How many people does it take to try and save a life? Clichéd openings aside, it’s a question that has given me much pause for thought when I look back and (shudder) reflect on my experiences of the last year or so.
All in Volunteering
Homelessness in East London: an issue ignored for far too long
The upheaval of our lives due to COVID continues to reveal issues in our country. Our NHS has been worked to the bone, small businesses are forced to bring their shutters down permanently, and we are all cooped up at home. However, there is an issue that has been on the rise well before the pandemic. Homelessness in London.
Why Should You Volunteer As A Student
Congratulations to all our new incoming Barts and the London students, we look forward to welcoming you! As a fresher, you must be excited to embark on your journey as a student here. Entering a new environment comes with a plethora of new opportunities, one of which is volunteering.
In Conversation with Barts Community Smiles
Barts Communities Smiles is a QMSU volunteering group that aims to raise oral health awareness in Tower Hamlets and beyond. Barts and The London Dental students deliver basic oral health promotion in a number of different community settings, including outreach health centres and schools.
Friends for Life
When Eden Seager and Kassem Kassem, two 3rd year medics, first established the Friendly Society at Barts and The London, they could not have predicted the year that was to come. They established this volunteering group after learning about social isolation amongst the elderly population in the UK, and especially in London.
Viva Volunteering
Recently I’ve been thinking about the people, places and experiences that have nurtured my growth throughout dental school. Pulling it all together, a common thread comes to the forefront, having shaped not only the dental student I’ve come to be, but also the identity I’ve come to inhabit. This impact has been made by volunteering.
Coronavirus: A Reminder for Our Communities from BL ROCK
In the coming months, remember to take care of the health and the wellbeing of those around you. Check on your neighbours and the elderly, in the same way you would do for your loved ones.
Happening At BL 2
Happening at BL is our round up of the great things our student community has been up to!
ROCK On! Self-Defence and Other Projects
“Help others without any reason and give without the expectation of receiving anything in return”
– Roy T. Bennett
This quote perfectly encapsulates the spirit of charity and giving back in an exceptional volunteering group at Barts and the London.
On Wednesdays We Wear Green
“Running call! Patient fallen off the top of a bus stop, take gases and get there quick!” Calls to patients with this particular mechanism of injury are, unsurprisingly, a bit of a rarity for everyone, but regardless of their injury, we are still expected to be the first medical response for members of the public and often get there far before the ambulance service.
Project Play: The fun, the funky, and the messy
On the seventh floor of the Royal London nestled in amongst the paediatric wards, there exists the Playspace, where four times a week a team of volunteers don their signature purple shirts and get together to put on a session of fun activities for the children and teenagers of the surrounding wards looking for a distraction from the unending boredom of a hospital bed.
Happening At BL 1
Happening at BL is our round up of the great things our student community has been up to!
Volunteers Assemble! All You Need to Know About CW2019
For many students at BL, Charity Week is an established mainstay week of events in October that they have come to know and love. For others, it is simply a Facebook invite that they click on once and proceed to ignore. Well, for all those people in the second group, this is your chance to find out exactly what Charity Week is and what it entails! In its most basic form, Charity Week or CW is a week of various events with the aim of raising money for meaningful causes. This special week doesn’t just occur at Barts but across the UK in many different schools and universities, as well as Qatar, South Africa and numerous other countries.