Leaving no-one behind: making volunteering opportunities available to everyone

1. Registered UK charity 1146911
Leaving No-One Behind: Making Volunteering
Opportunities Available to Everyone
Tropical Health and Education Trust Annual Conference
London October 24th 2017
Professor Louise Ackers,
Knowledge for Change and University of Salford

2. Volunteer, Visiting Faculty or Colleague?
All actors in this process are effectively knowledge
intermediaries/ knowledge brokers: we are all learning
and teaching all of the time.

3. One Example of an Intervention

4. Ninsimma’s Journey: team working
Ninsimma presented as a maternity case: delivered by K4C obstetrician in a facility supported
by K4C
Mum and Baby supported postnatally by child nursing students on K4C’s Ethical
Undergraduate Placement Project
Engagement of bio medical engineering team (headed by Dr Ssekitoleko – K4C’s longest
(diaspora) volunteer – 4 years…. and students on Uganda’s 1st BME degree
K4C Director (Prof Ackers) visits Ninsimma with Head of Women Judges of Uganda and a
magistrate – experts in domestic violence (currently providing a home and care for Ninsimma)
Commonwealth Fellowship – 6 month visit to Salford
Engagement of Prof John Head (prosthetics: virtual ‘armchair’ volunteers)
UOS launch crowd funding platform to support UG prosthetics placement
K4C deploys 6 prosthetics UG to Uganda under supervision of Ssekitoleko’s team;
undertaking casting etc – return casts to awaiting (virtual) UG team supervised by Prof Head &
supported by team of technicians.
K4C Placement manager (Ackers-Johnson) returns to Uganda with prosthetic arms fitted by
UOS and Ugandan students.

5. Future Work?
Visit by Prof Ackers (next week)
Assessments for future OT and physio input
Work with Margaret to develop employment for Ninsimma (poultry farming?) & reunite
family
Not just about Ninsimma
Prosthetics capacity building – EPSCR grant application
Future socio-legal work on domestic violence?

6. Key Ingredients (of potential success)
 Quality of Relationships underpinning Partnerships: continuity/robustness of
partnership not length of stay, cadre or seniority of individual actors;
 Multi-professional, inter-generational, international, team-working: not ‘Ninja
Medicine’
 Clear mutual understanding and on-going negotiation of Objectives and Roles
 Pro-active Communication and Management
Challenges
Underpinning core funding to support management, coordination and continuous
relationships – and diaspora colleagues
We cant assume that these actors can offer services for free for ever…
Funding for professional and student placements ( to widen participation and
become demand led…)

7. Professor Louise Ackers and Mr James Ackers-Johnson (UK)
Dr Robert Ssekitoleko and Mr Allan Ndawula (Uganda)
Knowledge for Change
Registered UK Charity No. 1146911
Website: www.Knowledge4Change.org.uk
Email: Info@Knowledge4Change.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 161 295 2823