Our board of trustees

Our trustees are ultimately responsible in law for Y Care International’s activities and assets. They come from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, and bring a wealth of experience and expertise from the charity and business sectors.

Terry Waite CBE, President (ex-officio)
The humanitarian, author and former hostage negotiator Terry Waite was born in Cheshire in 1939. On completing his education he was appointed as Education Advisor to the Anglican Bishop of Bristol.

He and his family moved to Uganda in 1969, and he worked for the first African Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Around this time he founded the Southern Sudan Project, setting up aid and development programmes in the region.

In 1980 Terry Waite joined the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Private Staff. In the early 1980s he successfully negotiated the release of several hostages from Iran and Libya, which brought him to the public’s attention. In January 1987, while negotiating for the release of Western hostages in Lebanon, he himself was taken captive and remained in captivity for 1,763 days, the first four years of which were spent in solitary confinement.

After his release, in November 1991, he dedicated himself to study, writing, lecturing and humanitarian activities.

Terry Waite co-founded Y Care International in 1984, serving first as Chair, and now as President.

David White, Chair
David has been Chair of Y Care International’s Board since July 2005.

David has a background in commercial marketing, but has been a leader in the voluntary sector for more than 20 years. His charity roles have included working for a Christian mission, leading a development agency working in central southern Africa, an adult hospice in Yorkshire and a specialist health charity based in London. He is currently Chief Executive of the Pasque Charity - providing adult and children's hospice services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes.

David has also served as a consultant in the voluntary sector, specialising in management and development advice to a wide range of charities based in the UK and overseas. He is a trustee of Help the Hospices and also leads several Christian camps and retreats.

Paul Adams
Paul has worked with young people and communities in the voluntary and statutory sectors for more than 20 years, both as a young volunteer and professionally qualified youth and community worker.

For six years until September 2005 Paul was the national youth programme manager at the Development Education Association with a responsibility for the development of global youth work. As well as producing publications and responding to government policy, Paul trained and supported youth and voluntary organisations on how to integrate a global dimension into their work and advised international NGOs on how to develop informal education approaches with young people.

Paul is currently programme leader for the BA Hons in Youth and Community Work at the University of East London. He also sits on the Education Training Standards Committee of the National Youth Agency, which gives professional validation to youth work training programmes.

Peter Crory
Peter has been National General Secretary of YMCA Scotland, the headquarters organisation for all Scottish YMCAs, since 2000.

From 2004 – 2006 he was a JP and member of a Children’s Panel Advisory Committee. He is currently Vice Chair of Youthlink Scotland Chief Officers’ Group, and a member of the board of YMCA George Williams College, London. Peter is also a volunteer youth mentor and is passionate about encouraging the church to serve community needs.

Richard Graham
Richard is Head of International Grants at Comic Relief, where he is responsible for the development and implementation of the charity's international grant making strategy. He manages the process of allocating grants worth about £25m a year and oversees the management of a broad grants portfolio, mainly in Africa. Richard has been at Comic Relief since 1992, having joined as a Grants Officer.

Before then, Richard worked with a number of local and international aid organisations in Egypt, Sudan and Afghanistan, mainly in the field of humanitarian assistance in areas of conflict. In recent years, Richard has advised various other international development and academic grant making bodies.

He is also a Trustee of Creative Exchange, an organisation committed to promoting the role of arts and culture in development.

Sarah Hagger-Holt
Sarah currently works for CAFOD, writing and co-ordinating campaigns materials on issues such as climate change.

Prior to that she worked for Christian Aid, first as a global youth worker in Scotland and then as part of the London-based Campaigns team, helping co-ordinate the involvement of church groups in trade justice and debt campaigning. She has also co-led and developed a national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender youth network, and she continues to be involved with human rights and other campaign groups on a local level.

Stuart Mullan
Stuart has been active in peace building and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland for more than five years. He has worked with politicians and policy makers, as well as with young people living in interface communities in East and West Belfast.

Stuart is Director of the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, promoting the voice of young people within Northern Ireland and building the capacity of their membership to lobby and campaign. He recently completed an MPhil in Reconciliation Studies which explored the impact of personal story sharing in transforming personal and community memories of the Northern Irish conflict.

He previously worked for the Electoral Commission, encouraging young people in Northern Ireland to become involved in decision making and creating opportunities for young people and political leaders to engage in dialogue.

Manford Ncube
Manford was born and educated in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He has more than 12 years’ experience in community and youth development, working for and with NGOs in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and the UK including UNICEF, UNDP, Zimbabwe Aids Network, World Vision and Students Partnership Worldwide.

Manford has worked all over Zimbabwe in both rural and urban communities with youth and community leaders focusing on life skills development and HIV/AIDS education. In South Africa, he worked on community development and youth education. He also worked with local and provincial government on HIV/AIDS, gender and poverty alleviation initiatives, and has managed UNICEF projects focusing on orphans and vulnerable children.

Manford currently works as a programmes director for a UK children and young people charity based in the UK and Northern Ireland.

Jonathan Orchard
Jonathan is a freelance consultant and auditor providing internal audit, financial management and other related-consultancy services to international development organisations and other charities. He has over 12 years experience of working with not-for-profit organisations, including recent assignments with Save the Children and WWF UK. Much of this experience was gained with Sayer Vincent, a charity-specialist audit and consultancy firm.

Jonathan is a qualified chartered accountant (ACA) and an affiliate member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA).  He is also a trustee of Charities Evaluation Service.

Marian Rose
Marian is Head of Direct Donor Marketing at the NSPCC, where she runs one of the largest and most successful fundraising teams in the charity sector.

She has 20 years’ experience of working in both voluntary and commercial sectors and is passionate about international development.

Udeni Salmon
Udeni spent the first eight years of her career in IT in the private sector, working in strategic consultancies such as IBM and Deloitte Consulting. Since August 2002 she has been the Head of Volunteer Support at Leonard Cheshire, a leading international charity in the field of disability, where she has developed an approach to volunteering that combines the best of her consultancy experience from the private and public sectors with what is appropriate for the voluntary sector.

Udeni advises the organisation on volunteer recruitment, training and motivation, as well as corporate volunteering and Trustee support. She is particularly interested in the contribution that volunteers can make to international development. Udeni is also a Trustee of Charities Evaluation Services, which provides training and consultancy to the voluntary sector on quality and evaluation systems.

Emma Stone
Emma has been a Trustee of Y Care International since 2003. Emma works for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, where she is an Assistant Director in the Policy and Research Department, responsible for the Foundation's work on Empowerment.

Prior to this, Emma undertook doctoral research on disability and development issues in China, combining fieldwork with voluntary work with Save the Children Fund UK.

Mo Sykes
Before moving to Wales in 2002 to take up the position of Chief Executive of YMCA Wales, Mo worked as Director for the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, the representative body for young people aged 16–25. Her role included responsibility for the development of community relations projects and conflict transformation programmes in America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.

Mo’s interest in human rights, particularly youth rights, gender issues and anti-racism led to her role in co-ordinating the European Youth Campaign against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia in Northern Ireland. She was also involved in the development of the Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, and of educational programmes to support its implementation.

Over the last four years with YMCA Wales Mo has continued to promote the rights of children and young people and create opportunities for their voices to be heard.

Stephen Turner
Stephen is a qualified youth worker with in-depth experience of conflict resolution work. He graduated from the University of Ulster and has also completed an MSc in Voluntary Sector Management City of London University.

He was engaged in face-to-face youth work with various statutory and voluntary organisations including International Voluntary Service for 12 years, before joining YMCA Ireland to work on international programmes. Stephen was promoted to YMCA National Secretary in 1994, and oversees development work with 22 YMCAs throughout Ireland.

Paul Young
Since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Paul has had a varied career in a range of organisations. For the past 17 years he has worked in the not-for-profit sector, including five years in East Africa and more recently for Barnardo’s, HelpAge International and YMCA England.

He is currently Director of Finance and Central Services for the Royal College of Physicians.