Catalogue description Leonard Cheshire International

The sub fonds contains correspondence, journals, photos, and audiovisual material produced by the team working at UK headquarters to support the work of the charity's overseas partners.Some material is direct from the overseas projects themselves, but this is limited in scope and amount. A significant part of the earlier records come from Company Secretary Margot Gibb's work on the Cheshire Who's Who project in the 1980s.

Arranged in two series:
1. Country Correspondence (organised A-Z by country name)
2. General papers

LCF:UK Leonard Cheshire UK

Leonard Cheshire

Reproduction of and access to certain items are governed by copyright and data protection legislation and may be restricted. Access to items less than 30 years old is closed.

Future accruals are expected

• Charities
• Humanitarian assistance
• Disability history

A box list of the subfonds. contents is available to use at the Leonard Cheshire Archive at the Archivist's discretion

In 1955, after spending two years being treated for Tuberculosis at King Edward VII Hospital in Midhurst, Group Captain Cheshire left the UK to expand his organisation overseas in India. The first Home was opened near Bombay in 1956 and Cheshire Homes India was registered in 1957. By 1970 there were 5 more projects in India, and a Leonard Cheshire presence of some kind in 21 other countries worldwide.
Today, this work is known as the Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance, a network of over 200 independently managed Cheshire organisations. The members, of which the UK charity Leonard Cheshire Disability is one, work in 54 countries across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Leonard Cheshire Disability in the UK has no authority or supervisory function over other Cheshire partners.
Global Alliance members are united by a desire to change attitudes towards disability around the world, supporting each other through sharing skills and experience. Each Cheshire organisation has its own independent governance structure and individual NGO status. Many Global Alliance members work in partnership with regional offices to implement projects across core programme areas in education, livelihoods, and policy and campaigning.
The Global Alliance network is supported by a secretariat based at Leonard Cheshire's UK head office. The secretariat facilitates the sharing of learning and best practice among Global Alliance members and coordinates common initiatives.
Global Alliance members in each country are usually organised in national councils at country level and in regional councils across seven regions:
The Americas
East and North Africa
Southern Africa
West Africa
East Asia and the Pacific
South Asia
Europe