First of all, you might have noticed that my name is a little weird. How do you pronounce Marijan Pejic? Well, both “j”s are pronounced like “y” and the “c” is actually a “ć” which is pronounced like a “ch”.

I was born in former Yugoslavia in 1989. I came to the U.S. under a refugee status in 1999. I realized at some point that I have opportunities in life that people who were born in the same hospital as me do not have. That is a motivator for me to do my best in school, to stay healthy, and to give back to the world. You can easily guess in which category the creation of this website fits in.

I’ve put a massive amount of time and energy into creating this site but if it encourages one more healthcare practitioner to volunteer and thereby saves one more life, then I think that it was all worth it. I think that the conference deserves this.

IMVC.org (in its latest edition) has been up for a little over a week but has been accessed in 23 different countries. There have been hundreds of visitors. People from colleges, medical schools, and hospitals across the country and across the oceans have visited.

My hope is that the traffic on the website will continue to rise as rapidly as it has so far and that all members will share the existence of this website with their friends. This site is not limited to just medical practitioners. All people who support the site and/or would like to learn more are encouraged to join the website and the Facebook group. The plan is for this website to be used for the next conferences and to spread the spirit of medical volunteerism long after the first conference is over.

I also hope that the members will become more active on the Forum. Don’t be shy. This website has already been accessed by hundreds of doctors and you’ll never know who would be interested in joining or starting a medical mission with you. I plan to create a forum in which members can recruit interested and eligible students to go follow them on missions (I would expect for the student to cover his or her own travel expenses). My hope is that the amazing medical volunteers who already are members of the site (yes, I have read your bios and all the collaborative book entries) can inspire the students of today to be the medical volunteers of tomorrow.

If you have any suggestions or comments, I’m an email away (marijanpejic@yahoo.com). I look forward to the conference that will start a tradition.

Best regards,

Maki Pejic