AEFML's 105 years are no short story to tell. It is a reason to bring together some of its most prestigious alumni, now doctors, lecturers, representatives of the most prestigious entities and also the current ones, those who today embody the Association.

On behalf of the Faculty of Medicine, Assistant Director and Professor Ana Sebastião made a point of starting the celebration session by remembering that it is “the dynamic students who make a dynamic school”.

With the participation of the Clinical Director of the Board of Directors of the Northern Lisbon University Hospital Centre, Luís Pinheiro, a former student at the Faculty, it was via him that the importance of the “spirit of the CAML as a basis for our existence, attested by the fact that the doctor of this Faculty is the doctor trained in this hospital” was strengthened.

President of the Southern Section of the Medical Association and former President of AEFML, Alexandre Valentim Lourenço, enhanced the role of the “Association in the creation of intervention leaders”. Concerned about the numbers, he nevertheless showed that more students leave each year than the possible vacancies that open for specialties, which means, in his words “that there are doctors who, if they never perform, will never be specialists at anything”.

Former student and former President of AEFML, a plastic surgeon and paediatric surgeon, António Gentil Martins opposes the celebration of the 105 years of existence of an AEFML that for him is only 75 years of age, since in its early days it was elected by others, that is, appointed by the government”.

Of the history and accounts that showcase the many experiences that today make AEFML what it is, the main speech of the current AEFML President, José Rodrigues, stands out.

 

105 years AEFML speech

"Hon. Deputy Director of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon, Professor Ana Sebastião,
Hon. Clinical Director of the Board of Directors of the Northern Lisbon University Hospital Centre, Dr Luís Pinheiro,
Hon. President of the Southern Section of the Medical Association, Dr Alexandre Valentim Lourenço,
Dear Lecturers,
Dear former leaders of AEFML,
Dear guests,
Dear students

 

It is with great pleasure that AEFML welcomes you all on this special day for our Association.

105 years is, in fact, a long time.

The history of this Association is a beautiful puzzle that results from many pieces. Many of these pieces are here today in this auditorium, but many more are spread across the country and around the world. They all cherish this Association that has given us so much.

Since 30 September 1914, it has proved to be a unique institution in the student movement and its impact on society, as a structure that has always been able to shape the needs and circumstances of every moment of its history.

From the outset, it has played a leading role in the area of Public Health and launched the Medical Evening, an event that continues to be a remarkable show, bringing together several generations of future doctors under the same heading.

Its early decades were marked by the constraints of the Salazar’s regime, in which an even bigger moment is highlighted in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Egas Moniz.

On 30 April 1931, Egas Moniz, then director of FMUL, opposed the entry of the law enforcement officers to the faculty, allowing students to flee.

These limitations culminated in the dissolution of the AEFML in 1953, becoming a pro-association and always trying to maintain its activities.

In the 1960s, with departmental organization, degree committees, and inter-association meetings, AEFML began to take the shape it has today.

The Publishing Section was founded in 1961, where undergraduate theses and regime subversive leaflets were printed.

This decade also highlights the feeling and humanism of medical students, when in 1967 heavy floods affected Lisbon and students of the FML opened the student room as a shelter and provided care and help.

After the tumultuous period of the revolution, the Association has consolidated and grown, with more and more projects and a wider range of action.

It began to have more activities for students and to play an intense, strong and preponderant role externally through its involvement in the National Medical Students Association and the national federative movement, first with the creation of the Lisbon Academic Association in 1985, and more recently by joining the Lisbon Academic Federation, without neglecting international participation and representation.

In the last two decades, the growth of the AEFML has been exponential, following the growth of higher education and in the number of medical students.

It is, therefore, the result of this rich history that mingles with the history of Portugal in the last century, where the AEFML stands today.

And that is why it is so important that we also have moments like today when AEFML, its friends, the people who love and care for it come together, remember and preserve its memory.

But that's not just why we are here today. It is also to look to the future, to our future.

That is why, at this particular moment in our country when the AEFML celebrates a round date in its history, it also proposes to discuss our future, especially regarding Health.

So we thank the extraordinary Organizing Committee that prepared the two round tables this afternoon and also the speakers who accepted this invitation, as we collectively propose to reflect and debate our country together.

 

Thank you for your presence.

Thank you for helping to build an ever better and stronger AEFML!

José Rodrigues"

 

Congratulations AEFML!

Photo credits: AEFML

Joana Sousa
Editorial Team