User:Jerry O'Diner/sandbox

International humanitarian work
In 1993, during the Bosnian War, Professor Southall was invited by the Overseas Development Administration of the British Government (now DFID) to visit Sarajevo to identify and evacuate children in need of urgent medical treatment which could not be provided locally because of armed conflict. After this mission he was asked by UNICEF to become a consultant and lead a programme from 1993-1995 to help children in Mostar and in camps for internally displaced families in other areas of Bosnia. Prompted by his experiences in Bosnia of what he described as "trauma inflicted on children and their families, not only by warring factions, but also by the indolence of the international community", Professor Southall established Child Advocacy International (CAI) on his return to the UK, to advocate for international child health issues. Since 2009, and in order to reflect the close involvement of CAI with the emergency care of pregnant women and adolescent girls, the charity was re- named Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International (MCAI ). Link label

Some of the main advocacy undertaken involved campaigns against the arms trade, healthcare in refugee camps and the development of the Maternal and Child Friendly Healthcare Initiatives (see below) One particular success with advocacy involved the New Jalozai Afghan refugee camp where the Pakistan Government were encouraged  by CAI to move the 70,000 refugees living in appalling circumstances into a more suitable camp. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) wrote a letter to Professor Southall thanking CAI for this achievement.

From 1999 to 2004 Professor Southall was Chairman of a working party developing the Child Friendly Healthcare Initiative (CFHI). In addition to CAI, UNICEF UK, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Nursing were parties to this work.

Since 2002,and following on to CAI’s work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in collaboration with a British Medical Education charity a program called “Strengthening Emergency Healthcare” involving Emergency Maternal, Neonatal and Child Healthcare (EMNCH) was established. The program was originally started in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and has subsequently been developed in Pakistan with assistance from the local offices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. In 2006, it was successfully introduced into The Gambia following a recommendation from WHO Geneva. In November 2012 a similar programme was started in Liberia with financial support from THET and UKAID.

Additional programs of CAI and subsequently of MCAI involved apprenticeship based training in hospital care of pregnant women, newborn infants and children in Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Uganda, The Gambia and Liberia. Throughout the last 20 years of this work, Professor Southall has been the Honorary Medical Director of CAI/MCAI and the lead in all of the above work.