Working Party on Women -recent activities

October 2017 Working Party News

September, 2017

Kate Anteyi chair of the WONCA Working Party for Women & Family Medicine reports:

The WONCA Working Party for Women & Family Medicine (WWPWFM) was involved in various activities recently and the working party executive would like to share a summary report.

1. The 5th WWPWFM interim meeting held August 14 - 17, 2017 in Soweto, South Africa.

Our host was Prof. Shabir Moosa and the Chiawelo Health Center community - (Shabir is centre front in group photo below)

The theme of the interim meeting was: Women's health in primary care, the face of family medicine.

The participants were immersed in the Chiawelo community and got exposed to the community oriented primary care (COPC) model of the Chiawelo health center.

There were oral presentations and workshops that focused on lifecycle transition and individual development plans, advocacy for women's health at primary care around the globe and developing leadership among young women doctors.

The outputs from the interim meeting include draft templates for advocacy for women's health at primary care and leadership development. The Gender Equity Standards (GES) documents were also endorsed as WWPWFM reference documents.

Photo right: At the meeting (l to r), Aileen Espina (Philippines), Amanda Barnard (Australia), Temitope Ilori (Nigeria)- the WWP Africa lead, and Elizabeth Reji (South Africa) - the WWP South Africa liaison.

The WWPWFM executive will finalize work on the generic templates for advocacy for women's health at primary care and leadership development of women doctors. The generic templates will be piloted in regional conferences.

2. The first Dr. Atai Ann Deborah Omoruto's scholarship was awarded at the WONCA Africa region conference in Pretoria, South Africa, August 18, 2017.

The award recipients are:

1. Dr Lillian Mukisa, Uganda (left in photo)
2. Dr Olajumoke Ibrahim, Nigeria (right in photo)

The Dr. Atai's scholarship is a joint effort of WONCA executive, WWPWFM, and external donors. It aims to support African women doctors to its region and WONCA world conferences. Please donate to the scholarship fund and circulate among friends and associates.

3. WWPWFM Pre-conference at 2017 Wonca Africa conference, Pretoria, South Africa

The Africa leads of WWPWFM organized a pre-conference and a leadership workshop during the WONCA Africa region conference, August 18, 2017. The two sessions had huge attendance.

The draft generic template for advocacy for women's health at primary care was piloted. The leadership workshop focused on leading change.

4. Planning for WONCA World conference, Seoul 2018

The WWPWFM has commenced plans to have a robust presence at Seoul, 2018. The plan is to have women's track and a compelling pre-conference.

The executive will be sharing workshop topics soon for interested members to commit to facilitating. If you have workshop topics that you will want to facilitate, you can send it in, so we collate all and send in as joint women's track.

It is going to be an exciting one-year preparing for Seoul, October 2018. Please come share your ideas and tell your stories of the wonderful work we all do for our patients and communities, and the challenges we face.

Attached are some photos from the interim meeting, Dr. Atai's scholarship award, and WWPWFM pre-conference during the WONCA Africa region conference.

WWPWFM executive looks forward to a fruitful year to Seoul 2018.