We are devastated to hear the news of the passing of friend and colleague Claire O’Shea. SIDA joins the UK Alliance, a group of 6 network organisations working together to support the international development community across the UK: Bond, CADA-NI, HCA, SIDA, SIDCN, and SWIDN, in commemorating Claire’s life and work and the legacy she leaves behind. Read our joint statement below.
Today, we pay tribute to Claire O’Shea, Head of Partnership at Hub Cymru Africa, who passed away on Monday 12 May at the age of 42. Claire was a champion of small international charities and an advocate for social justice and global solidarity. During her many years as part of the UK Alliance, she worked hard to build relationships with us all, both professionally and personally. She was unafraid to acknowledge her experience with cancer and continued to work with us throughout her treatment, sharing with openness and courage about her daily reality. She also did not let this distract from her efforts to champion global solidarity and small international charities across Wales, showing remarkable dedication to doing what she loved, even in her final days.
We are grateful for Claire’s guidance and wisdom, her authenticity and courage in talking to those with power and representing us and others. We are grateful for her humour (including her appreciation of crisps in meetings), for her support and commitment to us all as partner organisations and as colleagues, and for her legacy of positivity and advocacy for a better world. Hers is a huge loss to the international development community in the UK, and to us as a group. We will miss her greatly.
“Since I took up my role at SIDA , I have valued Claire’s advice, friendship and support. We were a joined up voice urging for representation at meetings in London, and working together with other UK Alliance members to highlight the important role of small organisations. Claire brought insight and warmth to every encounter and we will miss her sorely.”
— Francis Guy, Chief Executive, SIDA.