Dieudonné was born in Burundi in a small farming village and his parents were subsistence farmers but they did not survive turbulent years. Today, Dieudonné works as a paediatrician in London. He feels that Burundi is determined to become a new country. He wants to be part of this re birth and feels the best way of doing this is establishing strong links between the paediatric community in Burundi and the UK. This will create a relationship where both sides can learn from each other and help to build guidelines that are relevant for the paediatric community working in resource poor environment.

Annette is originally from Norway but was raised in the international community as a result of her father’s work with anti-corruption. She attended both primary and secondary school in various countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. As a medical student and doctor she returned to Eastern Africa to work. These experiences illustrated to her how much the doctors from these different backgrounds had to learn from each other. Annette works as a paediatrician in London and she feels strongly that building relationships between doctors from these differing environments will have positive effects on the medicine practiced in the UK and in Burundi.

Laura was born in a Kentish village and studied Paediatric nursing in Plymouth. She currently works in London as a Child Health Nurse and feels strongly about providing a high standard of care for sick children and their families. She is also a keen global traveler and linguist. She represented nurses in the PICHEAM team on their first mission and is keen to return and visit the lovely people of Burundi and collaborate with them to improve the care of children in a developing country.

I currently work as a Consultant Paediatrician in a very busy inner London Hospital. My links with Africa are very strong and real. I’ve lived and worked in the UK for the past eleven years but I hail from South Africa where I completed my undergraduate training in medicine and paediatrics before coming to the UK to further my specialist training.
I am always aware of the immense task faced by our colleagues across Africa and other low resource countries in their battle against the high levels of paediatric morbidity and mortality. Global child Health has always been close to my heart as I suspect many of yours. I do believe that as a community of Paediatricians across the world we can use our collective experience and knowledge to reshape the way in which children’s conditions are managed in this setting, attempting to improve their chances of survival.

Dr Patricia Lutalo works as a Paediatrics Doctor in London. As well as working in the United Kingdom, she had worked in developing countries and believes that through dialogue between nations and sharing skills and knowledge, child health outcomes can be improved considerably globally.

I believe that there is no better offering to children than improving skills and knowledge in the management of their health conditions, hence contributing to saving their lives. It is priceless.

I am a junior doctor working in London, currently taking a year out to study Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and to work overseas. Having previously worked in Asia, Africa and Central America, I am keen to pursue my passion for working and developing sustainable projects within the field of international health. I am very excited to be part of the PICHEAM team and I hope to translate that enthusiasm into encouraging others to join in too.

Tanya is from Derbyshire. She trained as a paediatric nurse and works as a Sister in a London Paediatric Emergency Department. She took part in the first PICHEAM needs assessment mission in Burundi in 2012. She would like to give more to the colleagues who work in low resources setting in terms of knowledge and skills that are needed to decrease childhood mortality.