OUR
TEAM
We are a small UK-based team and are governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported by our Patrons.
Charity Director
Indie McDowell
Indie is a clinically-trained midwife and classically-trained medical anthropologist with over a decade's experience in global SHRH/MNCH programme design and implementation, working for the most part in rural Ethiopia alongside a team of local Gurage clinicians to deliver community-based healthcare and women's empowerment initiatives. She is also a published author, and currently studying for a PhD at LSHTM.
Board of Trustees
Mark Cowie - Chair of Trustees
Mark has over 25 years of HR and Operations experience in the finance sector, having worked with notable firms such as Ingenious, JP Morgan, Schroders, and Barclays.
His career has been marked by a dedication to operational excellence and strategic HR leadership, contributing significantly to the success and growth of these institutions.
Jenny Rose Wilson - Trustee
Jenny Rose is a dedicated midwife, focuses on enhancing global SHRH/MNCH through education. With 16 years of experience, she has served vulnerable communities in the USA, Tibetan Plateau, and Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, she spearheaded a partnership with Seed Global Health, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, and midwifery schools, leading to notable advancements in clinical capacity and patient outcomes
Gemma Rogers - Trustee
Gemma is a Consultant, Facilitator and Coach. After studying for an MA in documentary practice for social change, Gemma worked for SafeHands before going on to have a career across the charity, health and finance sectors.
Gemma is specialised in leadership development, decision-making, complex problem solving and supporting team and company wellbeing.
Patrons
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Baroness Helena Kennedy is a practicing barrister. She is a member of the Doughty Street Chambers in London and has been involved in a large number of prominent cases. These include the Brighton Bombing, the Michael Bettany espionage trial, the Guildford Four appeal and the bombing of the Israeli embassy. She has also acted for many battered women who have killed their husbands.
She has been the chair of the Human Genetics Commission since 2000 and Investigation of Sudden Death in Infancy, Royal College of Pathologists and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, since 2003 and the past chair of the British Council from 1998 – 2004.
She is president of the National Children’s Bureau and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University and vice president of the Association of Women Barristers and the Haldane Society.
Patrick O'Brien
Patrick O’Brien is a Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Governance Director, Women’s Health at University College London Hospital.
He is the Chair of the International Division of the Institute for Women’s Health in London, a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, a member of the Obstetric Guideline Development Group of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK, and a reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration and several medical journals.
He lectures widely in the UK and abroad, examines for the DRCOG examination and works as an Obstetric Advisor for the BBC. Mr O’Brien’s areas of interest are: High risk obstetrics, Maternal Medicine (in particular cardiac disease and haematological disorders in pregnancy), Fetal monitoring, Misoprostol in Obstetrics and Labour Ward management.
Lord Naren Patel KT
Lord Patel KT is Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital. He is Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Academy of Medical Sciences and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. He holds the Honorary Doctorate in Science, Medicine and Law from the Universities of Napier; Edinburgh; Aberdeen; St. Andrews; Dundee; Athens and Stellenbosch South Africa. He holds a further 18 Honorary Fellowships of universities and national organisations worldwide in surgery, anaesthesia, public health, general practice, psychiatry and obstetrics and gynaecology.
He was awarded a Knighthood in the Queens Birthday Honours List in 1997 and was made a life Peer with the title of Baron Patel of Dunkeld in Perth and Kinross in the Queens New Years Honours List in 1999.
His academic and clinical interests are in the field of high-risk obstetrics. He has published widely on the subjects of preterm labour, fetal growth retardation, obstetric epidemiology etc. His current interests are in health quality and standards of clinical care and patient safety.
Dame Professor Lesley Regan
Dame Professor Lesley Regan is head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College London and the 30th President of the Royal College of O&G, only the second woman and the first to be elected to this role in 64 years.
A passionate advocate for women’s reproductive health and rights, she believes that we must provide girls and women with the education and tools they need to control their own fertility and make informed decisions about if, when and how many times they become pregnant during their lives. She is Director of the RCOG’s Leading Safe Choices program which is funded by an anonymous donor to improve the quality and delivery of family planning and safe abortion services in sub-Saharan Africa.
Recently elected as Honorary Secretary General to FIGO – the global voice for women’s health, she aims to utilise the synergies of her various UK and International appointments to make a meaningful contribution to women’s health, particularly to UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Reducing Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and SDG 5: Achieving Gender Equality by 2030.
Professor Ian Jacobs
Professor Jacobs is Vice-Chancellor of UNSW Australia, a member of the Australian Group of 8 universities. In this post he has led the development of an ambitious ‘UNSW 2025 Strategy’ combining academic excellence with equal priorities in social engagement, equality, diversity, thought leadership, knowledge transfer and global impact.
Prior to this role, he was Vice President, Dean and Head of the School of Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences at The University of Manchester, and Director of Manchester Academic Health Science Centre.
Alongside his leadership roles, he directs a laboratory and clinical research team focused on genetics, proteomics, imaging and biomarkers in detections and screening for gynaecological cancers and has held awards from Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and the National Institute of Health Research. He has led several large multicentre clinical trials including the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening involving 202,000 participants in 13 collaborating UK centres and the UK Familial Ovarian Cancer Screening Study. He is co-inventor of the patented Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm.
In 2005 Ian established the Uganda Women’s Health Initiative, which he Chairs and which conducts a series of projects in Uganda including a cervical screening programme. In 2005, He founded the Eve Appeal, a Gynaecology Cancer Research Fund.
Jon Snow
Jon is a renowned journalist and Channel 4 anchor. He has covered some of the biggest news stories over the last thirty years, providing insightful and emotive journalism on a huge range of issues.
Founder
Nancy Durrell McKenna - Founder
Nancy Durrell McKenna is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker who has dedicated more than 40 years of her life to photographing and filming women, children and communities in more than 70 countries. Her focus and passion began with maternal and newborn health, which drew her like a magnet to pregnant women and childbirth.
Photography and film are powerful communication tools, which help break down the barriers imposed by literacy and language.
With this understanding, in 2003, Nancy founded SafeHands a British non-profit organisation, which uses the power of the visual to inform, inspire and educate, women, girls and young men about their sexual reproductive health and rights so that they may make informed choices about their bodies.
Photo Credit
SafeHands | Nancy Durrell McKenna | South Africa | 2016