About Us
We Are Be Team and We Save Lives
Our Mission
Be Team International works in Afghanistan with national and international partners to improve healthcare resources, service delivery and training capacity while helping hospitals and clinics towards operational and financial sustainability.
Our Values
- Humility demonstrated by selflessness
- Reconciliation demonstrated by self-sacrifice
- Professionalism demonstrated by competence and respect
- Restoration demonstrated by complete healing
- Compassion demonstrated by mercy
- Humanitarianism demonstrated by cultural sensitivity
- Cooperation demonstrated by empowering others
- Enduring Partnerships found in strong relationships
Our Philosophy
Dr Atia Sharif Nadi presenting obstetrics statistics at the morbidity and mortality conference
We are life-long learners and life-long teachers
Since 2005 when we began working with Cure Hospital in Afghanistan, our commitment has been unwavering – help the less fortunate by improving healthcare. We recognize that we can’t do this alone, so we have forged partnerships with other non-profit organizations, government agencies, the military and individuals who have generously supported us.
Our goal extends beyond improving healthcare services and purchasing medical equipment. We are committed to training future healthcare workers including physicians, nurses and mid-wives; expanding outreach to rural communities that have no doctors or clinics; and building capacity so more people have critical healthcare services.
Our Team
We have built a well-functioning team, based on respect, accountability, and reconciliation of differences, which are critical to success in a cross-cultural setting. One can appreciate the remarkable teamwork we have achieved by considering the stability of our Afghan hospital staff: 224 of 323 (76 percent) of our staff have worked for the hospital for over five years and nearly half of this group has been working at the hospital for 10 years or more. When asked why they stay, the answer is almost always the same, ‘I like working for an organization where I am treated fairly and compensated based on how well I perform my job, instead of who I know.’
Cure Hospital Senior Management Team
Following graduation from the Syed Noor Mohammad Sha High School, Mr. Abdul Qahar and his family experienced at a very personal level the violence of the Russian invasion. Their house was attacked and badly damaged, and sadly, a brother was killed. The family walked three days from Laghman province across the Pakistani border and moved into a refugee camp where they lived for the next eighteen years. When they returned to Afghanistan, destruction was everywhere. Homes, schools, clinics and hospitals had been destroyed. The area had been heavily mined by the Russians. Unfortunately, a brother stepped on a mine and became permanently disabled. When asked about living in a Pakistani refugee camp for 18 years, Abdul Qahar answer was, ‘It was not that bad. I was able to learn English and start my career in nursing.’
In 1986, while living in Pakistan, Abdul Qahar completed his training at the Nursing Institute of Peshawar Pakistan. For the next eleven years, he worked as a clinical nurse in Peshawar Pakistan at the Mercy Hospital, The Burn Center of Hayatabad and the Kuwait Hospital. Upon returning to Kabul, Afghanistan, he accepted a position in nursing administration at the Ahmad Sha Baba Clinic Ibnsina.
He joined the staff at Cure Hospital in 2007 and worked as a nurse supervisor for seven years, following which he was promoted to Deputy Nursing Director before again being promoted to Nurse Manager. He is a current certified (BLS) Basic Life Support provider and trainer and has an interest in new medical technology.
One of thirteen children, Fahima Naziri was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. After graduating from BIBI SARA High school Kabul, Afghanistan in 2005, she earned her Diploma in Midwifery at the Ghazanfar Institute of Health Science (GIHS), Kabul, Afghanistan in 2007. Immediately after earning her degree, she worked for two years at the Indira Ghandi Hospital.
Fahima was hired by the Cure Hospital as a midwife in 2008. Her professional and calm demeanor was soon evident and therefore, she was promoted to midwifery supervisor in 2009. In 2011, she was again promoted to become Head of Midwifery at the Cure Hospital, a position she has held since then. Under her steady leadership, the midwifery department has continued running Cure’s all midwifery run clinic at its Family Health Center and offering 3-week clinical clerkships to Afghan midwives from all over the country.
Fahima has continued to seek every opportunity to advance her professional knowledge and skills. In 2017, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Midwifery through the Midwifery Bridge program at the Zawol University in Kabul. She was chosen to travel to Bangladesh to attend a one-week conference sponsored by the Asian Alliance in Midwifery. She has earned certificates of achievement from the MOPH to become a breast-feeding consultant’, from the Silk road Solutions on Leadership, from the American Heart Association to be a Basic Life Support Provider and trainer, and has completed the Newborn Resuscitation Program and then became certified as a trainer through ‘Helping Babies Breath’ an evidenced-based educational program initiative of the American Academy of Pediatrics in collaboration with WHO and other global health stakeholders. The program teaches neonatal resuscitation techniques in resource-constrained environments.
Fahima is also very active volunteer in the larger Afghan midwifery community. She is a member and current Vice President of the Afghanistan Midwifery and Nursing Council (AMNC), an executive board member and past President and past Kabul Provincial Director of the Afghan Midwives Association (ASMA).
Dr. Mohammad Rafiq was born in Khost province. One of five children, he and his family traveled on foot and by camel to Pakistan when he was 15 years old to avoid the Russian fighting. He lived a ‘simple life’ there for eighteen years, at times in a refugee camp and at other times with relatives. After finishing high school and being accepted into medical school, he moved without his family to Kabul, where he graduated after seven years from the Kabul Medical University. Upon graduation, he started working for the MOPH at the Central Poly Clinic in Kabul. Following this, he worked for five years with MedAir as part of their program to implement the Basic Package of Health Services in Badakshan Province in some of its most remote regions.
Well known to our Afghan hospital leadership, Dr. Rafiq was recruited in 2009 to fill the difficult and vacated post of Obstetric Fistula Outreach Coordinator. After spending many days and nights traversing Afghanistan’s remotest provinces, and not always free from risk, he was reassigned in 2016 to be the Manager of the Cure Family Health Clinic, a position he holds today. Rafiq’s work as the obstetric fistula coordinator was truly heroic and will be highlighted in the Healing Heroes section of our website so please check back.
A graduate of Nangarhar High School, and the Nangarhar Medical College, Dr. Hashimi was awarded a diploma in Plastic Surgery from the Darulsalam Institute of Reconstructive Surgery in Peshawar, Pakistan. He subsequently received general plastic surgery training at the Seri Ram Chandra University in Madras, India. He continued advancing his plastic surgery training at the Saint-Luc Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. He obtained additional maxillofacial and cleft palate/lip reconstructive training at the Santo Spirito and la Sapienza Hospitals in Rome, Italy.
Dr. Hashimi’s has worked as Plastic Surgery Consultant for the Abrar Organization Nangarghar, Afghanistan, as an ICRC Consultant Surgeon and Trainer at the Jalalabad Public Hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, as Consultant for Plastic Surgery for the Italian Emergency Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, as Consultant Plastic Surgeon in Lamer Hospital Kabul, and as Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery in Maiwand Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan.
Dr. Hashimi started his work for Cure Hospital in 2006 and for the next three years hosted surgeons from Italy and the United states in order to establish the cleft reconstructive surgery program in partnership with SMILE Train. He has operated on nearly 9000 children with cleft deformities and has trained two female Afghan surgeons. Working with SMILE train, he is expanding the treatment of cleft deformities to include speech and nutritional therapy at the Cure Hospital. As head of the department of plastic surgery, he has trained two other plastic surgeons, including Dr. Suraya Aizad Panah, who has worked at the Cure Hospital since 2011. Together with her, Dr. Hashimi has expanded the hospitals aesthetic and reconstructive services to include burn scar contractures, hand surgery, nose and ear reconstructions, free and vascularized soft tissue flaps and more.
Shafiq Ullah Khan graduated from high school in Lahore Pakistan. He was selected in an English Scholarship Program at the American Consulate in Lahore. He studied Pre-Engineering at the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Lahore in 2007. In 2009, he completed his Bachelor of Commerce at Punjab College of Commerce, Lahore. In 2012, he finished a 2- year Master program at the Institute of Business Administration at the University of the Punjab in Lahore. In 2018, he earned a recognition as a Chartered Management Accountant in Pakistan.
His work experience includes a three-month internship at the MCB Bank, Pakistan, four years as accountant with CARE Foundation, three years as Accounts Executive at Sarena Industries & Emb Mills and three years as Assistant Manager of Accounts with Sefam Pvt Ltd in Lahore. Shafiq joined the Cure Hospital staff in November 2018. He married in 2014 and has a son.
Shukrullah Jami is a graduate of the Ghulam Mohammad Ghubar High School in Kabul, Afghanistan. He holds an English diploma from Alam Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan English language Institute, Kabul. He advanced his education while working full time by earning a Diploma in Business Administration (DBA) from the Armaghan Higher Educational Institute of Kabul. Following this, he earned his Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the Baktar University in Kabul. He has worked for several companies as an English interpreter including for the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and with National Airways Corporation (NAC) in contract with the Afghan Wireless Communication Company in Kabul.
He started his work at the hospital in June 2005 as the patient receptionist. His organizational skills were soon evident. Therefore, he was promoted in 2007 to the position of Pediatric Surgical Coordinator. In this position, he was responsible for overall coordination of the growing cleft surgery service. He worked as the liaison and data manager between SMILE Train and the hospital.
His professional demeanor continued to grow and thus he was promoted to Patient Services Manager in 2011. Pulled on the one hand by suffering patients and their concerned families and on the other hand by hospital staff, Shukrullah consistently and calmly negotiated through many challenging situations to the benefit of all. During his time in this position, the processes and procedures of the Patient Services department were significantly developed. Shurkrullah’s business sense also allowed the hospital to grow its’ number of service contracts with outside agencies and organizations.
In 2015, Shukrullah was promoted once again to the position of Human Resources Coordinator and then in 2016 to Human Resources Manager. He is fully committed to promoting a healthy workplace environment for all hospital staff. He and his wife were married in 2007 and are the proud parents of three children.
Waheed Meskenyar was born in Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan. The family intimately experienced the effects of fighting when his father, a military officer was killed in Herat province. Waheed graduated from Khwaja Abdullah Ansari High School and was then accepted into the Afghan Institute of Technology from which he graduated. He learned English at the Pearl English Language Center.
Upon finishing school, Waheed worked for three years as a Facility Team Leader in the Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security as an antiterrorism assistant. For the next two years, he worked as the Company Manager Assistant in the facility department of the Presidential Protective Service Academy in Kabul. Following this, Waheed worked for the ZTE Company, contractor for Etisalat Afghanistan in various positions such as an engineer, fuel supply team leader, generator and power maintenance team leader, transportation manager, security manager and general logistics in charge. He then worked as the night shift maintenance officer in the Afghan Fleet and group Service. With all the above training and experience, Waheed is well qualified to oversee all the hospital facility related projects which he has been capably doing for the last nine years.
Waheed is married. He and his wife have four children.
See short bio with board of directors below.
Cure Hospital Medical Department Heads
Dr. Aqil Sha is one of ten children. He lived in Nangarhar Province until he was fifteen years old when the family had to flee to Pakistan due to the attacks of the Russian army. Several of his cousins were killed during this time. His family home was destroyed by bombs. His entire village including homes, schools, clinics were leveled. The family traveled by foot across the Hindu Cush mountains to reach Pakistan, where they were placed in a refugee camp. Life in the camps was miserable. Despite living in poverty for thirteen years, he finished his secondary education. When the family returned to Kabul, they and their village had to start from scratch again, because everything they had owned was gone.
Dr. Aqil Sha earned his medical degree and specialist anesthesia training at the Kabul Medical University. Following graduation, he worked as a Master Trainer at the Rabia Balkhi Hospital. He also worked as a Training Officer of Anesthesia in Kuwait and as part of a relief committee in Peshawar, Pakistan.
When Dr. Aqil Sha was recruited as an anesthesiologist to work at the Cure Hospital in 2006, he was one of only two anesthesiologists in the entire country. His anesthesia training was continued at Cure Hospital by several foreigners who worked at the hospital for approximately one year. He was part of the team that developed policies to guide the hospital’s pre, intra, and post-operative procedures to ensure patient safety. Dr. Aqil Sha been a steady presence at the hospital for over fourteen years, overseeing the department of anesthesia.
One of six children Dr. Omer Malikzai was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. When he was 10 years old, he and his family fled Afghanistan and moved to Peshawar, Pakistan because his home was destroyed on several occasions by rocket attacks, explosions and fighting with the Russians. The family lived for twelve years in Peshawar, during which time, he graduated from the Maulana Jalalabad Balhki High School. In 1998, he was accepted to the Nangarhar Medical faculty in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. The Taliban was in control there for his first three years of medical school and made life difficult by enforcing Sharia law. Dr. Malkizai persevered through this trial and graduated in 2005.
Following graduation from medical school, Dr. Malikzai worked for a year as the Medical Coordinator for the Afghan German Doctors Association and then as the Head of the Comprehensive Health Clinic (Oshtorgram) in Kapisa, Afghanistan. In April of 2007, he applied for and was accepted into Cure Hospital’s Histo and Cytopathology Residency Program. Soon after finishing the residency program in 2010, he assumed the position of the head of the pathology department, a position he has held ever since.
Dr. Malkzai believes that a career in the medical profession is a lifetime learning process and despite confronting many obstacles (including being robbed of his new car at gunpoint in 2019), he has never lost sight of his goals. He has availed himself to many and varied learning opportunities including workshops in leadership, basic ultrasonography, and a Pathology of Endometrium and Ovary seminar at the MVJ Medical College in Bangalore, India.
Dr. Malkzai has been a delegate and invited speaker at the 16th Conference of the South Asian Academy of Histopathologists and Cytopathologists in Ranchi Jharkhand India, is a member of the South Asian Countries Association (SACA) and has been a speaker locally in Kabul at the annual conference of the French Medical institute. He is one of very few Afghan pathologists to be the first and co-author of numerous publications coming out of Afghanistan.
Dr. Atia Sharif Nadi was born in Kabul province, Afghanistan, as one of eight children. She graduated from Rabia Balkhi High School in 1983 and then from the Kabul Medical University in 1989. Between 1990 and 1994, she practiced medicine in the Malali Hospital, where she developed a special interest in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Between 1995 and 2005, she worked in Kabul, first as the Director of the Mother and Child Health Clinic for Avencine NGO, then as an internist in Karte Se Hospital, and then as a physician with the Swedish Committee. After moving to Ghazni Province, she practiced Obstetrics and Gynecology in Qarabagh District Ibni Sina clinic and later in Angora District Ibni Sina. In 2005, Dr. Nadi started her formal Obstetrics and Gynecology specialist residency in Rabia Balkhi Hospital, which she finished in 2009. She was accepted into Cure Hospital’s Obstetrics, and Gynecology fellowship program immediately following her residency and has remained on staff as one of the departmental trainers since then. Because of her great love for teaching, she led the department to integrate Obstetrics and Gynecology training into the Family Medicine Residency Curriculum. Throughout her career, Dr. Nadi has availed herself of many training opportunities to improve her professional skills, including seminars in malnutrition, antenatal care, reproductive health, training the trainer, infection prevention, ultrasonography, and leadership development. She was promoted to Head of the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology in 2021. Dr. Nadi lives with her husband and two children in Kabul.
Be Team International Board of Directors
Dr. Jason Dausman is an internal medicine and pediatric trained physician who has spent much of his early career working and teaching in low resource communities both domestically and internationally. His first job was as a teaching hospitalist at Christ Community Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Memphis. While there, he was invited to join the faculty at the University of Tennessee in Memphis and spent three years working with students and residents at the county and pediatric teaching hospitals. Colleagues from Memphis ultimately led him on a lecture tour through Afghanistan, where he first visited Cure Hospital in Kabul and saw the groundbreaking family medicine residency training program. This eye-opening trip and a year-long gap in teaching physicians ultimately led him back to Cure Hospital in 2006 and 2007 to teach internal medicine, pediatrics and manage the neonatology unit.
Upon returning to the U.S., he spent a year studying at Covenant Seminary while working part-time with plans to go back to Kabul. In 2010 after the Haiti earthquake and numerous volunteer trips, he decided to work full time as a hospitalist in St Louis at Mercy, a large Catholic health system. In 2015, he took on the role of Medical Director in clinical informatics, where he has spent the last five years focusing on electronic medical records optimization, provider education, quality improvement projects and has supported the acceleration of Mercy’s transformation into a healthcare platform.
He obtained his undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine and was the recipient of the Dean’s award. He trained in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, finishing in 2004.
He is married to Lindsay Rae, a nurse and fitness instructor, has three wonderful girls, and spends free time with his family in Tower Grove Park, playing soccer, teaching piano and reading books.
Cory DeAngelo feels called to support the work in Afghanistan and is pleased to serve as Treasurer for Be Team International. He has 30 years of experience as an operations management professional with cross-functional and cross-cultural experience in large, complex manufacturing and supply chain operations. Cory currently serves as a Director for Papa John’s International. He spent 18 years supporting the strategic growth of Starbucks Coffee Company in various roles before leaving to serve as Senior Vice President of Operations at CURE International.
Cory has a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Arts in Theology from Evangelical Theological Seminary. He is currently completing an MBA at Purdue University. Cory holds a professional certification in Production and Inventory Management with the Association for Supply Chain Management and is certified by the Paterson Center as a StratOp facilitator.
He resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife Emily
As Secretary of the Board of Directors of Be Team International, Nate Desmarais considers it a privilege to be able to continue serving his Afghan colleagues at the hospital in Kabul. In addition to having visited the facility, as well as facilitating and/or participating in strategic planning for the hospital leadership team in Delhi, Nate has worked closely with staff on the ground in a mentoring role. He believes strongly in the work and drive of the Afghan team as they seek to provide quality healthcare training and services in their homeland.
Nate currently serves as Director of Human Resources for the United Cerebral Palsy of Central Pennsylvania. Previously, he served for eight years as Director of Human Resources for CURE International. He has over 18 years’ experience in human resources in different industries, including healthcare and banking.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management from Messiah College and a master’s degree in Human Resource Management from St. Francis University. He also holds the certifications of Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and SHRM-Certified Professional (SHRM-CP). Nate and his wife, Tammy, have two daughters, Olivia and Amelia, and one son, Grayson.
Dr. John Heusinkveld is pleased to serve as a board member for Be Team International. He has also traveled to Afghanistan on five occasions, where he helped to rebuild women’s healthcare in the post-Taliban era by training Afghan physicians in modern gynecologic surgery at the Cure Hospital. John has been recognized with the ‘Outstanding Service Medal’ award by the US Public Health Service for his extensive work with underserved Native American populations. He has been a University faculty member since 2011, and his professional memberships include the American Urogynecologic Society and the AAGL.
He is an assistant professor and a Board-Certified specialist in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery with Banner – University Medical Center Tucson’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has over 13 years of experience in surgical and nonsurgical treatment of pelvic floor disorders such as pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. He also practices general gynecology. John is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University Medical School and completed his residency training at the University of Arizona Hospital.
John and his wife Dominika reside in Tucson, Arizona.
As a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon Dr. Robert Kearney MD, FACS is pleased to serve on the board of directors for Be Team International. He is a firm believer that people should be proactive about their health and aging and that surgery is only one aspect of body maintenanceRobert is a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, as well as General Surgery of the American Board of Surgery. He maintains active membership in the American Society of Plastic Surgeons as well as the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Dr. Kearney, graduated from Providence College cum laude and received his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Kearney completed his general surgery residency at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He then went on to complete his plastic surgery residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and finally a craniofacial fellowship in Miami under S.A. Wolfe MD, an internationally renowned craniofacial surgeon.
Upon completion of his plastic surgery training, he returned to the full-time faculty at the University of South Florida in Tampa where he trained future plastic surgeons. During his tenure at the University, he focused on complex craniofacial reconstructive surgery, breast reconstruction surgery and cosmetic surgery of the face, breasts and body. Dr. Kearney initiated micro-vascular breast reconstruction at the H. Lee Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa while serving as the Director of the Micro Vascular Division.
The third of nine children, he is happily married and has three wonderful children. In addition to his work as a plastic surgeon, Dr. Kearney is an avid squash player and enjoys yoga, bike riding and spending time with his family.
Having served as the Executive Director of the CURE Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan between 2009 through 2011, Jacki Lammert, CPA brings practical experience and knowledge to Be Team International’s board of directors. Witnessing first-hand the courageous and compassionate Afghan staff as they cared for many patients, her heart has never left Afghanistan.
Jacki launched her career in public accounting in 1978 with emphases in audit, tax and research. She has worked in the non-profit sector since 1991 in various roles including management, finance, strategic planning, communications, fundraising, community development, and grant management for The River Blindness Foundation (Serving in East, West and Central Africa), Chapelwood United Methodist Church Foundation, CURE International, Living Water International, and the Texas Methodist Foundation. She is affiliated with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Texas Society of CPAs, and the American Business Women’s Association.
Jacki brings Board experience in both the international and domestic non-government organization arenas. She continues to volunteer with non-profit organizations in non-profit development, grant writing and advocacy.
Jacki and her husband Rob have a blended family of four children and nine grandchildren and spend their free time making memories in Colorado and The Texas Hill Country.
Caren Schumacher is proud to be Chair of the Be Team International Board of Directors. Strong in marketing, strategic planning and non-profit management, Schumacher brings skillsets to Be Team International that are critical to the organization’s long-term success.
Her commitment to making a difference in her community and in the lives of others earned Caren numerous recognitions including: Fairfax County and Reston Virginia Citizen of the Year Citation, Historic Virginia Land Conservancy’s Chair’s Award of Excellence, the Kiwanis Club of Williamsburg’s Korzowski-Fuller Award and others.
Caren is currently a member of the Board of Latisha’s House, a long-term facility to save the lives of women who have been trafficked and are rescued in the Tidewater area of Virginia. She is also active in the Capital District of Kiwanis, an international service organization that
improves the world, one child and one community at a time. She has a strong and dedicated commitment to Crosswalk Church and is a leader in their Sisterhood programs.
Caren recently retired from a 30-year business career. Fourteen of those years were spent working in senior management for two national trade associations in the Washington, D.C. area, and for the past 16 years, she served as the executive director of Williamsburg Land Conservancy.
She is a 2003 graduate of the Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance’s LEAD Historic Triangle program and served on their Board of Directors for a decade. She has also served on the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of Virginia United Land Trusts and the Virginia Symphony Society of Greater Williamsburg.
A native of Washington, D.C., Caren attended the University of Maryland in College Park. She loves to travel, enjoys reading and spending time with family and friends. Caren and her husband Ed have been married for over 50 years and have three grown children. They are the proud grandparents of six grandchildren.
Now retired, Eric is currently working with his Church in Stirling, Scotland, where he and his family resettled, having kept a home in Bristol, England, for 20 years.
In Eric’s early career, he was an aero-engineer in the British Royal Navy, serving in various geopolitical conflicts. Leaving the Armed Services, he pursued a career with British Aerospace, Airbus Division that lasted 15 years before he resigned to join MEDAIR, a Swiss-based Christian humanitarian organization. He and his wife, Jacqui, left the U.K. in 2003 upon his appointment as the Country Director for MEDAIR in Kabul, Afghanistan, while Jacqui became the Medical Project leader in Badakhshan. In Afghanistan, Eric was elected as Chairman of the Afghanistan Country Coordinating Mechanism for “The Global Fund” with a vision to eliminate HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. In 2006, Eric became a Cure Associate Executive Consultant at the Rabi Balkhi Hospital in Kabul. At the end of the project in 2007, he moved to Cure Hospital in Kabul as the CEO till August of 2008, when he left Afghanistan. Eric spent a year at CURE OASIS Hospital in Al Ain UAE in 2009 as its Executive V.P. and COO. A short-term mission followed with TEARFUND as the interim Programme Director in the Democrat Republic of Congo.
Be Team International Advisers/Counselors
Jacqui is a consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Scotland. She spent 18 months in South India as part of her Ph.D. research into the ‘Fetal Origins of Adult Disease’ and obtained the Diploma in Reproductive Health for Developing Countries from Liverpool. She spent five years (2003-2008) in Afghanistan, where she and her husband worked with two Christian Aid Agencies – Medair and Cure International. Jacqui has also worked at LAMB hospital in Bangladesh and Oasis Hospital in Al Ain, UAE, and has spent several months in South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya.
Jordan Manning graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biological Basis of Behavior in 2009. Upon graduation, he worked as a device representative for Stryker Spine for six years before deciding to pursue a career as a physician. He is currently a medical student in the class of 2023 at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Prior to enrolling in medical school, Jordan was employed by the NYU Langone Spine Research Center. He gained valuable experience in managing clinical databases, research study design and project development. He will use these skills in his position as Adviser to Medical Data Management.
Jordan is aware of the global disparities in access to reliable healthcare. During his tenure with Stryker, he participated in medical missions to Vietnam and the Dominican Republic treating patients with complex spinal deformities. He is excited for the opportunity to expand his work in developing nations with Be Team International.
Linda Manning is honored to serve as a counselor for Be Team International. She has had numerous opportunities to host visiting Afghan doctors at her home in Pennsylvania and is impressed with their humility. She is well-aware of the challenges of living in Afghanistan, especially insurgency related violence and the paucity of good healthcare
Linda earned her bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A two-sport collegiate athlete, she coached field hockey and lacrosse as an assistant at the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught in the public-school system for 18 years.
Married for over 38 years, she is a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She enjoys gardening in her spare time.
Cathy Morgan is honored to serve Be Team International as a counselor and to support and witness the beautiful stories of healing and restoration in Afghanistan.
She is a wife, mother and grandmother with a pastoral heart, having most recently served as member care coordinator with CURE International.
Kimberley Motley has been a litigator for over 20 years, with a focus on international law with a focus on human rights, victim rights, and the rights of children. Motley has also worked with CURE in Afghanistan for over a decade in providing pro bono legal representation. Motley is the first and only foreign lawyer to litigate in Afghanistan’s Courts and opened a law firm in the country in 2009, representing a vast array of clients with a particular focus on representing journalists, human rights defenders, and women.
Her success has included but is not limited to, securing the first Presidential Pardon for a woman charged with adultery, successfully working on international child abduction cases which resulted in the return of British and Australian children ages ranging from 2 years to 8 years old, working in Bolivia on a case trying to stop the legalization of child rapes under the age of 6 through the representation of a forensic doctor, and she has successfully represented Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia.
Currently, Motley has started the Khadija Project, which is a cadre of initiatives in Afghanistan and beyond in supporting vulnerable women and children by helping them with shelter, legal assistance, and support. The Khadija Project is run through her 501(c)3 the Justness Project and has helped hundreds of women and children since August 2021 in Afghanistan and beyond. Motley is also the Chair of the Wisconsin State Bar’s Civil Rights and Liberties Law Section. She is an admitted lawyer in the International Criminal Courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the state of Wisconsin. Her work has been internationally reported and she has trained thousands of lawyers around the world on how to litigate in their respective jurisdictions. Additionally, her work was profiled in an award-winning documentary entitled MOTLEY’s LAW. She has written a book entitled LAWLESS, and her TED TALK on: How I Defend the Rule of Law has garnered over 1.2 million views.
Ryan Oberly is a partner at Wagenmaker & Oberly, LLC where he focuses his practice on advising public charities, private foundations, and other tax-exempt organizations on planning, structuring, and transactional matters. From start-ups to complex corporate and tax planning, Ryan works with clients to protect tax-exempt status, facilitate organizational growth, and manage risks. He has successfully represented clients in IRS audits, state attorney general investigations, and other diverse crisis situations. His practice covers nonprofit governance, fundraising laws in all fifty states, unrelated business income, private benefit, political campaign and lobbying restrictions, and other federal and state tax issues affecting nonprofits. He also advises through corporate mergers, joint ventures, and international operations. He is also well versed in intellectual property issues facing nonprofits and regularly works with clients to register, protect, transfer, and enforce trademark and copyright interests.
Ryan is an adjunct lecturer at Charleston School of Law where teaches the Law of Nonprofit Organizations and regularly speaks on nonprofit legal and tax issues.
Be Team International Staff
Dr. Yousuf Khan was born in Kunar Province and one of twelve children. His family fled Afghanistan to avoid the war when he was six years old. They traveled four days on foot until they reached a refugee camp in Pakistan. They saw Afghans die along the way due to exposure and old age. They lived there in a Pakistani refugee camp for thirteen years. For two of those years, the large family lived in a one room tent or a hut made of mud. Dr Khan remembers fearing what would happen whenever his father left the tent to look for work, because on several occasions, it had nearly blown away during a storm. As his district in Kunar Province was one of the earliest to resist the Russian invasion at the time of a new communist government, they endured horrendous destruction. When the family returned to Afghanistan, they found most of their village destroyed by bombing. No one had lived in the area for a decade. The family and neighbors worked together to rebuild their homes, schools and village.
While in Pakistan, Dr. Khan finished his secondary education and studied engineering. However, after his acceptance into medical school, Dr. Khan switched his career and earned his medical degree from the Nangarhar Medical Faculty in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He immediately started practicing medicine in some of Afghanistan’s most remote villages, starting at the Shirkat Hospital in Gulbahar with Medicin Sans Frontier. Following this, he was hired by MedAir, another non-government organization, as Clinical Supervisor to oversee its work in three districts of Ragh, Badakshan. Traveling by horseback across snow-covered mountains, he and the MedAir team were often the first and only doctors seen by the village people. His work with MedAir was expanded to Project Manager. In this capacity, he oversaw the implementation of the ‘Basic Package of Health Services’ (BPHS) in Badakshan province, with special attention to improve access to healthcare for women and children.
After leading this project for four years, Dr. Khan was motivated to become more equipped to address the many healthcare problems he had seen, especially related to maternal mortality. He applied for and was accepted to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where he earned a Diploma in Reproductive Health for Developing Countries. Upon returning to Afghanistan, Dr. Khan was recruited by CURE to join other members of the MedAir Team to assist with developing its obstetrics/gynecology training program in Kabul. Starting as Deputy Medical Director in 2008, Dr. Khan was promoted to Hospital Medical Director and then Executive Director, a position he has held for five years. Under his steady leadership, the hospital has gained a national reputation for its excellent services and training programs. Yousuf has been married for 29 years. He and his wife are the proud parents of eight children.
Dr. Richard Manning is passionate about the work that Be Team International is accomplishing in Afghanistan. He has been part of the team supporting the Cure Hospital in Kabul since it was opened in 2005. Seeing an opportunity to merge academia with developing world surgical practice, Dr. Manning led a team of expatriate healthcare professionals over the next nine years to transform the hospital into one of the nation’s leading academic healthcare institutions. His roles included Director of General Surgery Fellowship program, Medical Director and Executive Director. By the time he left in 2014, the hospital was being managed completely by Afghan staff.
Dr. Manning has continued supporting the team operationally and financially by solidifying the hospital’s partnerships with outside funding agencies. In January 2015, he accepted the full-time position of Director of Medical Operations at the CURE Mission Support Center in
Pennsylvania. When CURE made the decision in 2018 to cease operations in Afghanistan, Dr. Manning founded Be Team International, a non-profit that works with national and international stakeholders to continue the good work of the Cure Hospital in Afghanistan.
Dr. Manning completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also played football for four years. He earned his medical degree at the Thomas Jefferson Medical College and completed his general surgery training at the George Washington University Hospital. Following a year in private practice, he was activated as a reservist in the Navy to serve at the Bethesda Naval Hospital during Desert Storm. While training young Navy surgeons, his passion to be involved in academic surgery was reinvigorated. Dr Manning returned to central Pennsylvania where he became part of a team of surgeons supporting general surgery training at the Pinnacle Health System and the Hershey Medical Center. In 1993, he joined a local team of healthcare workers on a 10-day medical missionary trip to Haiti where his desire to serve in the developing world was born.
Dr. Manning and his wife, Linda, have been blessed with five children. He enjoys playing the piano and being Pop/Baba Kalon to his seven grandchildren
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