The Charity IDEALS (International Disaster and Emergency Aid with Long Term Support) is dedicated to providing relief to victims of man made and natural catastrophes wherever it can throughout the world. We usually provide medical aid but humanitarian support has also been given following major disasters.

Our constant aim is to ensure donors’ funds are applied directly and in full on overseas relief projects, with almost no expenditure on UK administration. This is possible because all who participate work voluntarily and there are no salaried employees or offices to support in the UK. We usually work with local partner organizations which is essential when developing and expanding overseas projects

IDEALS was born out of the ravages of the Bosnian war in the 1990’s when the present chairman John Beavis, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, frequently visited the country to assist with treatment of the wounded in civilian hospitals. After the war, John continued to assist with reconstruction of medical services and while travelling via Zurich, had a chance meeting on the plane with business man, Mr Simon Oliver which radically changed everything. Simon made a massive donation to the work with the advice, "Start a charity"! The fund set up with this spontaneous gift was initially designated "The Bosnian Fund" but in 2000 the charity IDEALS was registered.

Since that time substantial work has taken place in Bosnia – see the "Bosnian Journal", Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Donations of equipment to Azerbaijan and assistance to Sierra Leone have also been made.

IDEALS responded to the Tsunami of 2004 with involvement of non medical, humanitarian nature in Sri Lanka as outlined in "A Sri Lanka Journal". After the Pakistan earthquake of 2005 immediate humanitarian aid was followed by substantial medical assistance of a varied kind as described in the "Pakistan Earthquake Journal". We also became engaged in the resettlement of the survivors of a destroyed village on the Kashmir border where new earthquake proof homes are now well under construction.

IDEALS has fully supported the organization, Primary Trauma Care UK, which teaches early management of injuries where there are no "western type" facilities. Since 2004 the work has extended across the whole of Pakistan training many hundreds of doctors and paramedics. As one senior surgeon said, "Without IDEALS this would not have happened". This training has now extended to the war ravaged region on the Afghanistan border known as the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). Three major courses for FATA personnel have been completed in 2008. IDEALS will follow this up with donations of trauma resuscitation equipment to the FATA hospitals and assessment of the effectiveness of the training. In addition it is the intention of the Trustees to develop Midwifery services in FATA where one in ten (1/10) die in infancy (UK=1/200) and one in two hundred (1/200) mothers die during pregnancy or childbirth (UK=1/8,000). IDEALS have been fortunate to obtain the voluntary services of Dr Andy Ferguson who is a specialist in primary health care and public health as well as holding qualifications in tropical medicine and family planning. With Andy’s expertise we plan to bring humanitarian medical aid to this ravaged area where the needs of ordinary people are lost in the fog of conflict.

Our work is funded substantially by donations from the individuals who are mainly friends and colleagues of the Trustees, by the Trustees themselves and by grants from some Charitable Foundations. To all who have contributed we express our, and the beneficiaries’, deepest gratitude

TRUSTEES

John Beavis MB FRCS DMCC - Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon. Chairman of IDEALS
Simon Oliver – Business entrepreneur, Chairman of Dairy Crest Plc, Pi Capital and director of other companies
Bob Marshall-Andrews MP QC – Member of the British Parliament and QC
Sir Terence English KBE PPRCS – Cardiothoracic surgeon, Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Past Master of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge
Eamon McCoy MD FFARCSI– Anaesthetist with special interest in trauma
Sue Griffith- Accountant