Michelle Lau
November 20th, 2021
MD Junior, a new club at HKIS this year, is part of a non-profit organization that aims to unite students around the world to fight the health gap. Around the world, there are those who do have health care and those who don’t. Therefore, fighting the health gap will allow everyone to have access to health care, no matter who they are or where they live. The organization was founded by Sid Verma (10) and his brother, Shaun Verma, who is currently studying at John Hopkins University. It started out as a high school club, and in the past few years has grown into an international operation. The primary goal of MD Junior is to help people around the world who do not have equal opportunities to obtain medicine. Although the club is just starting up at HKIS, members hope to lessen the health gap as opportunities arise.
Verma brought the organization to HKIS as a club because he believed that he could expand his organization and help people in Asia. MD Junior was originally founded and ran in Georgia, America. The club leaders at HKIS this year are Aditya Kalra (10), Phoebe Chen (11), Sam Gillette (11), and Vikram Mubayi (11).
Julia Lee (9), a member of the club, enjoys attending the club meetings because she loves learning about medicine outside of the classroom. “I love that we get to meet people who work in the medical field,” she notes. “It’s pretty cool that actual doctors come in to talk about their specialties,” she adds. Lee also feels that the information sessions with doctors have made her more conscious of her own health.
There are three pillars that form the foundation of this club: knowledge, skills, and attitude. The first pillar is knowledge and it is given to the club members when doctors or professors come to talk about their medical professions during after school sessions. The second foundation stands for all the skills gained by club members while going on field trips during school holidays. For example, members of MD Junior might go to a hospital and learn about how a hospital works. Attitude, the third foundation, is imparted to members through attempts to make great efforts to tangibly help people. For instance, MD Junior holds an annual trip during the Chinese New Year holiday so that members can go to India to provide citizens, who lack basic health care, with some medicines or drugs. A few years ago, MD Junior took a trip to Honduras because of the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that took place in 2009. These field trips are funded by bake sales and fundraising activities held by the club.
Besides going on annual trips, MD Junior also strives to better the world by giving back to others financially. “We are trying to give back to those who are less fortunate than us,” Mubayi comments. Therefore, the club will be holding tournaments, bake sales, field trips, and many more activities. They will be holding a basketball event soon and all funds raised will be sent to a hospital in India.
Although there are not many members of the club right now, Mubayi believes that the future of MD Junior is bright, since it is a new club and they are still trying to build it up. He hopes that “people will realize the good that we are doing and more people will join us.”
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