Meet St George's student-led Covid-19 response group

Published: 05 May 2020

St George’s students have set up a Covid-19 response group to provide assistance to those who need it during the current pandemic. The student led initiative was founded by penultimate year medic, Rozina Choudhury, who discusses the response group, what they have managed to achieve so far and how students can get involved.

Rozina explains, “The Covid-19 response group is a student led initiative set up to help our local community and hospitals in this time of need. We are a team of over 170 students, coming from a range of different backgrounds. Ages and disciplines vary from medical students, to biomedical scientists, to student paramedics, to St George’s alumni.

“Our volunteers have been working in a variety of ways. Some work from home, some help outside in the community, some volunteer at local hospitals and others support frontline staff with jobs such as childcare, administration work and more. 

“Sharing our university site with St George’s Hospital has put us in an extremely privileged position to be able to help out during this difficult time. Some of our main projects currently include working in collaboration with St George’s Hospital Charity to create and distribute care packages to all of our hardworking staff at St George’s Hospital. This provides them with both essential supplies as well as helping to boost morale during these challenging times. 

“We have also been distributing hot meals to staff working on the Covid wards around the clock (three times a day) in collaboration with another charity group called Critical NHS. We are in the process of setting up even more initiatives around the site as well as expanding to other hospitals. We feel honoured to be able to help in a small way during these unprecedented times and so privileged to be a part of the amazing #TeamGeorges. 

“In addition, we have also set up our own GoFundMe fundraising page where we have so far raised over £900! These donations have gone towards food hampers for staff at St Georges, an urgent appeal by AGEUK in Wandsworth, as well as towards care packages for staff at the Trust. We will continue to put funds where they are most needed in the coming weeks.” 

You can keep up to date with the Covid response group’s activities on Instagram @covidresponse or on Twitter @sgulcovid.