WHO WE ARE
History
ACT International was founded as Luna Childrens Charity in 2008 by psychotherapist and psychologist Dr Carlotta Raby. The charity was established in response to the great need evident in post-genocide Rwanda for a child-centred approach to trauma therapy.
The CATT approach
CATT frees children from age 3 to adulthood from the endless repetition of their traumatic memories. Dr Carlotta Raby developed Children’s Accelerated Trauma Technique (CATT) working with traumatised children in the UK and refined it in work with child survivors of the Rwandan Genocide.
Experienced psychologists and therapists who volunteer their time deliver training in collaboration with local partner organisations, teaching local people to treat children suffering from psychological trauma. In many of the areas in which this help is most needed there are few if any mental health professionals. So, our training is designed to enable appropriate adults involved in the care of traumatised children including teachers, nurses and aid workers to treat children suffering from PTSD in their communities.
Our Team
Stella Charman
EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF TRUSTEES
Stella is an experienced health and social care manager who co-founded ACT International (then Luna Children’s Charity) with Dr Carlotta Raby in 2010. She has a first degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, plus an MSc in Social Research. She joined the NHS in 1978, working as a general manager in a variety of hospital and community healthcare settings before taking a career-break to adopt two children. Instead of returning to full-time employment, in 1995 she became an independent management consultant working primarily in the field of mental health and children’s services. She believes in the importance of good mental health and education to change lives for the better, and is committed to improving services for children and young people in adverse circumstances, as a consequence of poor health, poverty, violence and parental neglect. Stella also gives her time in retirement as a governor of her local sixth form college.
Victoria Burch
CLINICAL TRUSTEE
A child psychologist, Victoria has worked with children for over 30 years, and became interested in psychological trauma while supporting children and their families on the neurosurgery ward at GOSH. More recently she has supported children and young people with life-limiting conditions. This has included grief, trauma and resilience work. She has extensive experience of teaching and supervision. She is a regular visitor to the Middle East where her daughter worked in the humanitarian field for four years. Since joining ACT International Victoria has led and participated in training in the Middle East, Uganda and the UK, both in person and online. In response to requests from partner organisations, she has developed new materials to help local communities and organisations address the high levels of anxiety often experienced by refugees, and simple mental health 'first aid' materials for use after conflict or disaster. Victoria also ensures that our training materials are up to date, in line with best practice, and appropriate for use internationally.
Barbara Simpson
TRUSTEE and SAFEGUARDING OFFICER
Barbara is a Qualified Social Worker with over 45 years’ experience in safeguarding children and young people and vulnerable adults: This has been gained through a variety of social work roles with both the voluntary and statutory sector, and also as a former police officer with The West Midlands Police Service when her specific responsibilities were in the area of child protection and adults at risk. She is a specialist trainer with a wide training portfolio and a proven track record in designing, developing and delivering bespoke learning and development programmes related to safeguarding children and adults. Barbara is a consultant for a programme offering an innovative approach in how they work with adults with complex needs. In addition, Barbara was Chair of Trustees for local branch of Women’s Aid for a number of years. She believes in the rights of all children and young people to live free from violence and is committed to improving services for children in adverse circumstances.
Jenny Cuffe
TRUSTEE
Jenny is a former BBC journalist with a long-standing interest in international affairs and migration. From 1980 to 2015, she sourced stories and reported for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and BBC2. She has travelled extensively to countries or regions experiencing conflict or political turmoil and environmental disaster including Afghanistan, Gaza, Iraq, Kenya, Angola, Bangladesh, Niger. She reported on child soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda, child brides in Yemen and children sold into slavery or sleeping in the sewers in Romania. In 2017 she gained a PhD from the University of Southampton for research into the impact of the Zimbabwean financial crisis on three families from different ethnic backgrounds. As a long-time member of the Southampton & Winchester Visitors’ Group, she has supported and befriended a number of asylum seeker and refugees. Jenny became an ACT International Trustee in June 2020.
Saif Ghauri
TREASURER
A business graduate and a qualified accountant with 40 years of experience across multiple operational sectors, of which, 20 years is spent with market leaders within the shipping sector. Since 2006, he has worked as a Management Consultant his areas of specialisation internationally and in the domestic market. Keen on sports, particularly squash.
Anne Feeney
TRUSTEE
Anne is a facilitator, executive coach and tutor specialising in transformational leadership and change. She leverages her coaching and psychological training combined with her commercial expertise and acumen to design and deliver a wide range of client and team initiatives. Working with Corporate clients, Consultancies and Academia the common themes are sustainability, leadership and business transformation.
Dr Yara Fardous
TRUSTEE
Dr Yara is a pediatrician working in Southeast England.
Simon Stewart
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRUSTEE
Simon graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. His professional background is in service transformation and coproduction, recently developing online suicide reduction services for the UK voluntary sector. He is currently working in humanitarian response and studying for a PGCert in psychedelics at the University of Exeter. Here he leads on ACTI’s digital estate.
Elias Byaruhanga
UGANDA OPERATIONS MANAGER
Elias is a retired psychiatric clinical officer (PCO) from the mental health team at Mbarara District Referral Hospital in Uganda. He learned to use CATT in 2014, became a trainer and then our Operations Manager in Uganda in 2017. In addition to co-ordinating our team of 12 other CATT trainers and leading many courses all over the country, he supports our CATT counsellors in Uganda (now over 150) and regularly travels to refugee camps for supervision sessions.
Fahed Al-Oqaili
Middle East Operations Manager
Fahed graduated with honours from Yarmouk University with a master's degree in English Arts/Translation. He co-ordinates our training programmes across the Middle East from his base in Amman, Jordan. Here he is an Assistant Director and projects coordinator for Altkaful Charity Association (ACA)/Jordan. He is a certified international trainer, with particular interest in social sciences, psychosocial research and training.
Dr Carlotta Raby
FOUNDER
Carlotta Raby is a psychotherapist with a specialism in PTSD, a psychologist, and Director of Trauma Psychology UK which is Licensor for ACTI’S CATT activity. Following several national children’s rights roles for Young Minds, the Mental Health Foundation and the Evidence Based Practice Unit, Carlotta created the CATT protocol (combining children’s rights with a cognitive arts based post-traumatic stress treatment) in 2005. Carlotta subsequently founded Luna Children’s Charity (now ACT International) in order to offer mental health support and training to international organisations working with children and young people affected by war, conflict or natural disaster. She was clinical and research director for ACT International for seven years and amongst other activities she supervised operations in Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Pakistan and Turkey. She has granted a licence for the purposes of international aid to train those wishing to use CATT overseas, and to train experienced CATT practitioners as trainers of others with the same aim. Carlotta has completed a clinical Psychology Doctorate with specialist research into serious group violence, for which she was supported by the Integrated Gangs Unit as part of the UK Home Office. She is also Director of the Certificate in CBT for Children and Young People at the Institute of Child Metal Health, and is visiting lecturer at several academic institutions; teaching in ‘Treating Post Traumatic Stress’, ‘Children’s Rights’, ‘Children’s Rights Law and Mental Health’, and ‘CATT’. She is a member of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, the European Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (where she is on the Children’s Trauma Task Force) and the UK Psychological Trauma Society. She is an Honorary Research Associate with Rhodes University. Research, publication and policy advising roles have all related to PTSD treatment in children and young people, and children’s voices with in mental health services.
Who we work with.
Principal trainers
Our training courses are taught by experienced volunteer mental health professionals and trainers.
Gaza
Dr Ghalia Al Asha
Fahed Al Oqaili
Jordan
Mohammed El Sharef
Haitham Shamiah
Uganda
Florence Achulo
Elias Byaruhanga
Umar Candia
Syson Katushabe
James Roger Nsereko
Gerald Wakweyika
Paul Waluya
Lulu Emanuel
Timona Asua
Beatrice Kiden
Jackson Madaya
United Kingdom
Shellee Burroughs
Maria Chambers
Anna Kalin
NGOs and other partner organisations
In delivering our trainings we often work with partner organisations, including:
The counsellors we have trained typically work within local services or for small NGOs serving their home communities or refugee settlements and camps.
Professional colleagues and advisers:
Dr Carlotta Raby - TraumaPsychology UK
Dr Dom Plant - TraumaPsychology UK
Dr Redwan El-Khayat - Consultant Psychiatrist and Chair of Mental Health Service Committee in UOSSM
Dr Alyson Hall - Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist ELFT/Butabika NHS Link,
Dr Godfrey Zari Rukundo - Head of Department of Psychiatry, Mbarara University, Uganda.
We strengthen our safeguarding measures by working with Keeping Children Safe and strive to protect all children and vulnerable adults from harm
We are a member of the Consortium for Street Children.
We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator in the UK.
How ACT International’s Money was Spent (2021-2022)
ACT Internationals sustainable model makes it a very cost effective charity, every donation goes a long way.
Our project and fundraising support, marketing and development costs are minimal because so many people who work for us a volunteers. 90% of donations go directly to work in the field supporting training courses and special projects.
In this pie chart you can see how we spent your money in 21-22.
See our annual reviews for more details.