Our Team

In Sierra Leone

Ryann Manning

Coordinator, the Welbodi Partnership

Ryann moved to Sierra Leone in March 2006 to manage the World Bank's Justice for the Poor program. She previously served as the Interim Associate Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations, and worked on HIV/AIDS issues for the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. She has a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and an AB from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

In Sierra Leone

Tom Cairnes

Director, the Welbodi Partnership

Tom has been working in Sierra Leone since 2004. He is the founder of ManoCap, a private equity fund manager focused on making investments in post-conflict and other emerging economies. He has worked for Lansdowne Partners, a UK-based hedge fund manager focussing on UK equities and as a management consultant for Marakon Associates in London, New York, Amsterdam and Mexico. He has an M.Phil in Development Studies from Cambridge University, and a BA in Human Sciences from Oxford University.

In Sierra Leone

Toyin Ajayi

Medical Coordinator, the Welbodi Partnership

Toyin Ajayi (MBBS MPhil BA) first visited Sierra Leone in July 2007 when she spent two months working at the Government Hospital in Kambia District. A native of Nigeria and the US, she has also worked in hospitals and on healthcare projects in England, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania and the US. Toyin has a medical degree from King’s College London School of Medicine, an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge University and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Toyin is in Freetown throughout this year to help the Welbodi Partnership with non-clinical coordination tasks, particularly related to medical education and the provision of needed equipment and supplies.

In the UK:

Matthew Clark

Director, the Welbodi Partnership

Matthew Clark (MB BChir BSc.) spent an initial six weeks working at the Ola During Children's Hospital in 2007. Since then he has worked to find ways to support paediatric medicine in Sierra Leone, working fulltime in the hospital for 3 months and coordinating with the Ministry of Health in the formation of the Institute. In the UK he helped facilitate the ongoing link with between the Ola During Children's Hospital and the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust. Matthew studied medicine at Cambridge and has a BSc from the University of Birmingham.

Our Advisors:

Honorable Minister Dr Soccoh Kabia

Minister of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone

Dr Soccoh Kabia was sworn in as the Minister of Health and Sanitation on October 24, 2007. Dr Kabia attended medical school in the United States where he spent more than thirty years as a medical doctor. Raising the quality of care in Sierra Leone, and particularly strengthening secondary and tertiary institutions, as particular concerns of his.

Our Advisors:

Professor Anthony Costello

Professor of International Child Health, University College London

Anthony Costello (MA MB BChir FRCP FRCPCH) is Professor of International Child Health and head of the Centre for International Health and Development at the UCL Institute of Child Health, and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health. He has expertise in maternal and child health epidemiology and programmes in developing countries. He has been a consultant on field programmes for Save the Children Fund, the World Bank, the WHO, DFID, USAID, UNDP and Saving Newborn Lives. He is an Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital and at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

Our Advisors:

Dr. Thomas Lissauer

Consultant Paediatrician in St. Mary's Hospital, London

Tom Lissauer (MB BChir FRCP FRCPCH) is a Consultant Paediatrician specialising in neonatal medicine at St. Mary's Hospital, a busy teaching hospital in the heart of London. His special interest is medical education. He is extensively involved in the development of undergraduate and postgraduate examinations, both in the UK and elsewhere. He has written several books on paediatrics and a Children's Guide to the Human Body.

Our Advisors:

Professor Noel Gill

Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine.

Noel Gill is Head of the MESH Department (Microbiology and Epidemiology of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV) at the Health Protection Agency's Centre for Infections where he also leads on CJD & Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Activities. His team is responsible for the national surveillance of HIV and STIs and the department includes the national reference laboratory for bacterial STIs, the HPA's Office for Sexual Health Promotion, and the co-ordination of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme. His special interests include large-scale serological and tissue surveys for infectious diseases and collaborative international surveillance, especially in Europe. He has consulted for, or obtained grants from the European Union DG-Research, DG-SANCO, the ECDC, WHO, the UK Medical Research Council, and the UK Department of Health. He worked at Serabu Hospital in Sierra Leone from 1977 to 1979.

Our Partners:

Government of Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation

The Institute is part of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation's national strategy for reproductive and health for 2008-2010. We meet weekly with ministry officials, including the Minister Dr. Soccoh Kabia, all of whom have been directly involved in planning and preparation for the Institute.

Our Partners:

Ola During Children's Hospital

The Ola During Children's Hospital is the tertiary paediatric referral centre for the whole of Sierra Leone. It also serves as the paediatric training facility for the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS). The hospital is located in the densely-populated eastern part of Freetown, adjacent to Princess Christian Memorial Hospital, the maternity referral centre. Staff of Ola During have been involved in planning for the Institute since its very inception.

Our Partners:

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust

ABM University NHS Trust is the largest in Wales, covering a population of around 600,000 people and employing 16,000 staff. It launched on 1st April, 2008, from the merger of the former Swansea and Bro Morgannwg NHS Trusts, the latter of which established a health link in 2007 with the Ola During Children's Hospital. The trust's chairman Winston James Griffiths, a former Minister in the UK government, has visited Sierra Leone several times and works closely with the Welbodi Partnership team to direct technical and financial support from the trust.

Our Partners:

Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET)

THET has a successful track record forming long-term health links between health institutions in the UK and the developing world, many of them in Africa. THET connected the Weldbodi Partnership with Dr. Thomas Lissauer, and provides ongoing advice to our work.

Our Friends:

Take On Africa

A 20,000 km journey by bike from the UK to Cape Town will help raise money for the Welbodi Partnership. www.takeonafrica.com

Our Friends:

Hope Through Healing Hands

A nonprofit that promotes an improved quality of life using health as a currency for peace. www.hopethroughhealinghands.org