Bart Vander Plaetse began planning his journey to Africa when he was a teenager living with his family in Otegem in Belgium. At the age where people look for inspiration for what to do with their lives, he found his in the work of Medicine sans Frontiers and decided he wanted to be a doctor.

He brings has 15 years of experience as a development consultant and project manager in health care and in strengthening health systems. He has a deep understanding of working in Africa and has worked in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria and Niger. His most recent appointment was in Niger with the Belgian Technical Cooperation.

Bart has a reputation for being a team builder and an innovative thinker. The bedrocks of his life are his religion and his wife, Lieve, who he met while he was studying to be a doctor, and his three children.

Working for ALAFA allows Bart to apply the skills he has acquired in his previous jobs, and also satisfies a need to find work that makes a difference.

About ALAFA, he says: "It is a model that can be duplicated. Being an industry-wide project has helped but also it is geographical. Maybe this model can work across industries that are in one place."

Making healthcare accessible to poor people is something else Bart believes in. The use of "expert
patients" is an approach that has impressed him. These are workers on the programme who have been recruited to help other workers adhere to their treatment.

"Using people to help others with the same condition is interesting. With the shortage of doctors and nurses in Africa this has possibilities for making healthcare accessible to so many more people."