Durban - A SECOND-YEAR Durban medical
student is becoming a regular at the
World Health Organization (WHO).
Mohamed Hoosen Suleman, 23, a student at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, has been appointed the theme officer in the organising committee for the London World Health Organization (LonWHO) Simulation. This is an event held each year in the first week of November.
The LonWHO Simulation is the UK WHO’s international conference and biggest simulation aimed at recreating the process of the annual World Health Assembly.
The assembly makes the decisions at WHO, where delegations from all its member states direct attention to a specific health agenda formulated by the executive board.
The simulation gives students and young professionals the chance to develop skills in health policy and diplomacy.
Suleman was selected by the UK WHO central committee to work with medical and public health students.
As the theme officer, Suleman will do research on current global health topics in line with the World Health Assembly agenda for this year. He and the team will then draft a theme guide.
“I am honoured and humbled to be engaging and working with colleagues abroad in creating important discussions and debates that relate to global health challenges, their impact and solutions.
“The theme we have decided for this year is ‘Pandemics: Preparedness, Response and Recovery’. Much of our focus will be centred around analysing policies and systems that member states have in response to pandemics,” said Suleman.
A conference hosting between 180 and 200 delegates is being planned. However, this might change to a virtual conference because of Covid-19.
Recently, Suleman and fellow medical student Kapil Narain attended a workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, where they explored refinements to their proposals to build the capacity to implement them. The pair had created a cellphone app which alerted patients to take their medication, and this took them to the WHO.
“I am passionate about health advocacy and research, and I’m committed to science solutions to some of the health challenges that we face. I don’t think I would have predicted that my journey would have been on an international scale but I suppose if you put all the focus in it, you are rewarded for the work,” said Suleman.
He said he was passionate about serving the community. He thought because of his previous degree, pharmacy, that he wanted to be more hands-on and help people.
Suleman also said he wanted to specialise in cardiothoracic surgery.