Merlin was set up to find new ways of providing emergency medical relief in places regardless of how remote or how difficult they proved to work in, and then explore ways of ensuring a last legacy of a stronger healthcare system.
This short video from 2005 describes some of the programmes shortly after Merlin was created, and before it became part of Save the Children.
A key component of the Merlin approach was to work with local people and build their capacity to support and work with the existing healthcare systems. This was illustrated by the ‘Spirit of Merlin’ award that we celebrated at the event to mark the first ten years of Merlin. This award went to Dr Aniru Conteh in Sierra Leone for his work on Lassa fever and its relevance to haemorrhagic fever outbreak response. This led to the Lassa Fever Initiative
It is those values that are behind our approach to work with local partners in Ukraine , to strengthen the support to victims of trauma and particularly amputees.
This has involved new collaborations, working with Alex Lewis of the Alex Lewis Trust. Alex is a quadruple amputee and Dr Geoff Watson – a trauma specialist to build on the insights they have gained from Alex’s journey from infection and trauma through to becoming an explorer and champion of research into assistive technologies. https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2023-02-14/quadruple-amputee-heads-to-war-torn-ukraine-to-help-those-who-have-lost-limbs