A CHARITABLE TRUST REGISTERED NUMBER 294581

Since 1986 Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal (SGAA) has provided artificial limbs and walking aids for more than 20,000 patients and physiotherapy treatment for nearly 50,000 patients. The Halo Trust says there are still hundreds of thousands of landmines in Afghanistan, the result of 25 years of virtually uninterrupted warfare. In consequence an enormous number of Afghans have been disabled; the UN estimates 3% of the population are directly affected and 10% indirectly affected.

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Fiona Gall's Blog

Visit to Afghanistan - Oct 2011

I arrive at Kabul airport on a beautiful sunny day in October...read

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Structure

SGAA is governed by a Declaration of Trust dated 12th February 1986 and is run by a voluntary committee and consultants in the UK, including a former diplomat, a former member of Parliament, a professional orthotist, a senior physiotherapist, a midwife and two orthopaedic surgeons. Eleanor Gall is the UK Director and Sandy Gall is Chairman. The consultants make regular visits to SGAA centres and outreach clinics, evaluating progress, giving seminars to include members of colleague NGOs and supervising technicians with more difficult cases. In Afghanistan the project is managed by Afghan staff and monitored by a resident expatriate consultant.

Very sadly Mrs Paddie Chanmugam, our senior physiotherapist, who came to work for SGAA during the Gulf War because she could not return to her post in Kuwait University, died in April 2005. Most of the structure of SGAA's physiotherapy programmes is due to Paddie's insistence on the necessity of top class training and her boundless energy in bringing it all to fruition. Her wonderful wide smile included all who worked with her and for her. It seemed that no disabled child, however distant from our centre, would be allowed to lie neglected when Paddie's team of health workers went into action. Even the dreaded Taleban director of Jalalabad Hospital, Sher Ali, was struck dumb and neglected to use his spittoon in her presence, as she laid out her plans for the three provinces that came within his area. (He subsequently called Paddie Queen of Nangarhar). The pitiable state of children with cerebral palsy (CP) particularly struck her and so she carried out a survey published in 2001, which was widely appreciated. Mrs Chanmugam is and will be greatly missed by us all.

Trustees are selected by their professional expertise, which enables them to play an active role in the supervision and monitoring of the charitable and other activities of the Charity. All Trustees are provided with an induction by the UK Director.