The HIFA Steering Group is delighted to announce the winners of the HIFA Country Representative of the Year Award 2012. We would like to award the title jointly to four people:
- Tara Ballav Adhikari (Nepal)
- Soumyadeep Bhaumik (India)
- Paola de Castro (Italy)
- Numan Majeed (Pakistan).
Below is a summary of their achievements in 2012. We would also like to make a special commendation to: Princess E O Nwafor-Orizu (Nigeria), who was the winner of the HIFA Country Representative of the Year Award in 2011, and who has continued to do great things in 2012; Gwewasang Martin (Cameroon), and Ekezie Ralueke Oluchukwu (Nigeria).
Our thanks and congratulations to all of you and indeed to all 78 HIFA Country Representatives in 36 countries for the wonderful work you have done for HIFA2015 over the past year. We look forward to continue working with you in 2013.
HIFA2015 Steering Group, 9 February 2013
TARA BALLAV ADHIKARI is a Program Coordinator with the People’s Health Movement Nepal Student’s Circle, Nepal. Professional interests: health for all. He has developed a Facebook Page to promote HIFA2015, which has now been endorsed by the HIFA Steering Group as the official HIFA2015 Facebook Page. The page already has 111 fans and Tara has added regular content, encouraging Facebook users to join the HIFA forums. He has sent email invitations to 2642 friends and collegues and has circulated this mail to 10 email groups with around 9500 members. He has had presentation opportunities in 8 meetings and conferences since June on HIFA2015 topics. He has successfully convinced at least 34 people to join HIFA.
SOUMYADEEP BHAUMIK is a physician and an independent medical researcher working on an honorary basis as resident editor in Your Health, a magazine by Indian Medical Association (IMA) to propogate health and awareness among Indians – thus it is premised on the same priniciple as HIFA. He is also the Editor and Head of News at Journal of Pakistan Medical Students (JPMS) and Ediorial Consultant at JPMS Blogs .Previously Soumyadeep was a Medical Sub Editor of the Journal of Indian Medical Associtation, India. Professional interests: Resource poor health care systems ,medical ethics and medical literature. He is a HIFA2015 Country Representative. Soumyadeep Bhaumik has promoted HIFA2015 to the Academy of Family Physicians of India and the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, and both of these subsequently became official HIFA Supporting Organisations. In addition, he has been invited to give a presentation on HIFA2015 to the Board of the Indian Public Health Association. He co-wrote with Neil Pakenham-Walsh an article promoting HIFA2015: “Healthcare Information: The Need To Recognise Its Importance In Public Health”, published in the November 2012 issue of Your Health, the health magazine of Indian Medical Association. The magazine has of more than 8000 subscribers in print reaching all the 5000 primary health centers located in the state of West Bengal, India. He has also commissioned two articles on health information from HIFA member Dr A. Malpani. Soumyadeep writes a blog which regularly features health information issues, and includes the HIFA2015 badge/button (all HIFA members may use this – please download from http://www.hifa2015.org/link-to-us. He has sent more than 200 e-mail invitations with the HIFA leaflet asking them to join. About 40 of them confirmed that they have joined HIFA2015. He has shared the HIFA website/video links in various groups in Facebook. Scores of people have “liked” these statuses.
PAOLA DE CASTRO is Director of the Publishing Unit at Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Italy. Professional interests: open access publishing, training, information literacy, editing, international cooperation. She is a HIFA2015 Country Representative. paola.decastro@iss.it Paola has printed and distributed about 300 HIFA2015 leaflets, both in Italy and other countries on the occasion of national and international events, including EAHIL Conference, EASE Conference, and SciELO Workshop. She has promoted HIFA with the European Association of Science Editors, which has now become a HIFA Supporting Organisation. She has written a short article on HIFA to be published in the European Science Editors journal.
NUMAN MAJEED is a medical graduate from Pakistan. Along with studies, he is working as editor/reviewer and for several medical journals. He is also involved in a number of medical societies/associations. He has done some researches himself, and is now guiding other students regarding research and publication. Basic interests are clinical genetics and molecular medicine. Numan has spread the word about HIFA regularly on all available platforms. He has engaged many new members including the following people who are now Country Representatives: – Pakistan: Marryam Noor Malik, Majiid Jan Kakakheel; – Nepal: Smith Giri; – India: Nisha Dhaiya. In addition, Numan participated in the PLoS/HIFA2015 Webinar, 28th March 2012, and has promoted HIFA as part of a presentation on Open Access and Availability of Open Access data in developing countries with special reference to Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
From the Press Release of HIFA2015.
Dr. Soumyadeep Bhaumik 