Who we are

SGAA is run by a voluntary committee of trustees and consultants in the UK who meet four times a year. The consultants make two visits a year to monitor, train and advise staff in RAD’s centres in Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Taloqan and Ghazni and their outreach programmes.  For fund-raising activities, SGAA depends on a widespread group of loyal volunteers who plan and support periodic fund-raising activities such as sponsored walks, charity dinners, campaigns and talks.

TRUSTEES AND COMMITTEE

The following are Trustees and members of the Committee:

• Nich Woolf, Paramedic, NHS and Festival Medical Services
• Philip Henman, Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
• John Gladwin, Businessman
• John Fixsen FRCS, Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
• Eleanor Gall, UK Director
• Sandy Gall, CMG, CBE (Chairman)
• Jeanne Hartley, Physiotherapist
• John Lamb MBE, Retired Principal Orthotist, Perth Royal Infirmary
• Mark Scrase-Dickins CMG, DL, ex-diplomat, Senior Trustee
• Diane Steer, Midwife
• Secretary: Christine Edden

FORMER TRUSTEES

• Piers Carter, former Ambassador to Afghanistan
• Paddie Chanmugam, Physiotherapist
• Winston Churchill, MP
• Oliver Forster, FCO, former High Commissioner to Pakistan
• Lord Jopling, former Conservative Chief Whip and Secretary of State for Agriculture
• Peter Stiles FRCS, Orthopaedic Surgeon

Merger

During 2005, SGAA's Trustees and Committee decided to merge its activities with another NGO working for the disabled in Afghanistan, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA). SCA has its headquarters in Stockholm and has been running programmes in Afghanistan since 1982 in four sectors: health, education, rural development and disability. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the two organisations in December 2005, which gave the Swedish Committee the responsibility of managing SGAA's project activities in Jalalabad and the Eastern region of Afghanistan from 01 January 2006 onwards under its community based rehabilitation programme known as Rehabilitation for Afghans with Disabilities (RAD).  SGAA continues to provide financial support to the programme through a yearly grant to SCA.  Technical assistance is also provided through visits of the Committee and consultants to the SGAA/ RAD centre in Jalalabad and the RAD project offices in Ghazni, Taloqan and Mazar-i-Sharif.