Humanitarian medical students concert organized in Osijek has an 8 year old traditon and it represents one of the main projects in Human Rights and Peace comitee. Purpose of this concert is to collect money for charity. Performers of the concert are mostly medical students with formal/informal musical education ( singing or playing an instrument). Preparations last couple of months with noble goal of helping people in need.

Program of the concert has a great variety of performances, composed mainly of solistic performances on cello, flute, guitar, piano, saxophone, native Croatian orchestra, rock bands etc. We would like to specially mention MEFOS choir, established for purposes of the concert.  Also, program lasts around 90 minutes, and has 10-15 performances.

People are usually really interested in buying tickets for the concert, and all the money collected from the donations is given to the charity. There is a great response to the event- professors, medical students, students in general and also citizens give us the acknowledgment in quality and prosperity of this project.

When we decide whom we will donate the money, we tend to observe actuall problems in the present time just to be sure that the money will go to the right place, e.g. one year we collected money for medical student from Sarajevo who suffered from leucemia. Other time we donated money to Vanessa Gibić, a girl diagnosed with Wilms tumor etc.

Lately, we donate money to associations who do charity work for homeless and mentally challanged people. Media show us daily that many people within these two groups need help, and also associations that take care of them don’t have enough financial fonds to help them.

Except for the humanitarian part of this project, there is also a goal to encourage mutual cooperation within students. This is why we call not only students from Osijek, but also guests from Rijeka and Zagreb. Being a student is more than studying for exams, and great things can be made if we put in some effort and good will. Students get to show their talents, and their collegues get to enjoy their performances and show their social awareness. This project encourages students to take care of people around them and also shows them that helping someone doesn’t have to be boring.

Humanitarian concert of medical students is project that is combining many things: helping others, mutual cooperation within students and also encouragement and presentation of one’s ideas and talents. We learn how to be better people and better citizens, and that is certainly something we should encounter during our student life.