21 May, 2021 - By Leyla Williams

Second vaccination doses for West London Welcome members – done!

Second vaccination doses for West London Welcome members – done!

The second COVID vaccination doses for all members of West London Welcome are now done!

We’re grateful from the bottom of our hearts to the two brilliant doctors from our local Hammersmith and Fulham NHS Clinical Commissioning Group for coming to our centre yesterday and administering the final dose of the vaccine to the refugees, asylum seekers and migrants we support locally who otherwise would have been waiting for weeks or months. Our members are living in cramped housing conditions, most are ethnic minorities, many survive on only £8 a week from the Home Office or nothing at all and struggle to meet their essential needs, and a number have a variety of health conditions. They are especially at risk of being infected by COVID, so this double vaccination brings huge relief to them and us.

Thanks so much to Hammersmith and Fulham Council for helping make this happen, and to all those in our community who helped with our multiple educational sessions around the vaccine and the many translations of that information for our members, especially local pharmacist Hala Abusin – it did wonders for helping clarify unknowns and dissipate the anxieties of our members, and get us to this moment today.