Special Article

GREEN LUNG
by : Ho Rhu Yann

In early 2010 IPSF officially established a collaborative relationship with Green Lung. Wait! Green Lung? Is it
something that deals with environmental advocacy? Indeed it does, but to a certain extent. Green Lung does
not only advocate for a healthy environment, but also a healthy lifestyle. Green Lung is a Malaysian youth-run
organization, which advocates for tobacco-free environment by mobilising, engaging and empowering youths
to advocate and walk together towards a smoke-free environment.
In May 2009, a workshop sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) was organized by the Clear-
inghouse of Tobacco Control of Malaysia National Poison Center with the aim of forming a group of under-
graduate pharmacy students from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to be active in tobacco control. In July
2009, Green Lung made its debut in USM by organizing its first ever awareness campaign on campus. Since
then Green Lung has gathered more than 300 members not only from the pharmacy school but also from
other universities and organisations. Within a year, Green Lung spread across five universities in Malaysia;
these include: Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa and Univer-
siti Teknologi MARA. In February 2010, Green Lung signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with IPSF and
this marked the official collaboration between Green Lung and IPSF in creating and promoting smoke-free
initiatives amongst IPSF’s communities.
Non Government Organisations (NGO) involved in tobacco control was not new to Green Lung. What makes
Green Lung special or different from all other NGO? Firstly, this organisation is the pioneers of a youth-run
organization for tobacco control. Because of this, we understand youths the best. We have always believed that
youths possess the greatest capacity to change the world because they have the craziest ideas and the most crea-
tivity in the world. But how many youths out there have the passion for such an organisation?
Let’s share with you Green Lung’s philosophy – Mobilize, Engage and Empower. People especially youths
always want to feel a sense of belonging and significance, therefore by mobilising and engaging your target
audience they would feel that they belong. Next and most importantly, empower your audience so that their
roles are significant to the causes. Once their attention and interest has been piped up they will be more than
enthusiastic to partake in a anti-tobacco campaign.
Apart from this, what makes us different from other tobacco control groups is that our focus is not on smokers
as this area has been well taken care of, but instead the non-smokers of our society. Everyone is well informed
about the dangers of smoking but how many of us realize that secondhand smoke does just as much harm to
non-smokers? Green Lung’s role is to provide the community with evidence-based information in the hope of
creating awareness concerning the dangers of secondhand smoke. We hope to mobilise volunteers and provide
a platform for them to express their views against smoking. We hope to empower them as the agents of change
so they will spread the information to their peers and consequently a chain reaction will take place. At the end
of the day, we wish to break the perception that ‘smoking is normal’.

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Nowadays, health promotion campaigns are synonymous to marketing. You need to brand yourself. Don’t be
afraid to share your vision and missions with others because that is the only way you will reach more people
and obtain support. This is the health promotion revolution that we are implementing for the upcoming years.
Our efforts should not only be restricted to Malaysia alone. Green Lung hopes that more people could be a part
of creating a change together. Join us today and be part of the change.
To know more, please log on to usmgreenlung.blogspot.com or follow our facebook page at
www.facebook.com/greenlung

Green Lung’s Chronology:

May 2009 : 40 USM Pharmacy students joined WHO Capacity building workshop
July 2009 : Made its debut in USM. Having more than 300 members from various schools and
back grounds.
September 2009 : Green Lung USM Freeze!
December 2009 : Spread across five universities
February 2010 : Green Lung Carnival 2010 and signed MOU with IPSF
July 2010 : Introduced Green Lung to IPSF-APRO members during 9th APPS in Seoul, S.Korea
October 2010 : Presented Green Lung in the 4th Global Conference of Alliance for Healthy Cities in
Seoul, S.Korea

Prepared by Ho Rhu Yann

First president of Green Lung 2009/10
Immediate-past president of Green Lung

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 ISMAFARSI

INDONESIA
by : Dwi Ruth Kurniasih

In 2009 ISMAFARSI held its first World AIDS Day.

On this momentuous day we organised a small cam-
paign in National Monument, Jakarta which featured
the IPSF’s project of forming the Human Ribbon.

During 2009, ISMAFARSI held a public health cam-

paign on World No Tobacco Day, which was on
the 31st May. The campaign required more than 20
pharmacy students to organise and took place in from
Bundaran Hotel to National Monument. In June, the
first Patient Counselling Event occurred in the Uni-
versity of Pancasila, Jakarta. This was immediately
followed by the national meeting in Makassar, South
Sulawesi. The national meeting allowed the organisa-
tion to elect a new president whose term would last
for two years. Also, one of the highlights in 2009 was
the pharmacy student’s involvement in the South East
Asia Regional Association for Medical Education
(SEARAME) Conference. This involvement allowed
the organisation to form networks and aquire better
understanding of public health issues.

ISMAFARSI has already planned for many projects to

be held in 2010. One of the highlights since the year
began was the ‘Biggest Drug Campaign’ held during
the Pre-national Meeting (PRAMUNAS) in Kali-
urang, Jogyakarta. More than 500 pharmacy students
participated in this campaign.

CP ISMAFARSI-IPSF
Dwi Ruth Kurniasih

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 NUSPS

SINGAPORE
by : Li Jiahui

Activities of NUSPS 2009-2010

In Year 2009-2010, NUSPS had organized plenty of activities ranging from educational to social activites. Some
of the activities include World Diabetes Day, World Tuberculosis Day, Health Bazaar, Xperience Pharmacy
Camp, Youth Expedition Programme, Quintiles talk, Xepa Field Trip, Patient Counselling Event, Brown Bag-
ging, Inter-Year Sports Carnival, Youth Alumni Sharing Session, etc.
Below are some activities that I would like to share on behalf of my predecessor, Valerie, who was the CP of
NUSPS for year 2009-2010.
Xperience Pharmacy Camp 2009

One major event that NUSPS organized was the

annual Xperience Pharmacy Camp. It is an event or-
ganised for the pre-university students to give them
an insight to our Pharmacy undergraduate course
and also our Pharmacy profession.

Apart from lab sessions, we also have talks during

the camp by various professionals including pharma-
cists to give them a primary account of working life
from a pharmacist’s viewpoint and also the current
healthcare situation in Singapore.
Games related to pharmacy knowledge were also
incorporated during the camp to enhance students’
thinking. Students were expected to recall what they
were taught during the camp to help them solve
mystery cases presented to them during the games.

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 Patient Counselling Event
Patient Counselling Event is also an annual event or-
ganized by NUSPS for our own pharmacy undergrad-
uate students. For the recent PCE event, the academic
committee of NUSPS invited two guest speakers, one
from the hospital sector and one from the community
sector. Thus students get to hear about the difference
between working in retail setting and hospital setting.
We also invited a student to give an account of how
his preceptorship was like. This was to give the juniors
an idea of what they will facing or be going through
during their 6 weeks preceptorship during their holi-
days.
After which, we also had a role-playing game to allow
students to have a rough idea of what patient coun-
seling was like. Brown Bagging

Brown Bagging is a project proudly organized by the

Essentials Medicine Committee of NUSPS. Brown
bagging is actually a medication review event for the
elderly in Singapore. It is a good learning experience
for all pharmacy students from NUSPS and everyone
is welcomed to sign up for this event. With the volun-
tary help of pharmacists, students will visit the elder-
lies door-to-door to conduct a medication review for
them. Thus students can put what they learn into a
good use and at the same time, have an overview of
how do pharmacists actually go about reviewing all
the medications. Elderlies in this project are counse-
led on the correct usage of the medications and also
counseled to ensure their compliance. This is also
to prevent the case of polypharmacy and drug-drug
interactions as they usually are prescribed multiple
drugs for their various conditions.

CP of NUSPS Singapore
Li Jiahui

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What KNAPS has done
• 2010.9.11 Pharm-Expo & New executives for
2010-11 were elected. KNAPS participated in the
Pharm-Expo held at COEX, as a pharmaceutical
students group. We helped the event run smooth-
ly. And, shortly after Pharm-Expo KNAPS held its
AGM where the new executives were elected.
• 2010.9.13 A Dinner with Mr. Ton Hoek, FIP
Secretary General. This was Mr Hoek first time
to Korea. We had a meeting with him and had a
great time talking about what IPSF does and in
particular the future of pharmacists. It was rela-
tively easy being able to speak to Mr Hoek as he
had a sense of humor.
• 2010.11.21 Milestone - Industrial Pharmacy
Profession
KNAPS newly launched a project named ‘Mile-
stone’ to help pharmaceutical students to seek
prospective professions so as to prepare what
they need for their dreams. The first topic was
‘Industrial Pharmacy’. We invited Mrs. Jung, an
executive managing director of AstraZeneca and
KNAPS
KOREA
by : Soen Park
Professor Kwon. Mrs Jung gave a lecture what it’s
like to work in R&D department and which abili-
ties we should develop. Prof. Kwon introduced us
to a course, which enabled us to obtain a MBA
with Pharmacy degree from Dongkuk University
in Korea.
• 2010.12.5 Plus Day
KYPG held Plus Day, which is an annual event.
KNAPS also participated by making a presenta-
tion on how we prepared for the 9th APPS and
what it was like. A senator Mr. Won who gradu-
ated with Pharmacy degree was also present and
gave a speech. He was the first senator who gradu-
ated with a degree of Pharmacy. From this experi-
ence we learnt that our professions are not limited
to only becoming pharmacists but also politician
or whatever we desire to eventually become.
These are what KNAPS has done so far. In this up-
coming January, KNAPS planned to have a social
party to greet a brand new year!
CP of KNAPS
Soen Park
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 Member in Association

HMD UI
by : Esther Lamria P

HMD Farmasi Universitas Indonesia is a pharma-

ceutical students’ organization of University of Indo-
nesia. Like other student organizations we organize
many pharmacy programs. Our planning for these
programs commences directly after the election of
our new Chairperson. Last year, we did an amazing
job in organizing an event called ‘Pharmacy Week-
end 2010’. This was an international event that in-
cluded: workshops, community service, posters
and an essay competition. We decided to have the
theme of Diabetes as well as invited many speakers
who were prominent senior lecturers from countries Other small programs we also conducted were bulle-
such as Australia and Singapore. The event success- ting news every 2 months, holding an Olympiad for
fully held and is illustrated in the following pictures. High School students, social/community service, fos-
tering brother and sisters (where we take care of orphan
child whether physically or financially). Through these
successful events we have held, we continue to dedi-
cate ourselves more to humanity in different respects.

As pharmacy students, we are aware of the im-

portance of public health and humanity, thus as
an organization we created ‘Pharmacy Care’. This
event is held annually in November and in previ-
ous years we visited General schools and guid-
ed children to prevent from Dengue Fever.

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BEM KEMAFAR UNPAD
by : Dinar Azzahra and Putri Wulansari
Through many generations, Indonesian has been de-
veloping both remedy and cosmetic brews from many
indigenous plants or animals that were believed by
the ancestors to have healing effects on diseases or
beautify physical appearance. Used by royal fam-
ily in Keraton (palace), the brew, called Jamu, had
limited access to be used by common people. Now-
adays, the use of Jamu has been being flourished
and consumed by most of Indonesian to maintain
health and beauty remembering its ‘magical effect’
not only by royal family but also common people.
Indonesian scientists realize that this tradition isn’t just
tradition. Jamu is the symbolism of health and is being
studied to become a clinical approved medicine since
Indonesia has an abundance of natural herbal resourc-
es. That’s why lecturers’ team of Pharmacy University
Member in Association
Padjadjaran Indonesia held an event to explore Jamu
scientifically. This great idea bears the event of the In-
ternational and Seminar Expo on Jamu (ISEJ) that was
held on 5th-6th November 2010 at Graha Sanusi of Pad-
jadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.
A poster exhibition was held at ISEJ on the research
of herbal plants and animals and its efficacy to body.
The poster exhibition participants not only showed
their research poster, but they also had to present
and explain their researches to the other participants.
So, thats all about the excitements from 1st ISEJ Padjad-
jaran University Indonesia. Hopely this report will give
you new information about Indonesian remedy and
cosmetic heritage of Jamu. Please come to Indonesia and
join the next International Seminary and Expo on Jamu!
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Judy Chang’s
Beautiful
Japan!
The SEP experience in Japan certainly enriched my
undergraduate experience. Not only was I able to gain
more knowledge about medical science, I was also able
to learn more about Japan through interactions with the
Japanese students. The program placed as much focus
on cultural experience as it did on academic learning,
and I would recommend it to anyone who is seeking a
SEP destination that is balanced on these two aspects.
I was placed at two research laboratories during
my practice: one was at an immunobiochemistry lab
and the other was at a lab that studied health effects of
nanoparticles. The members of these labs were all very
patient and helpful when it came to explaining their
experiments and protocols. Despite the fact that they
were not accustomed to giving explanations in English,
they tried very hard to overcome the language barrier.
I was touched by their efforts to clarify concepts for me
with diagrams, demonstrations, and sometimes body
language. At the nanoparticles lab, I was able to learn
about the newest nanoparticle technologies as well as
the concerns about nanoparticles pollutants from top
professors and researchers in Japan. I also had the op-
portunity to see common assays such as microarray and
ELISA being run. At the immunobiochemistry lab, I
was allowed to perform certain lab techniques myself. I
was able to perform a gel electrophoresis, Western Blot,
and confocal microscopy, and another international
student got to do HPLC and TLC in her lab. I also
witnessed a rat dissection, which was something I had
E
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never seen before. What I appreciated most, however,
was that I wasn’t simply given a set of instructions to
follow when performing a technique. The staff mem-
bers ensured that I understood the purpose of each step
and the ultimate goal of the experiment. I was extreme-
ly thankful for this because personally, this kind of
understanding was essential for me to fully enjoy what I
was doing.
As mentioned, the SEP in Japan was planned
in such a way that exchange students would also have
the chance to immerse themselves in Japanese culture.
Exchange students were able to experience daily life in
a Japanese family through homestaying. At the same
time, we were happy to share stories about our own
countries with our host families. During the days of the
program where there was no lab practice scheduled,
exchange students enjoyed sightseeing with fellows stu-
dents of APS. This year, some of the places we went to
include a firework festival, Mount Fuji, the Ghibli Mu-
seum, Nikko, Harajuku, and Ikebukuro. We also took
a 3-day trip to the Kansai region of Japan. There, we
visited the ancient temples and shrines of Kyoto as well
as the infamous Osaka Castle. If I had to point out one
minor imperfection, it would be the summer climate
in Japan. Japan is very hot and humid in August, and I
would advise future exchange student to come prepared
for this. Aside from this, I can assure that anyone who
comes to this beautiful country with an open mind will
leave with a very positive experience.
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SEP
E x p e r i e n c e

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SEP in Canada has been one of the precious
memories in my life.
I chose a pharmacy in Toronto for SEP and I
stayed in the residence of University of Toronto which
was only 10 minutes away from the pharmacy that I
have been working at. When I landed in Toronto, I was
filled with fears since everything was unfamiliar to me.
However, right after I met the student who came to the
airport to pick me up, I realized the fears I had were all
useless. She was kind and nice. She helped me to place
my things in the residence and gave me a quick tour
around the University. She also took me to the pharma-
cy that I will be working at to let me know the location.
Even though it was the first time for me work-
ing at the pharmacy, the pharmacist informed me about
everything that I needed to know in order to work at
the pharmacy (blister packs, mixture, different drugs
info etc.). I worked 4~5days a week and usually had
weekends off. She also drove me out to the suburb and
had me introduced to her friends and enjoyed a festival
together.
I also had chance to hang out with the phar-
macy students at University of Toronto. Almost every
weekend they took me to different restaurants and
places to look around. Since the period that I was in
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Choi Jung Min’s
Precious
Canada!
Toronto was summer, lots of festivals were going on so
we could enjoy different festivals together. I also had
chance to meet other exchange student in Toronto. We
both as foreigners in Toronto, could share difficulties
we had and also went for a city tour together when we
had time.
I got to know many different students through
this SEP and was a great experience for me to know
what pharmacy is like, different curriculums in phar-
macy school, and different work areas for pharmacist
in Canada. Lastly I want to say special thanks to the
pharmacist since she overlooked my mistakes in phar-
macy, offered me lots of chances to participate different
activities that I can do after work, and cared about me
thoughtfully while I was in Toronto.
I want to tell students who hesitate to partici-
pate SEP, that she/he should bravely throw themselves
into this great opportunity to learn and earn variety of
things. You will definitely earn more than you think. I
say SEP is really a recommendable activity in school life
with no doubt.
“You will definitely
earn more than you
think. “-Choi Jung Min-
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 Friends from

SEP
E x p e r i e n c e
Poland,Netherland,&
Spain were doing their
SEP in Indonesia
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 E
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NUSPS

FriendlySingapore
After months of liaising and provision of information and merits of IPSF SEP, the following organizations
expressed interested in participating – KTPH, KKH, Guardian Health and Beauty and Unity NTUC Healthcare
and Watsons.

Below i s a list of students who have successfully completed their exchange here and details of their ex-
change:

No. Name of Student Start Date End Date Country University/ Institution
1. Sheeda Wong 17th May 12th June Canada KK Women and Children’s Hospital
2. Jan Sieluk 12th July 6th August Poland Watsons
3 Marta 12th July 6th August Spain Watsons
4 Hoa 12th July 6th August Czech Watsons
5 Pooja 10th June 2nd July India Guardian
6 Zdenka 5th July 30th July Czech Unity
7 Marketa 5th July 30th July Czech Unity
8 Peter Dios 5th July 30th July Hungary Unity
9 Caroline 6th September 1st October Germany Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH)
10 Stella 6th September 1st October Germany Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH)

Our local students from NUSPS International Relations Committee were in charge of hosting the students
from Europe, Canada and India. The students had attachments at a variety of settings. While in Singapore some of
them also took the opportunity to attend the Asia Conference on Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP).
The committee members arranged to receive the exchange students at the airport and to bring them to
their accommodation and workplace. Programmes were arranged for the exchange students and these included
sightseeing in Singapore and bringing them to places of interest such as Chinatown, Little India, the Zoo, East
Coast Park, Sentosa and savouring local delicacies.
Overall, the students had a wonderful time in Singapore. Besides learning the Singaporean approach to
patient counseling and protocols, they also learnt about the medical industry and the healthcare system.

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SEP
E x p e r i e n c e

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http://www.apps2011-indonesia.com/
come and join us!

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