

.

IPSF Secretariat

PO Box 84200, 2508 AE Den Haag, The Netherlands Interested in sending an article to IPSF Newsletter? Please send your article and photos to publications@ipsf.org

If you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact us at publications@ipsf.org or ipsf@ipsf.org

Human blue circle at Kingston University (UK)

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JPSA (Jordan)

A Diabetes Cycling event was held where around 45 bicycles biked around the

Jordanian capital city, Amman, to show support for people with diabetes. A

bake sale was organised by the members of the association aiming to raise

funds and recruit more people to be a part of this event to help children with

diabetes. The money collected was donated to the "Jordanian Society for The

Care of Diabetes." This event was supported by the faculty at the University of

Jordan.

SSSFD (Slovenia)

On the 11th of November at 6.00 pm, the students of SSSFD gathered at

Kongresni trg (Congress square) in the centre of the capital city, Ljubljana. Each

participant got a blue candle with a message about diabetes on it. The original

plan for to have a night walk with candles, but the wind was blowing too strong

so it was decided to light the candles at the end of the event. The finale was

the illumination of Ljubljana’s castle, also in blue light. From the 11 – 14

November, twelve pharmacy students assisted in the measuring blood glucose

levels in pharmacies in the Gorenjska region.

NUSPS (Singapore)

This is the second time NUSPS has participated in World Diabetes Day. Last year, volunteers from NUSPS administered a

Diabetes Risk Test on members of the public .This year, the campaign was held on campus to raise awareness about diabetes

among the staff and students of National University of Singapore (NUS). Students were targeted as the theme for WDD for

Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.

Being able to take part in the internship program with the World Health Organization was a great

experience. There were many interesting projects available with the IPSF members who facilitated

activities in the areas of Quality Assurance and Safety with The International Pharmacopoeia. My

supervisor, Dr Sabine Kopp, was very supportive and provided a good balance of independence as

well as guidance in my project. I was lucky to have arrived in Geneva in May for the World Health

Assembly at the United Nations and to see the Executive Board as well as observing a number of

consultations. During my two months with the WHO I got to know some of the large number of

interns at both the WHO and some of the other international organisations who organise some

great events to get involved in. It was a great international experience, and Geneva is a beautiful city

and easily accessible to other European cities. I enjoyed having some free time to see other parts of

Switzerland as well. It was great to have the opportunity to get involved in public health at a global scale and to work on a

variety of current projects.

Lisa Harris

Pharmacy student

University of South Australia, Australia

IPSF Newsletter Issue #61

Night walk with candles (Slovenia)

Lisa Harris

Diabetes Cycling event (Jordan)

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“Today is the last day to be in a group!” One of my friends said

when we were returning from a cultural visit. It was at this time

that I realised how fast ten days in Khon Kaen had gone. This

period of time was the most important moment in my life and I

learned many things from 7th APPS, and I thank IPSF for granting

me the opportunity to participate in such an event via the

Development Fund (DF).

One of the great advantages of participating in 7th APPS is the

interaction with different pharmacy students from the Asia Pacific

region and the sharing of experiences. Presentations, workshops,

and campaigns were an important part of symposium. Participation

in Leaders in Training and taking part in the Patient Counselling

Event was events that I consider one of the greatest experiences of my life. Beside this, energetic dances in the welcome

program, international night, traditional night and gala night were also important parts of the symposium. I really enjoyed every

moment in APPS. Thus, I found the 7th APPS as not only informative and educational but also full of entertainment.

The huge gathering of pharmacy students at APPS and

interactions with them helped me to realise the huge

responsibilities of the local as well as national association in

my home country of Nepal. The Leaders in Training and

Patient Counselling Events are the most important aspects to

be implemented in Nepal, and I think it is crucial to introduce

these skills into our nation. I learnt lots of practical

knowledge through such events and I thank the committee

for organising these in APPS. The awareness campaign about

“Rational use of drugs” was interesting as we tried to interact

with people in the Thai language.

I am also thankful to the Reception Committee (RC) of 7th

APPS I must praise the time management of the program as

well as the accommodations for which they provided for us.

This Symposium represented the whole country of Thailand and was titled “Thailand: The Land of Smile.” I found every Thai

student and RC member full of cooperation and smiles in every moment.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience of APPS. I am proud to be one of the participants of such an event. I think each

pharmacy student should participate in APPS at least once in their life.

Khapung krup

Sabin Raj Shakya

Pokhara University Students’ Pharmacy Association (PUSPA), Nepal

IPSF Newsletter Issue #61

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IPSF Newsletter Issue #61

Hi All, my name is Mehdi ZEGHAL and I’m from Tunisia. I’ve graduated with a pharmacy degree and I’m studying management in France. I was recently appointed as the new IPSF Treasurer and this is a big honour to be a member of this big family! My first IPSF involvement was in Cairo 2001 and since then I just can’t take IPSF out of my head! It’s a great life experience!

Coming on board during November gives a challenging aspect to the mission and I’m very excited to work with this team which believed in me. I hope I’ll live up to your expectations and I can’t wait to meet you all next year in Bali!

Mehdi Zeghal Treasurer

African Regional Office (AfRO) Regional Working Group

Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) Regional Working Group

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IPSF Newsletter Issue #61