Meet the GOALies

Hundreds of brave, tenacious individuals have given their time and energy over the years to serve as GOALies on our numerous projects worldwide. Here are just some of them:

Maura Lennon - Senior Management – GOAL Head Office, Dublin, Ireland, having worked in Sudan, Mozambique, Honduras, Cambodia, Tanzania and Ethiopia

Jonathan Edgar - Senior Management - GOAL Head Office, Dublin, Ireland having worked in Kosovo as Country Director for GOAL, and has since travelled to most GOAL projects overseas.

Mary McLoughlin - Health Advisor - Roving GOAL’s 13 countries of operation as required

Ernest Khalilov - Logistician - Logistician having worked in Sudan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Niger, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan for GOAL.

Stephen Kelly - Logistician - GOAL DRC

Niall Boot - Roads and Watsan engineer - Sierra Leone

Stephen McEneaney - Housing Programme Manager - Uganda

John Okello - Public Health Officer - Northern Uganda

Maura Lennon - Senior Management Team

Maura Lennon has been with GOAL for over twenty years and was at the coalface of many of the world’s worst disasters. Having worked in many countries - Rwanda, Sudan, Mozambique, Honduras, Cambodia, Tanzania and Ethiopia - GOAL for her is a way of life.
‘When I finished nursing I wanted to work with the missions, but ended up on a plane flying out to Ethiopia with GOAL during the famine in 1984. I wanted to save lives but had no real idea of the realities behind this idealism. GOAL makes a difference to people’s lives at a basic level – I have learnt so much from this work – GOAL has given me autonomy, spirit and hope, and I feel privileged to be part of this organisation.’

Maura Lennon's 21 Years with GOAL
Irish Independent, 26th January 2006 (read the article)

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Jonathan Edgar - Senior Management Team
In 2001, Jonathan Edgar decided to move from Management Consultancy, opting instead to help the poor.’ He initially spent eighteen months in Kosovo as Country Director for GOAL, and has since travelled to most GOAL projects overseas.
‘I have realised the importance of the work GOAL does and the manner in which it delivers – always practical and efficient. The key factor which attracted me to GOAL was the fact that most of the resources get straight to those who need it most.’

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Mary McLoughlin - Health Advisor

Irish doctor, Mary Mc Loughlin has been a GOALie since 1987 and has worked in Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia and the Muslim town of Gorazde, where she was trapped alongside UN personnel in1994, as war waged around her.

Mary had faced personal danger before when she was taken hostage for three months by Iraqi troops during the Gulf War, but even this could not deter her spirit and she continues her life saving work for GOAL today. In 1997 she was awarded the ‘People of the Year Award.’

News article: UCC Medal winner urges graduates to engage with developing world

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Ernest Khalilov - Logistician
Speaking Russian, Turkish, and English Khalilov has worked in Sudan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Niger, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan for GOAL.

A former professional sportsman, forced to retire early due to injury, Khalilov plays a lead role in co-ordinating GOALs logistics in a number of countries.

"After the earthquake in northern Pakistan, GOAL and every other agency faced a massive logistical challenge. Three million people were homeless in a mountainous area, infrastructure was obliterated, and winter was coming. We had to procure, transport and deliver thousands of tents, blankets, shelter kits, tarpaulins, over difficult terrain, in a short period of time. It was round the clock, it was challenging, it was exhausting. But to respond effectively to an emergency, you expect these
things."

"The same was the case for the tsunami, when GOAL intervened in Sri Lanka. And in a different way with Darfur and Niger - different types of emergencies. Different challenges in terms of language, infrastructure, local capacity, security, politics. All of these things must be considered when setting and running a good logistics operation in a particular country."

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Stephen Kelly – Field Logistician, DRC

When Stephen Kelly is not working out the logistics of negotiating around the DRC ’s active volcanoes or through its dense jungle, he’s busy making a name for himself in the local Manomo soccer league. “I don’t have much spare time with work but I’m keeping fit by playing soccer with a local team a few times a week. There are three white men in the region – so when I am playing soccer, I attract a lot of attention and draw in the crowds! This superstar status is something I am slowly getting used to.” 

Soccer stardom isn’t the only addition Stephen’s made to his C.V. during his time in DRC, he’s also been busy picking up some of the local language. “GOAL are funding the construction of new buildings for an overcrowded orphanage (currently just a few huts) – I try and visit the children once a week and show them new games and try and teach them small lessons (importance of washing your hands before eating, sleeping under a mosquito net, etc., etc.) which is a challenge since most of them do not speak any French!  Thankfully, I’m picking up some basic Kiluba which always gets a cackle from the locals.”
 
Stephen’s role as logistics manager is to provide operational and logistical support to all of GOAL’s programs across Congo. “I’ve got a team of 60 people working directly for operations – all local staff, looking at security, transport, administration, base management, and a whole plethora of other things,” he says. “Maintaining and continuously improving the systems to ensure efficiency, quality and of course donor compliance are a major component of what has to be done, also having to keep an eye on the longer term strategic direction to make sure we are moving the way primary beneficiaries are expecting.”

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Niall Boot , Roads and Watsan engineer, Sierra Leone
                        
Staffordshire-born Niall Boot is using his engineering skills to aid the poorest of the poor in Sierra Leone. “I’ve travelled and worked in various parts of Africa,” Niall says. “I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere quite so remote. But I guess that’s why I’m there.”

For Niall it is not his first trip to Africa, or his first experience working in development. “I started working in development in 2001. I went to volunteer in Ghana with a small voluntary organisation for the summers during university.”

A civil engineering graduate, Niall went on to do his masters in Loughborough University at the Water Engineering Development Centre. After finishing his Masters he started looking for work. “I’d heard a lot about GOAL and I knew the organisation had a great reputation so I went along to one of the open evenings in Birmingham,” he said.

“The places I’m working in tend to be quite undeveloped as they’ll be very rural areas,” Niall continues. “I miss things from home – real ale for one. You’re always going to miss stuff but I’d regret it if I let that make me not do it. It’s better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do.”

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Stephen McEneaney - Housing Programme Manager - Uganda


Monaghan man, Stephen McEneaney has been Programme Manager of GOAL’s building programme in Masaka in Uganda since November 2007. After 18 months working with GOAL in Sri Lanka post tsunami, he knows how to get things done. The job done by the Sri Lankan team was the largest in GOAL’s history and was universally praised.

Although Stephen was a big part of that project, he did not sit back and rest on his laurels. Stephen packed his bags for Uganda almost immediately. He now finds himself in charge of an ambitious housing project in one of the most under-developed countries in the world – a challenge he relishes.

As well as managing the 28 staff involved in the programme, there is a big training element to Stephen’s job. “We run vocational training in construction skills for youths who have dropped out of school,” Stephen explained. “They learn brick making and laying, roofing, plastering and other construction skills. We also run a parallel programme in traditional construction techniques like wattle and dub and thatching. Not letting these traditional skills die is important as they are often more sustainable.”

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John Okello, Public Health Officer, Northern Uganda.

"The rebels killed my mother and father. Afterwards I had to work to support my 9 siblings. But I wanted to help my community as well. This is how I ended up with GOAL"

As Public Health Officer in Kalongo in northern Uganda, John Okello is at the forefront of GOAL’s work in the conflict-affected region, where up to 2 million people have been displaced by conflict, living in crowded camps and spending their nights in the confines of temporary shelters safe from the depredations of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA).

“We are serving 80,000 IDPs, in 6 camps in Pader District in northern Uganda. We provide water and sanitation services to the camps: latrines, boreholes, wells, bathing shelters. I work directly on environmental health awareness, disease surveillance, and immunisation in the camps. This is important as there are so many people crowded into such a small space, with limited resources. As well as providing facilities, awareness about health and environment is the second aspect of my work. For example, there’s no point distributing treated mosquito nets if we don’t educate people about malaria prevention.”

With some recent optimism that the conflict in northern Uganda is winding down, GOAL is hoping to move from emergency relief to crisis recovery, if the security improves sufficiently to allow people move home.

John Okello is optimistic: “I’m hoping for a better future of course. If the insurgency is collapsing people can go home. And then, GOAL can support them in this.”