"I loved every bit of this placement"

Yasmine Jama tells us about her time on our work experience placement for young people and what she enjoyed the most.

Before I go into depth about my experience during the summer work placement with Social Action for Health, I’d like to start with a statement which summarises how I felt during and after this insightful experience.

With pure conviction, I can absolutely confirm that I loved every bit of this placement. Every bit.

The environment, the sleek organisation of each week whereby we were eased into different tasks, meeting such interesting individuals, and making lifelong friends as well as having the support of such proactive staff made this summer work experience commence and end seamlessly.

The support we had from all the staff coordinating this month-long placement was perfect. Any queries we had were dealt with promptly and all our needs/commitments were taken into consideration. We were listened to. That is what I most enjoyed about this experience. Our views and opinions were taken on board and we were able to express ourselves in a non-judgemental environment.

The fact I have been able to have had the chance to meet like-minded individuals and have important conversations with them about the changes we can make within our communities is a pleasure. I am extremely thankful and appreciative that I have had such an opportunity. The friends that I have made feel more like family. I never would have expected to make such connections, but I have, and I am grateful for this.

Again, one of the other main highlights of this work placement is the organisation in which we took on different tasks each week. The staff at Social Action for Health were/are wonderful in keeping us updated throughout the placement and making sure we were never confused on what we should’ve been doing. This avoided any confusion and anyone feeling left out if they missed a session - myself included. If clashing commitments prevented us from attending any session/sessions, alternatives were arranged promptly and we were not met with any misunderstandings regarding this - just pure transparency.

To conclude, I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity and I am so happy to have made connections that will last a lifetime. I hope to continue working with Social Action for Health and learn much more.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for this opportunity. Thank you Ceri, Maharun, Rachel, Disha, Dan, Cathy, Polly, and anyone else I may have forgotten to include as well as my peers. Thank you for all the laughs and - of course - the endless refreshments!

By Yasmine Jama