WONCA World Rural Health Conference 2022 –
Medisec Student Conference Ambassadors
We have now selected three student ambassadors from around the world to come to Ireland for the WONCA World Rural Health Conference 2022. They will be given the opportunity to experience rural general practice (GP) in Ireland before joining us in Limerick for the main event.
During the conference they will be meeting with our keynote speakers, doing daily video updates on the conference and they will be presenting on their experiences in Irish general practice.
These awards have been sponsored by Medisec Ireland (www.medisec.ie).
Ambassador 1
Marcela Araujo de Oliveira Santana is a doctor from Brazil who graduated in 2021 from the Federal University of Uberlândia, in Minas Gerais. She has been an advocate for rural health as a member of the Rural Seeds group since 2018 and was selected as a Rural Seeds Ambassador for Ibero America in 2021. She was also selected as a rural and remote fellow for The Network: Towards Unity For Health (TUFH) in 2021. Her main interests are rural health, medical education and neglected infectious diseases.
Ambassador 2
Dr. Shagun Tuli (she/her) (MBBS, MGHD22) is currently pursuing an MSc in Global HealthDelivery, Gender Sexual and Reproductive Health at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. (UNESCO Model of Global Health Education) She graduated from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, India in 2020 and continued to work in low resource maternity clinics. She then transitioned to a COVID ICU duty during the second wave of the pandemic in her country. She has worked across multiple rural primary care centers in Southern India and was introduced to the transformative power of rural medicine in Butaro, Rwanda. She is currently working with the WHO collaborating center for global surgery as a researcher. Her team is also conducting a mixed-methods feminist research to explore the sexual and reproductive health needs of gender minorities in Rwanda. She is passionate about feminist research, health, and gender equity across rural and global communities.
Ambassador 3
Victoria Sparrow-Downes is a final year Family Medicine resident physician at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Newfoundland, Canada. As part of her residency program, she spent nine months training in subarctic and Arctic regions of Nunavut, Canada, including the high Arctic communities of Grise Fiord and Resolute. Prior to residency, she completed a Doctorate of Medicine at University of Ottawa, and a Master of Science in Health Services Research at University of Toronto. She also holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Biology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Women’s Studies. Her clinical and research interests include remote medicine, Indigenous health, women’s health, communicable diseases, and access to care. Her career aspiration is to practice Family Medicine in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, where she will begin working this summer. She will also be commencing a Postgraduate Certificate in Tuberculosis at Queen Mary University of London this fall.
Instagram - can be reached via @nunafam
LinkedIn - Victoria Sparrow-Downes Twitter - @DownesSparrow
