When you hear 'IMA', you may wonder what we are doing.
IMA is the abbreviation forInternational Medical Association.
Here we will explain about ourselves briefly.

What we do

We are a students' association about medicine and medical education in the world. Every summer, three or four 6th grade students of Keio university school of medicine go to the countries of Central and South America do do medical activities.
IMA is a students' association, so we decide by ourselves which countries to go and what activities we will do there.

We have been studying and investigating about tropical diseases and enhance mutual understanding through medical international exchanges between Japan and Central and South America.
Here are some examples of our activities.
We visit and participate in the activities of JICA(Japan International Cooperation Agency), AMDA(the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia, NGO).
We board an official ship which go around the Amazon River to look after sick people in villages without doctors.
We participate in the international scientific congress of the medical students in Central and South America, and read our papers in Spanish and Portuguese.

How we organized

IMA has a long history for more than thirty years. In 1977, members of the 1st mission found that they had studied medicine in details but had not been international-minded. They were afraid of becoming doctors without variable experiences in their youth. So they decided to organize a mission to the Central and South America, and to study medicine widely.

In Japan, many people value the medicine done in Europe and America.
However, the members of the 1st mission did not want to stick to Europe and America. They wanted to trully grow their international view and widen their way of thinking.
Moreover, many Japanese people had immigrated into Central and South America, so they wanted to help those people.
For these reasons we have chosen the Central and South America as our main field, and have been sending members there every year.