Speaker: Ms. Prune Helfter
Topic: The work of Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World)
Location: Sagamihara Campus, Building E-101
Date: Friday, November 19, 2010
Time: 1:10 PM to 2:40 PM (3rd period)
Ms. Prune Helfter, the General Manager of Médecins du Monde Japon, will speak about her international humanitarian aid organization whose volunteers provide medical care for vulnerable people all over the world. She graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Science, Essec Business School and the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. She has a PhD in Economics and is also a former research student at Kyoto University.
As Doctors of the World serves culturally diverse populations around the world, they face challenges presented by the sociocultural differences among those groups and in the teams implementing the projects, who are themselves multicultural, made up of expatriated volunteers as well as local staff. How can these cultural factors be dealt with in the humanitarian field in order to maximise the efficiency of the projects and the benefits for the targeted population? Ms. Helfter will speak about how Doctors of the World has been struggling to address these issues.
We’d like to encourage IE Core teachers to find online materials (perhaps YouTube videos and articles) that connect the content of the talk with the IE themes, and use those materials to help prepare students for the lecture. Here are some possible connections with each of the IE themes:
IE I themes
** Memories and Childhood ** — Children at risk
** Urban Life ** — Street children in cities & how they can be helped
** Food ** — World hunger; its causes and possible solutions
** Travel ** — Traveling in the capacity of a volunteer
IE II themes
** Technology ** — Simple technologies that save lives in vulnerable populations
** The workplace ** — Working for humanitarian organizations/ NGOs & NPOs
** Geography ** — Introducing the countries where Doctors of the World operate
** Biography ** — Presenting people associated with humanitarian organizations[ The site “PeaceWomen Across the Globe” is highly recommended.]
IE III themes
** Cross-cultural values ** — Intercultural issues relevant to working in NGOs/ NPOs
** The media ** — How humanitarian organizations get their message across (PSAs, websites, etc.)
** The environment ** — The relationship between the environment and health
** Relationships ** — Relationships among people who work for humanitarian organizations and beneficiariesWhen you identify materials that you find relevant, please pass them on to Joseph Dias so that he can share them with other teachers in the program.
