University of New South Wales 2016 Report
Sai Sankare Siritharan, President 2016, Hepatitis B Free University of New South Wales (UNSW)
It was a pleasure and privilege to serve as Hepatitis B Free UNSW’s President for 2016. I am proud of our team’s commitment to running successful fundraisers and educational events to spread awareness about hepatitis B.
This year, we developed strong foundations in our working relationship with the USYD society as well as the main charity. In particular, the release of our ‘NOHep’ video was a highlight and displays the potential of further great projects to come. This teamwork between societies and the charity will be a crucial factor in raising awareness of our cause amongst youth and we’ll be looking to increasing social events in following years.
Fundraisers:
Krispy Kreme: raised $758.30
Nachos
Socials
Musical social (2015)
Pizza Meet and Greet
Awareness and Education:
O-Week
Speaker Night, with Senior Research Fellow Suzanne Polis and gastroenterologist/hepatologist Dr Robert Cheng
NO Hep video campaign
World Hepatitis Day whiteboards
The No Hep campaign was our big collaboration of the year with the USYD charity and the main charity; Hepatitis B Free. The goal was to create a unique, fun video covering Meghan Trainor’s song ‘No’, which focused on spreading awareness about Hepatitis B and was our contribution to the ‘NOHep’ movement, which celebrates The World Health Organisation’s new goal to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. This was a whole day event which consisted of two parts;
Members took photos with Hepatitis B Free’s ‘NOHep’ banner in front of iconic Sydney locations
Dressed up in costumes to sing and film the ‘NOHep’ music video
We had a fantastic time due to the brilliant initiative of several passionate members. They helped come up with song lyrics, screenplay and choreography. The event itself had a great turnout of approximately 20 students working with lots of fun, energy and excitement throughout the day. The sharing of the video on YouTube, Facebook and via email was very successful. We contacted other organisations focused on Hepatitis whom shared the video on Facebook. UNSW shared the video and it received over 12,000 views. We learnt that fun activities given plenty of notice and which require one-off commitment attract more volunteers and high effort leads to high rewards!
Next steps
I’d like to end this report by thanking the many people I’ve worked with this year, including Hepatitis B Free USYD and Hepatitis B Free. It has been a wonderful experience and a successful year. The 2016 Hepatitis B Free UNSW team have discussed several recommendations for the future of Hepatitis B Free UNSW and hope these will be taken on board to further strengthen our society:
Further growth and more successful and engaging events
Form stronger connections with passionate and committed members
Recruit younger members in order to ensure the sustainability of the society
A shift in the society’s outlook to prioritise student involvement with the charity Hepatitis B Free
