Are you interested in joining a worldwide movement working to make healthcare and education globally accessible? Are you keen to help fundraise and volunteer directly in medical clinics across the world? If so, consider joining MEDLIFE UCL!
Standing for Medicine, Education, and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere, MEDLIFE is a global charity supporting communities by running mobile medical clinics and development projects staffed by locals and assisted by essential student volunteers. UCL is proud to be one of the many universities partnered with MEDLIFE, helping bring students abroad to volunteer and gain first-hand experience shadowing local medical professionals and educators in various locations across Latin America and Africa. MEDLIFE UCL is looking for passionate individuals interested in joining us for the 2024/25 academic year, helping organise and carry out fundraising events, raising money for MEDLIFE’s many initiatives aimed at making basic services accessible, and helping fund our yearly service-learning trip. Last summer, UCL students travelled to Lima, Peru and Costa Rica where they assisted medical professionals in running mobile medical clinics across the city, participated in a development project, and were able to learn about the consequences of rapid urbanization observed in many third-world countries.
MEDLIFE is built on three key pillars that are fundamental for the success of any community: medicine, education, and development. Communities with little to no access to medical resources are identified and provided with mobile clinics supplying crucial testing and medication, previously inaccessible due to transportation time and costs. Individual consultation with doctors and trained medical staff maintains dignity for members of these communities. MEDLIFE’s follow-up program is essential for identifying patients in need of treatment and assisting them through every step of the process. Through education workshops and school construction programs, MEDLIFE is helping to combat a growing number of children from rural communities forced to abandon their education because of their distance from school, low numbers of teaching staff, and reduced classroom hours. This drive to provide all children with the same opportunities, regardless of poverty or geographical location, is currently being expanded and improved upon, and our MEDLIFE chapter is dedicated to assisting this exciting initiative. Mobile clinics additionally provide health education workshops that provide information on diseases such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, and diabetes, to implement a culture of preventative care, especially regarding women’s reproductive health. Due to the domestic demands that women take on in various cultures, the time and energy afforded to their health and well-being is often nonexistent. MEDLIFE aims to help women access care while ensuring that their long-preserved culture and customs are not violated. Finally, MEDLIFE’s development work addresses the recent prevalence of urban “slums” outside overpopulated cities as a direct result of mass migration. These temporary communities are inadequately allocated resources, and lack of proper sanitation, waste management, and access to clean water, all key factors in the prevalence of easily preventable disease. During the service-learning trip, volunteers will spend a day learning and assisting in community planning and construction. This activity allows students to work directly alongside local community members, bringing new meaning to the saying “It takes a village”.
You can be of any year and any discipline to take part, there is no need to be from a medical or education background. We plan on providing various speaker events and local volunteering opportunities for members to understand the importance of sustainability and community building when it comes to volunteering. Without a doubt, there will be exciting socials and collaborations with other MEDLIFE societies in other London universities.
We hope that you will join us in the fight for a world where everyone has equal access to shelter, medication, and education!
For more information about MEDLIFE visit https://www.medlifemovement.org