HelMSIC participated in the anniversary conference of Médecins du Monde Greece, marking 35 years since the organization’s establishment in our country. The initiative aimed to foster the exchange of experiences and to launch a public dialogue on humanitarian action and volunteerism today, with the participation of public authorities, the medical and academic community, Civil Society Organizations, corporate social responsibility stakeholders, journalism, as well as the wider public, which ultimately actively supports these initiatives.

Through six thematic sessions, emphasis was placed, among other points, on the need for social action in a period of continuously escalating global crises, the value of volunteerism and civic engagement, and the importance of collaboration both among stakeholders from different sectors and among Civil Society Organizations themselves. The objective is to multiply impact for every beneficiary and, ultimately, to strengthen humanitarian preparedness within Greece as well.

Through its own contribution in one of the sessions, HelMSIC highlighted the broad need to modernize medical education by integrating issues of humanitarianism into an inherently humanitarian profession. It also underscored the importance of activating young people in civic life as the main pillar of future volunteerism, aligning its educational offerings with the social needs that have emerged in recent years in Greece and across Europe.

Special reference was also made to the long-standing collaboration with Médecins du Monde, which, through the “Chiron” program, offers more than 150 students from across Greece the opportunity to receive training on critical issues concerning mobile populations and their specific needs, low-resource medicine, and, ultimately, meaningful communication with patients from vulnerable backgrounds.

HelMSIC was represented by Maria Tsiara, a 6th-year medical student from the University of Ioannina and Vice President for External Affairs for the term 2025/26. You can also watch the interview in which youth volunteerism is discussed in depth.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Médecins du Monde for their honorary invitation to this conference, through which they continue to provide a platform for the student community to express its needs and lived realities from its own perspective.