About
The Global Health Partnerships (formerly THET) Diaspora Healthcare Awards 2025 is a prestigious event dedicated to honouring the remarkable contributions of diaspora healthcare professionals who are making a significant impact on global health. These awards recognise the individuals and organisations shaping the future of healthcare through innovation, leadership, and dedication to improving health outcomes across the world.
Why Celebrate Diaspora Healthcare Professionals?
Diaspora healthcare professionals play a crucial role in bridging the gap between countries, cultures and healthcare systems. Their unique perspectives, cultural insights and unwavering commitment to excellence have led to groundbreaking advancements in medical care, education, and health policy. The Global Health Partnerships (formerly THET) Diaspora Healthcare Awards 2025 aims to shine a spotlight on these extraordinary achievements and inspire future generations to follow in their footsteps.
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Join Us at the Royal College of Physicians 18th March 2025
The awards ceremony will take place on 18th March 2025 at the iconic Royal College of Physicians in London. This historic venue will serve as the perfect backdrop for an evening of celebration, networking, and inspiration. Join us as we gather to honour the outstanding contributions of diaspora healthcare professionals and their enduring impact on global health.
Diaspora Awards Dinner 2024 - Winners
One in five NHS staff report a non-British nationality. Global Health Partnerships (formerly THET) is deeply excited by them as individuals and by the way in which they are using their knowledge of different health systems to improve the health for patients in the UK and in their counties of heritage. As a result, in 2024 we launched the Global Health Partnerships Diaspora Awards to recognise the work of such individuals, which often goes unnoticed. Sponsored by Insignia Global Partners, we held an awards dinner on 18 March 2024 to celebrate 8 diaspora champions from across the NHS and the independent health sector for their contributions to global health.
Charles Kanavati, Practice Plus Group Ophthalmology
Charles is an inspiring leader who trained in Egypt and Palestine before continuing his career in the UK. He has worked at the British St John Ophthalmic Hospital in East Jerusalem, saving the eyesight of people in occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including complex retinal and traumatic conditions from blast and bullet injuries. He has established a fellowship training programme for ophthalmologists in the region and was instrumental in securing land for a new eye hospital in Gaza for patients blocked from travelling to East Jerusalem.
Olawale Oladimeji, NHS East London Foundation Trust
Olawale is a physiotherapist who trained and practised in Nigeria. He is currently working within the admission avoidance and discharge service, helping to facilitate hospital discharge and preventing hospital admission within the Tower Hamlets community. The knowledge, skillset and experience he has gained has been very helpful in facilitating the education of physiotherapists back home in Nigeria, helping to improve quality of care.
Margaret Baron-Catuday, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Margaret has been a nurse for 13 years and is currently working as Resuscitation Officer. She is passionate about training others and sharing knowledge to improve healthcare practices back home in the Philippines.
Maria Rickards, Vanguard Healthcare Solutions
Maria is a registered nurse who undertook her training in South Africa, before moving to the UK in 1999 to continue her nursing career with the NHS. She joined Vanguard Healthcare Solutions in 2005 as a theatre practitioner with extensive trauma and orthopaedic experience. Maria provides clinical leadership to Vanguard’s clinical workforce, as well as contract management and support for clients across the UK. Maria's practice is patient and people focused, and she brings to Vanguard a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from her primary training and experience of nursing in South Africa, as well as her conscientious approach to clinical leadership and practice.
Sifiso Sibanda, Spire Hartswood Hospital
Richard Holder, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Richard Holder, Head of Global Health Partnerships for Nottingham University Hospitals, has over two decades of experience across mental health and psychotherapy, and champions sustainable global healthcare initiatives for low and middle-income countries. An advocate for inclusion and equity, he chairs the BAME network at NUH and serves as a trustee for MESMAC, focusing on sexual health and marginalised communities. In 2023, Richard launched NUH's Global Health Hub.
Zedekiah Sibanda, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
Dr Sibanda is a Consultant Paediatrician originally from Zimbabwe who has retained links with the University of Zimbabwe and other charitable groups. He helps run training courses for postgraduate students, consultants and parent groups for those who have children with special needs.
Richard Holder, Head of Global Health Partnerships for Nottingham University Hospitals, has over two decades of experience across mental health and psychotherapy, and champions sustainable global healthcare initiatives for low and middle-income countries. An advocate for inclusion and equity, he chairs the BAME network at NUH and serves as a trustee for MESMAC, focusing on sexual health and marginalised communities. In 2023, Richard launched NUH's Global Health Hub.
Syed Saeed Ashraf, Swansea Bay
Professor Ashraf moved to the UK for surgical training in 1983 after completing medical school in Pakistan and is now a proud member of the Pakistani diaspora in Wales. Every three months, he uses his annual leave to volunteer his operating skills and help train cardiac surgeons at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi, Pakistan. He also helps develop the research skills of their cardiac surgeons and nursing staff. Some of NICVD’s patients and surgeons are from Afghanistan and other neighbouring countries, who also benefit from his work. He also able to transfer back to Wales, knowledge he had acquired operating on rare cases in NICVD.