Ms Helen Keogh:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss the incredible work World Vision is doing in South Sudan among other places. The Chairman has shown a great interest in this work and I thank him for that. I am accompanied by Ms Niamh Cooper who recently returned from South Sudan, which she visited along with our ambassador, Mr. Liam Cunningham. She is our head of communications.

I am also accompanied by my successor, Mr. Niall McLoughlin, as I am retiring next week, as well as by Ms Andrea Finnegan, our programmes officer on the humanitarian side, and Ms Sheila Garry, our programmes director, all of whom have deep knowledge in this area.

World Vision is the largest privately funded non-governmental organisation, NGO, in the world. It works in over 100 countries and the World Vision partnership employs over 44,000 people, many in the countries in which we are working. We engage in long-term development work. We stay and work with communities for many years to take them out of poverty and ensure they are self-sufficient. We also advocate on people's behalf to help them to have a voice. The voice of vulnerable children, in particular, must be heard.

On the humanitarian side, we provide an emergency response and rehabilitation services where the need is vast. We will talk about that side of things and our work in South Sudan. It is more interesting to hear about the work we do. I, therefore, invite Ms Cooper to tell the committee about her recent trip to South Sudan and the work we are doing there.