This article is part of a series marking RIVER-EU’s final European Immunisation Week (19–25 April 2026). As we celebrate five years of community-centred research across seven countries, we have been organising satellite community events across partner countries to close the loop ahead of our final conference in Brussels on 19 May. We will be sharing their stories day by day throughout the week.
The Bangladeshi community in East London was one of three “empowering examples” at the heart of the RIVER-EU project: communities selected precisely because their vaccination rates defied expectations. In a borough marked by significant socioeconomic deprivation, childhood vaccine uptake was remarkably high, including for the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. RIVER-EU wanted to understand why and what lessons might be transferable to other settings.
This March, RIVER-EU colleagues brought the project’s findings back to the community that inspired them. During two events that reached very different audiences, they shared the same core message: when it comes to vaccination, trust is everything.
Making it count with the people who design the system
On 3 March, Ifra Ali presented RIVER-EU’s overarching context and her team’s study: “It was just the given thing to do” – Exploring Enablers for High Childhood Vaccination Uptake in East London’s Bangladeshi Community to the London Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) Immunisation Network. 32 public health professionals attended the meeting, including the Public Health Director for Tower Hamlets, the very borough where the study was conducted.
There was genuine interest in what drives unusually high vaccine uptake in an underserved community and in how those lessons might translate elsewhere.
Two main points of discussion:
- The need to engage communities continuously to build trust, not only when there’s an outbreak.
- Moving away from a one-size-fits-all model as the Bangladeshi community’s success is built on a specific, layered local trust network. Adapting these insights requires starting from each community’s own context. Read how RIVER-EU did this through participatory transferability analysis.
Bringing it home: Bright start for healthy futures
On 26 March, a very different but equally important gathering took place, this time with the community at the centre. RIVER-EU partner, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, partnered with the London Bangladeshi Health Partnership and Bangla Housing Association, with support from Voice4Change England to host “Bright Start for Healthy Futures”. Around 20 parents joined healthcare professionals and community leaders for a morning of research, conversation and honest exchange. This coincided, fittingly, with Bangladeshi Independence Day.
Ifra Ali presented the RIVER-EU project and its findings in an accessible format. Riyadul Karim, Assistant Director – Community Engagement and Vaccine/Screening Equity, COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccination Programmes, NHS England – London Region, and Co-Chair of the London Bangladeshi Health Partnership, introduced the 3T Model: Trusted Leaders, Trusted Voices, Trusted Places; a framework that NHS London has applied across diverse communities.
Table discussions gave parents space to speak from their own experience. They indicated that:
- They valued school vaccination programmes;
- They demanded better access to GPs and clear communication about vaccine benefits and side effects;
- They wanted information from people they knew, not institutional websites; and
- They had a limited understanding of “catch-up clinics” (e.g., for MMR vaccination following a recent measles outbreak). Participants suggested a more informative name could improve awareness.
A panel discussion brought together public health voices from Newham, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets alongside researchers, community leaders and NHS colleagues to tackle harder questions: how do you address misinformation? How do you reach older adults? How do you build communication that reaches people where they are? The answers, as ever, came back to relationships and local knowledge.
Local Bangladeshi TV channel “S” was also there to capture it by interviewing panel members for that evening’s news.
What these events mean for Brussels and beyond
RIVER-EU’s research in the UK began with a question: what makes vaccination work so well in a community facing significant socioeconomic disadvantage? What emerged was a picture of trust, built over time, through specific people in specific places.
That picture is now part of the broader RIVER-EU evidence base, alongside findings from Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Finland and Israel. And on 19 May in Brussels, it will be shared at the project’s final conference.
Riyadul Karim, who played a central role in facilitating both London satellite events, will contribute to a RIVER-EU’s invitation-based policy exchange on 20 May, sharing his insights and experience on what health systems can do to improve vaccine equity for underserved communities.
Join us on 19 May in Brussels or online for the RIVER-EU final conference.
Agenda and registration: https://river-eu.org/save-the-date-river-eu-closing-events/