Richard Allan, CEO, founded The MENTOR Initiative in late 2002 to reduce death and suffering from tropical diseases in humanitarian crises.
He has built and led this innovative, specialised organisation to ensure that countries in a humanitarian emergency receive the technical and operational support they need to control and prevent malaria, dengue fever, leishmaniasis and other vector-borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases.
The MENTOR Initiative has developed significant country level support experience through intensive operations in Africa, Asia, the Americas and The Middle East. It is uniquely positioned to help partner agencies scale up life-saving action in these, and similar settings. This is alongside the wide scale support emergency humanitarian agencies have already received through MENTOR’s capacity building activities, programme planning and implementation advice.
Richard and the MENTOR team provide technical support to the UNHCR, UNICEF, IFRC, WHO, RBM partners, World Bank Malaria Booster programme, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and UNDP in addition to providing full time support to key emergency countries.
Read our latest Annual Report (2022/2023).
History
MENTOR was established to deliver emergency healthcare quickly and effectively in the most dire, complex situations drawing from Richard’s specialist knowledge and disease control experience.
The first programme was researching the efficacy of Insecticide Treated Plastic Sheeting (ITPS) in a camp for refugees from Liberia in Sierra Leone to control malaria in children.
This pivotal study led to the development of new tools and solutions to control malaria and other diseases.
Since then, MENTOR has developed, researched and delivered integrated vector management in 18 countries from Angola to Yemen helping to save millions of lives.