Vasco da Gama Movement Europe Region Update 2022

It's been a while, and boy have we been busy!



In January we had our 7th Forum in Edinburgh in the amazing Surgeon's Halls. This is was a great success, with fantastic workshops, scientific presentations, and a brilliant opportunity for many of us to reconnect and for many new faces to be welcomed into the community! We even had a Ceilidh dance, and had a bagpiper join us to really give us a feel for Scottish Culture. All this organised by an amazing host organising committee led by Sonia Tsukagoshi, who had been working for so long even enduring a postponement and all the uncertainties of the pandemic!

During the forum we also awarded the Being Young Staying Young to our alumnus Raquel Gomez Bravo. She truly reflects the values of VdGM, and because of this, she was nominated independently by two people. She is recognised for the work and time she has given VdGM over the years, first when she was herself a member, but also for the time and effort she keeps giving us even now, being a mentor, support, and vocal supporter! We are very proud to have her as part of the community!

We also welcomed new members who were supported by the VdGM Fund bursaries - Mariya Armova from Bulgaria (who also recently took on the role of National Delegate for Bulgaria) as well as Maria János Szidónia from Romania.

In January we also welcomed to our team Ikbal Humay Arman from Turkey as our new Events Officer. She has had a great start and is already contributing to our team and community.

In March we celebrated International Women's Day by shining a spotlight on our recent Being Young Staying Young Award receiver, Raquel, as well as 2021's Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award receiver, Marina Jotic Ivanovic. Both are outstanding women who make us proud, and have worked hard for women's health. You can read their interviews here:
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In March, we also held a joint Virtual Exchange with The Spice Route Movement! This was a great success and a great collaboration! We look forward to many more of these!

In April we had an online event - VdGM: Going Forward Together to reflect on our organisation, and to hear some words from wisdom from our past president, and current WONCA CEO, Harris Lygidakis. He shared his advice for creating a movement of change and we had a space to reflect on the role of our movement.

For World Family Doctors' Day in May we contributed to a video with all the other YDMs to show the diversity of young family doctors, and the fact that we are indeed everyone, in all environments, in all regions, and working hard. You can see the video here. 

We are now in the final stages of preparation for the VdGM Pre-Conference and WONCA Europe/RCGP Conference in London in June. We are all very excited!

Last but by no means least, while we have been doing a lot of work that you can all see, there has also been a lot of work behind the scenes. The most important news to share is this: we have a new name! We are now working on a new logo, a new image, and a new website, and we will share all this with you as soon as we can. But for now - our new name will now be:

The European Young Family Doctors' Movement (EYFDM). We look forward to our future as the same movement, growing forward, innovating, and collaborating for better primary care around our region and the world, only now with a different name.