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Dr Nahida Farhood, re-qualifying as a doctor

ENEF gives an annual grant to the Refugee Education and Training Advisory Service (RETAS) to help refugee women acquire a professional re-qualification. Women from any profession may receive support through this programme, but the majority of them are doctors.

Dr Nahida Farhood received help with childcare costs, travel expenses and language exam fees in 2005. When Nahida arrived in the UK in 2002 she was pregnant with her first child. She and her husband, also a medical doctor, had had to leave Iraq due to the political situation. Upon their arrival they immediately sought information about re-qualifying in order to continue practising medicine and remain independent. The first step, always the hardest, as Nahida says, was to enrol for English language classes at Southwark College. When her son, Abdullah, was born, Nahida had to stop going to college because of lack of childcare. She became depressed, wanting very much to resume her studies. When she found she was pregnant again, life became extremely difficult for her. Her daughter Miriam was born in July 2004. After receiving the grant through RETAS, Nahida was able to resume her studies and pass the first exam; she says it was the first time she felt confident in the UK and that she could not have done it without the extra support.

Since then Nahida has passed further language exams (PLAB 1 and 2) and is currently on a clinical attachment in the Obstetrics and Gynaecological Department at West Middlesex Hospital. Studying hard to get her MRCOG qualification, Nahida is hoping to go on to research into infertility and family planning clinics. She writes:

“I am now very positive, very optimistic – I am looking at the world in a completely different way to the way I did four years’ ago.”

Further information:

Education Action International
retas@education-action.org

Last Updated Thu, 6 July 2006