Our History
BIL Armenia was founded in 2018, with a powerful vision in mind – to create a dynamic platform that unites not only medical, but also all students with diverse educational backgrounds in Armenia.
With the first project started in 2019 aimed on Public Health education improvement, the annual event "the Impact of Bad Habits on Publc Health" (branded as IBH). IBH become our flagship event and stays such till now therefore it is our first project to be sponsored by UN country office (UNFPA).
Since 2020 we have started the annual campaign on Cancer Risk Awareness for the general population of Armenia with already thousands of people covered in Yerevan and marzes.
With enlargement of the projects BIL moved to providing not only educational and awareness, but also international and exchange opportunities. Thus, in 2021 the road to becoming the only National Member Organization of Armenia in IFMSA started, proceeded in 2022 with Associate Membership and succeeded with the Full Membership recognition at March Meeting of IFMSA (MM25) in Paris, France.
With every step our community felt more urge to dive into scientific development and in December of 2022 the Scientific Channel was created and functions today as one of the main science pop tools of our organization.
Continuous development led to finding more enthusiasts in Armenia and beyond and in January 2023 the first MOU of BIL Armenia was signed with ESN Armenia.
With BIL Armenia growing bigger, so did the demand of interactive local projects to learn and network. To boost the community of specifically medical students the first monthly event was created in February of 2023 - MedTalks.
Even though BIL Armenia does it's best to provide opportunities to as many young enthusiasts as possible, BIL is people. BIL is the members, BILders, youngsters who create better future together. To ensure better teamwork, teambuilding and democratic values implementation inside our organization the first closed event started March of 2023 - the National Genaral Assembly of the Healthcare Students of Armenia (NGA).
Since 2023 BIL Armenia is the Volunteers Taskforce and Students' Representative Body of IMCA (International Medical Congress of Armenia) that take place once per 4 years.
In the Summer of 2023, we have conducted our first exchange program which was done under the umbrella of IFMSA SCOPE.
With years of experience in education, science, international affairs, project management, etc. our community realized that there is a critical need for active citizenship development in Armenia and the region. The best way to make a change is to become an example. Thus, in Autumn of 2023 BIL Armenia has conducted the first elections since the day of foundation for all the leadership positions inside the organization.
After several years of hard work BIL with all the public recognition faced the fact that not only students, but also clinical residents and young doctors also face limited opportunities. That's why it was decided to become the official Country Representative of TravelandMed in Armenia in December of 2023.
Since March of 2024 we started to work more sustainable on the experience and learning of our members and created the regular Continuous Internal Trainings (CITs) for our members to learn all the possible skills that are not available or limited in academia.
With our Scientific Channel growing the need for stronger scientific community became obvious, so the Getting Started with Research (GSWR) was initiated in April of 2024.
In August 2024 another milestone was reached via MoU signature between BIL Armenia and TSMU Students' Selv-Government.
As mentioned multiple times BIL Armenia is a home for all students interested in Healthcare. To ensure that international opportunities are available for everyone but not only medical student, BIL applied to become the first member from Armenia for Youth Health Organization (YHO) and became such in September 2024.
While BIL is mainly targeting healthcare students, we do our best to make change and provide value to as many people as possible. To make sure we live in healthier society in September 2024 we started health awareness digital project - Health Media.
With freshly united scientific community the urge of new learning and better networking was raised. BIL Armenia as always replied with a tailored solution in October of 2024: emerged from idea of MedTalks SciTalks became reality.
While we grow daily and reach milestone after milestone the path is not easy and there were and are many ups and downs. BILCast the first Students' Podcast for all students in Armenia and Armenians around the world is an idea started in early 2021, but unfortunately not realized yet. We hope that in 2025 with all the power of our members and help from outside we will be able to finally start that unique project available for everyone.
We believe that by bringing together a diverse group of students, we can create a stronger and more impactful community, driving positive change in healthcare and beyond.