Meet our board of trustees!
Anita Jones – Chairperson
Midwife, Nurse, Clinical Midwifery Lead and Mother.
I have worked as a NHS midwife in many community settings in the UK for over 38 years. I also worked for a child protection charity for 4 years as a special parenting teacher helping vulnerable parents, and now with young mums under 19 years old at Getaway Girls charity. I have run my own childbirth education company for the past 13 years and am a qualified childbirth educator. I am a qualified health education midwife. Most of my career has been working with families in Leeds as a Community Midwife which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I have mentored students throughout my career and taught in schools prisons, colleges as well as midwives and nurses.
I am passionate about supporting pregnant women, enabling them to be healthy in pregnancy and have a safe birth. My passion is mothers and children’s health. I have worked in Kenya voluntarily for the past five years. My vision is to empower women to make informed decisions about their health choices for themselves and their families, to stop women dying in childbirth and for their babies to live a healthy life. I have written and implemented the Mother and Baby project and truly believe it saves and improves the lives of vulnerable women and babies in some of the most deprived areas of Kenya. If we care for the mothers, they can then care for their children and so the rate of orphaned children will be reduced.
A baby does not ask to be born in a deprived area, it is sheer luck where we are born – we are the lucky ones. I believe it is everyone’s responsibility to care for and protect them. We must keep them in mind. I want to help do as much as possible for the ones who have not been as lucky as we have.
Christina Brogden
Social Worker, and a specialist in young women and children, and mental health in pregnancy.
I have been a qualified Social Worker since 2009. My background is working in the field of Child Protection and with women experiencing depression both in the antenatal and postnatal period.
My passion is both supporting and working with vulnerable families to help change, big or small to occur. I have been to Kenya several times to carry out support work with vulnerable families. I have also worked with health and social care professionals to support them to develop their knowledge and skills in child protection, in order to safeguard vulnerable children and families in Kenya.
I feel that I am enthusiastic, hard-working and highly motivated when it comes to helping others. In my free time I am a volunteer for several local community groups and also enjoy spending time with family and friends.
Janice McDevitt Lee
I’m Jan and I’m a retired teacher. I’m married to Michael, who’s also a retired teacher, and I have two children who are both teachers!
I enjoy watercolour painting, travelling, reading books, caravanning, cooking, being with my granddaughter who’s 6, and volunteering at our charity shop in Keighley. I get to meet so many lovely people when they come in to browse or buy. It’s good to know we’re able to support mums and babies in Kenya.
Come and visit us soon, you won’t be disappointed.
Angela Keating
Our advocates:
David Midgley
He is a social and environmental activist and a teacher of Buddhist philosophy and meditation. In 1996 he founded Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, and has taught regularly at the Centre for the past 25 years, now focusing more on secular approaches including Compassion Cultivation Training and Eco-Dharma.
In addition to his Buddhist activities, David has been engaged in peace and environmental activism since 1980. In 2007 he became Programme Director of Schumacher North, an independent public education organisation working to promote a holistic philosophy of society based on the ideas of E.F. Schumacher, noted economist and author of ‘Small is Beautiful’. In 2016 he founded Zero Carbon Yorkshire and became a member of Leeds Climate Commission. He is a founding member of Compassion and Wellbeing 2020, organisers of the annual Leeds Festival of Kindness, Compassion and Wellbeing in Leeds.
David holds a B.Phil. in Philosophy from New College Oxford, a Certificate in Advanced Buddhist Studies from Jamyang Buddhist Centre London, and a Certificate in Education for Sustainability from Schumacher College, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Schumacher Institute.
David is proud to support Mama Na Mtoto UK!