How I used the Quondam Travel Scholarship 2024 by Jasmina Charrap, Class of 2022.

I left FHS in 2022 to read Biomedical Sciences at Bristol and I am now in my third and final year. I am an active member of the scientific community and care passionately about global healthcare issues and equality of healthcare. Last Summer, I organised a student-lead initiative to hold a series of discussion spaces, centered around different aspects of the weaponisation of science and the remnants of colonialism in healthcare today. I continue to work part-time as a carer, which is such a rewarding job, and also incredibly useful as it allows me to see the practical implications of what I am learning about on my course. I am constantly astounded at how informative and important the sciences are, not only from my perspective, but for the residents in my care. During my time at FHS I never thought that I would be a scientist or that it would consume my life in the way that is does now. The Quondam Travel Scholarship enabled me to travel to Bangladesh to help with the work of Selfless an NFPO adding rural Bangladeshi communities with different types of healthcare via its Global Health Leadership programme. Bangladesh’s population faces severely limited access to urgent and essential healthcare, and the country’s healthcare infrastructure is struggling to meet the needs of its people.

I worked on three separate projects:

Upahar: providing baby bundles and postnatal support for mothers and children.

Porishkar: a mobile cataract service.

Brush with Kindness: a dental hygiene and oral health educational programme.

The Quondam Travel Scholarship has really helped me and the money raised has gone to an incredible cause providing life-changing access to healthcare to thousands of people. Thank you Quondam for your generous support.

Applications for the Quondam Travel Scholarship 2025 are open until 22nd July. The application form and guidelines can be found here.