Our Trustees and patrons

Our Trustees

• Caroline Moser - Chair
• Richard Drean – Honorary Treasurer
• Felipe Alviar Baquero
• Julio Davila
• Julia Hayes
• Cathy McIlwaine
• Victoria Hull
• Janey Wall
• Mauricio Rodriguez Echeverry

Our patrons

• Fernando Montaño

Kate Saunders (née Foster) 1969-2016

It was a great sadness to all of us at Children Change Colombia to learn of Kate Saunders’ death from brain cancer in November 2016.  Kate had been the Honorary Treasurer at Children Change Colombia since June 2000 (when we were Children of the Andes) until she stepped down in July 2016. Her contribution to the success of the organisation and to improving the lives of so many children and young people in Colombia was huge.

For fifteen years Kate helped ensure that Children Change Colombia was not only financially secure but able to steadily increase its income and, thus, the amount of work we were able to do in defence of children’s rights in Colombia.  In fact, Kate’s wisdom, expertise and relaxed authority gave us such confidence in the stability of the organisation that she enabled us to be daring. She helped us make crucial changes – from starting and steadily increasing the size of our Colombia team, to working on new and challenging issues and, even, to changing our name – all aimed at having an ever greater impact on the life chances of young people in Colombia that she cared so much about.

Kate’s role in Children Change Colombia can never be replaced, but her influence lives on. Not only in the warm memories of all of us who worked with her, but in the theory and practice of so much that the organisation does.
Normally, when a beloved person dies so young, we grieve for all the wonderful things they might have done had they lived longer. With Children Change Colombia and, I know, in many other parts of her life, Kate had already done many, many wonderful things. For this we will always be grateful and for the chance to have known such a quietly inspirational person.

Thank you, Kate.

Duncan

Kate’s husband, Ben, has set up a fundraising page in Kate’s memory in support of Brain Tumour Research. You can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/KateJSaunders