My name is Izzy and I am a 4th year Medical Student at Barts and the London. I grew up in Albania and Bosnia and now live in Whitechapel, so my life has always been incredibly multicultural.
I got involved with the Elly Charity in my second year of university through the OBS and GYNAE society and Barts. From there I got involved in a research project regarding health literacy in East London, something very close to my heart. Having grown up in different cultures I recognized how hard it was to communicate health needs in a foreign language and country, so getting involved in this project was incredibly important to me.
We organized focus groups and spoke to women of Bengali origin to find out what their struggles were regarding health literacy. A highlight of that day was getting to meet a lot of babies and watching the mothers get emotional speaking about their struggles. This highlighted the importance of this project once again. We are currently working on organizing courses for women to learn English in EastLondon to encourage autonomy when speaking to healthcare professionals. These courses were developed through focus groups we did the following 2 years and transcripts from these that were analysed. Our team has grown and we are now working on a systematic review!
Volunteering with Elly Charity and given me a variety of skills and experiences in my Medical School career that I consider vital for my future as a doctor and in research. I encourage everyone to try and get involved with Elly Charity and their teaching/research projects going on.