The British Somali Medical Association (BSMA) is a collective body of Somali medical professionals training and working in the United Kingdom. We are a member led and run voluntary not-for-profit organisation helping address the healthcare needs of the Somali community.
Over the past two years we have run a successful range of community outreach and widening participation events nationally. These have been very well received and have contributed to increasing healthcare literacy within our disadvantaged community
As has been widely reported, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the Somali community and exposed significant social and healthcare disparities. BSMA members have been at the forefront in fighting this pandemic as doctors and medical students in the NHS. In our spare time we have run TV, Radio and Social Media campaigns to dispel misinformation and ensure that the Somali community remains well informed about the UK government’s guidance.
Our collective efforts in supporting the Somali community during this ravaging pandemic was featured in Al-Jazeera news. BSMA members produced educational videos and other multilingual resources for the public. We also recently held a COVID focussed professional webinar for Somali healthcare workers with 150 live participants and over 1400 Youtube streams.
We have not had any funding so far and so we have personally borne the financial burden of all our work. We need your support in continuing this work:
- creating a new BSMA website which will act as a knowledge hub for the Somali community during the pandemic and beyond
- continuing to create professional, high quality, clinically accurate, up to date content in a format which can be easily understood and accessed by our British Somali community
Please help us improve health outcomes for the British Somali community by donating whatever you can to continue our crucial work. We will not stop advocating for and on behalf of our community on COVID-19 and other emerging healthcare issues. We simply cannot do this without your help!