Prior to the launch of this challenge, PDA student and trainee members were invited to an online launch event on Thursday 8 January. This event allowed attendees to hear a powerful story from a speaker with frontline humanitarian experience and see an example of the winning submission in the ‘Medicines to Ukraine’ Challenge in 2023, to demonstrate what’s possible.
Attendees also had the opportunity to ask questions and gain early access to the registration link, 24 hours before it opened publicly.
The PDA is now inviting all pharmacy students and trainee pharmacists to take part in the challenge. All those taking part will gain a deeper understanding of how pharmacy can aid in humanitarian crises. While the focus is on helping others, there are opportunities for those taking part in the challenge to earn rewards. More details and rules of the ‘Medicines To Gaza’ Challenge can be found below.
Getting started
- Create a team of a maximum of 8 people
- Ensure every team member is a PDA member. Students and trainees who are not yet PDA members can join for FREE by clicking here.
- Register for FREE to participate
- Be creative! This is a chance to create something unique and meaningful.
Rules
- Teamwork: Participants will work in groups (max. 8 people) to develop and launch their campaigns.
- Avoid politicisation. This challenge has been established for humanitarian purposes, but teams may face challenges from those who seek to politicise the issues and this could damage the principal humanitarian purpose of the campaign. The PDA urges all students and trainee’s participating to avoid politicisation and to focus upon humanitarianism. Additionally, the PDA invites participants to read the their advice on the importance of using appropriate and professional conduct on social media channels.
- The challenge could be social media challenge, community fundraiser, video, poster, podcast, or any other creative initiative. Although the PDA recognises that most teams who enter the competition will want to organise their own campaign branding and posters etc, others may wish to develop local campaigns that are supported by the original standard ‘Medicines To Gaza’ posters. The PDA provides a link to enable teams to download such posters if required. They should ensure that any contributors who click on the Just Giving QR code on the standard campaign poster, identify the Team by its name so that any proceeds can be credited to their team.
- Entry: Entries must be submitted as a video presentation lasting no more than 3 minutes to [email protected].
- All funds raised must be paid into the PDA’s JustGiving Page citing the team name.
Rewards
- All team members will receive a Certificate of Participation.
- All members of the top 3 teams get a Certificate of Excellence and an additional reward
- One person from the 3rd Place team will attend an all-expense-paid UK Pharmacy Event as an official member of the PDA’s delegation.
- One person from the 2nd Place team will attend an all-expense-paid 2026 European Pharmacists Association Annual Congress in Poland as an official member of the PDA’s Delegation.
- One person from the winning team will attend an all-expense-paid 2026 FIP International Congress in Montreal, Canada as an official member of the PDA’s Delegation.
Registration for this challenge opens Friday, 9 January, and the challenge closes on Thursday, 30 April. The PDA will announce the winner after the challenge has closed.
Those interested can learn more and download the Information and Registration Pack below
The PDA looks forward to receiving each team’s submission and wishes all those who enter the best of luck.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CHALLENGE TODAY
Learn more
- Information and Registration Pack
- PDA launches the Medicines to Gaza Campaign
- Using social media responsibly: Guidance for pharmacists
- Medicines to Gaza JustGiving page
Not yet a PDA member?
If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and ask your colleagues to do the same.
Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, trainee pharmacists and for the first three months of being newly qualified.
Read about our key member benefits here.