African young family doctors' movement

Regional News October 2013 Africa

September, 2013

WONCA CEO with the WONCA Africa Executive during the AfriWon Launch

AfriWon Renaissance, the youth movement of the WONCA Africa Region was officially inaugurated on the 27th June, 2013 during the WONCA 20th World Conference in Prague Czech Republic. This forum/movement is for the young (under five years) and trainee Family Physicians in Africa. It is the future of WONCA Africa.

AfriWon Renaissance derived its name from the rejuvenation of Africa Wonca through its youth movement.

Mission and Vision

AfriWon Renaissance has emerged as a uniting force among the young African frontline doctors to address the common health problems of Africa by providing support through:

Developing Family Medicine and Primary Health Care in Africa in service, training and research amongst young doctors
Establishing a communication network between African trainee and young family physicians and identifying their concerns, doubts and needs and helping to address them
Encouraging a global and youthful African perspective, with global exposure and leadership development

Organisational Structure

The executive is responsible for decision making, day to day running and coordination of the activities of the movement. It comprises of three main officers- the Chairman, Secretary and the Treasurer. The AfriWon Renaissance Chairman relates with the other youth movements around the world on behalf of AfriWon Renaissance. He also reports to the WONCA Africa Region President. In addition to the core executive, every member African country has country representatives in the expanded executive.

Photo: Secretary Shabir Moosa takes a photo of Chairman Kayode Alao

Chairman - Dr Kayode Alao (Nigeria) [email protected]
Secretary - Dr Aramide Oteju (Lagos, Nigeria)
Treasurer - Dr Magdelena Petkova (Johannesburg, South Africa)

AfriWon Renaissance has three advisers selected from the major African regions:
West Africa advisor- Dr Dan Abubakar (Nigeria) [email protected]
East Africa advisor- Dr Thigiti Joseph (Kenya) [email protected]
South Africa advisor- Dr Shabir Moosa (South Africa) [email protected]

Membership

The countries currently represented include Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda and South Africa. This is list is however expanding daily.

All young family physicians (under five years), family physicians in training as well as medical students in Africa are encouraged to join and participate fully in the activities of AfriWon Renaissance.

Activities

· Having fun communicating and sharing in a growing circle of African membership
· Reaching out to other African countries who are presently not members of WONCA through their young Family Physicians
· Developing country-based AfriWon membership, structures and activities (in conjunction with Wonca Africa Membership Organisations)
· Working had on exchanges programmes across Africa and internationally
· Planning a 2-day AfriWon pre-conference before the next WONCA Africa Regional Conference in Ghana 2015
· Developing training and research capacity for the young in our countries and collaboratively across Africa
· Engaging internationally with other youth movements and WONCA at Regional and World Conferences. Watch out for AfriWon exhibition at the next Europe Conference in Lisbon, 2014