ABOUT US.
African Caribbean Medical Association is a student society of medical students whose mission is to promote good race relations and equality of opportunity within our medical school, the healthcare profession and the wider community in Wales. Our end goal is to increase the number of clinically excellent, culturally competent and socially conscious physicians.
We aim to accomplish this by firstly inspiring and equipping more African Caribbean students to pursue careers in medicine. Moreover, we aim to provide a platform that facilitates networking and encourages medical students to accomplish their career aspirations. Finally, we aim to campaign to achieve structural equity in our university.
It is our privilege that these aims were set up by our founders, who have supported the set up of other ACMA branches to build a network on a wider scale - ACMA UK. You can find out more about their work here.
COMMITTEE 2022/23.
WHO WE WORK WITH.
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EYST: We have enjoyed participating in the All Wales BAME Engagement Forums and are grateful for our partnership to set up a mentorship programme and outreach event opportunities
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Race Alliance Wales: As an society, we have joined this alliance and look forward to participating in bimonthly meetings with other Welsh BAME organisations
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Race Equality First: We are grateful to be able to facilitate racism awareness and hate crime sessions with REF and we hope to sign up medics and medical school staff to come to these sessions. For more info, get in touch with us.
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Race Council Cymru: We have enjoyed working with the National BAME Youth forum to address structural issues and the outreach opportunities to work with prospective students
We are passionate about working with the wider BAME community in Wales to make an impact and be involved in discussions. We are proud to be working with the following:
OUR MEDICAL SCHOOL:
In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, many racial injustices within institutions and the NHS have been brought to light. We wanted to play an active role in supporting our medical school to improve areas in which they address race & diversity.
We wrote to them a letter giving our offer of support and then put together a survey for BAME medics and alumni. From this survey, we were able to put together an advisory document which you can see highlights on the left. You can read the full document here.
Following on, we have stimulated a conversation with the medical school and are working with other BAME medical societies and groups to make a long lasting input to help fulfil the required actions.
We will update this page shortly with some exciting updates for how we will be working effectively in collaboration with the medical school. We are excited for the sustainable action ahead and a brighter future!
UPDATE: We have now established a Student-Staff Race Equality Task Group feeding into key structures in the medical school and university. You can read more about the remit of the group here
We meet six times a year. To have an insight into our work in in 2020/1, some of our focusses will be on:
* Collaborating to form a calendar of Black History Month events in our respected societies and with others
* Improving the raising concerns policy
* Decolonising the curriculum
* Evaluating impact of biases in assesments
... and more!
In the future, we also hope to tackle other themes such as widening participation and representation in workplac, racial awareness days and working to improve EDI!