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Hadia (aged 42) is a medical doctor, born in Pakistan, trained in Britain and identifying as British-Pakistani.
Having completed relief work in refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk during her medical training, Hadia went to Lesbos in 2015 where she set up the first 24 hour medical unit, now a charity called HealthPoint Foundation after which she went to Lebanon creating a mobile medical unit and back to Pakistan in 2022 where she set up the first Medical Outreach Project in a rural area subject to climate change.
Hadia reports that she felt discriminated against her whole life as a woman, as a female child, as a Muslim which inspired her to migrate and use her skills and set up the medical charities to help refugees with the support of other women and women refugees.
During her interview, she states that “my team, a charity now called HealthPoint Foundation, there are women, all of the mare women, the board of trustees are women, the people who are supporting me actively, they’re all women, who were helping me get medication, and having a 24 hour facility in 2015, in Lesbos ».
For Hadia, the object that best represents her migration are two small life jackets that she saw in the life jackets graveyard in Moria, Greece. They were not real life jackets, only what would be used in a swimming pool.
Interview conducted by Elena Moustaka for Elaine Moriarty on 12/2/23 (virtually)
To cite this interview, Moriarty, Elaine (12/2/2023). Interview of Hadia (from Pakistan to Britain). London, UK (length: 3:40mn).