UNICHIR - Key Persons
Birgit Loveniers (Roeselare, 20 June 1973) obtained her degree in medicine in 1999 from KU Leuven and graduated as an anaesthesiologist in 2005.
She has worked at the AZ Sint Jan Hospital in Bruges for more than 15 years, where she focuses on paediatric anaesthesia.
Since 2009, she has been active in development cooperation, mainly in Central Africa and countries of the East, with various organisations and non-profits, working as an anaesthetist in Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Myanmar and elsewhere.
Through a close friendship with the Moreels children, she joined Réginald Moreels' project and has been a volunteer with UNICHIR since it began. She mainly looks after personnel matters relating to medical missions.
Bruno de Cartier (Huy, 22 October 1958) speaks seven languages fluently, but especially the language of business. He studied applied economics, and his career has led him to a number of renowned businesses. In the early 1990s, he joined Mediahuis, the publisher of newspapers De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad, among others. He has been managing director there since 2006.
Bruno is passionate about business transformation and growth, including in the non-profit sector. With his strategic mindset, he knows how to pick the right projects to lead with the right people.
Erwin Vermeersch (Bruges, 4 April 1952) is a retired healthcare professional. For more than 20 years, he worked in operating theatres and intensive care units. Gradually, he specialised in orthopaedic surgery.
He also has a solid track record in the non-profit sector, including as vice president of Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium. As a nurse anaesthetist, he travelled with five missions to troubled areas such as Chad, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
Erwin lives on the Belgian coast and helped found the non-profit organisation Medios, which provides medical support to Poland and Romania. In addition, he helped establish a clothing and furniture bank for people in need in Ostend.
He has been close friends with Dr Réginald Moreels for many years. It was written in the stars that together, as volunteers, they would found UNICHIR.
Jan Goossens (Mortsel, 16 April 1965) worked with his wife, Els, as a volunteer in the DRC after studying nursing and tropical medicine.
After their return, and after time spent working in Belgian hospitals, Jan joined Artsen Zonder Vakantie in 1997, first as project manager and then as manager.
In 2012, he took on a new challenge as manager of the Walking Egg project, which works on infertility in low-income countries.
In 2017, he became manager of Mamas for Africa, joining the fight against sexual and gender-based violence. He was also chair of Bond Zonder Naam for several years.
Africa has never left Jan, and he has written numerous opinion pieces on the eastern DRC; unrest in the region remains his main concern.
He joined UNICHIR on 1 July 2022.
Johan De Ketelbutter (Aalst, 20 December 1952) began his career at the FPS Finance in 1976, where he monitored public financial companies and helped achieve privatisation.
In 2001, he joined the Ministry of Public Enterprises as deputy chief of cabinet. In 2005, he moved to the Federal Holding and Investment as investment manager and secretary-coordinator.
In 2015, he began working with financial non-profit organisations, where he lectured in business management and coached new entrepreneurs. In 2016, he became a project manager at the non-profit organisation ‘Ondernemers voor Ondernemers'.
He has been a volunteer with UNICHIR since 2017, taking care of financial aspects.
Karel Claes (Vilvoorde, 20 januari 1955) has diplomas in Germanic philology, philosophy and communication science.
He has made programmes on social issues for television and is the author of more than 20 books and numerous articles on important life questions. He has been editor-in-chief of the children's magazines Zonneland and Zonnestraal, a lecturer in communication sciences, and manager of television production company Videopool.
He switched to the social sector and became director of Médecins Sans Frontières and then Handicap International.
Karel has published a book on charity communication and fundraising. For many years, he worked on campaigns for humanitarian associations such as Kom op tegen Kanker, Damiaanactie, Voedselbanken, Amnesty International and many others.
Since 2021, he has been a volunteer with UNICHIR.
Dr. Michel Kalongo Ilumbulumbu (Kisangani, 24 August 1984) is a Congolese government doctor. He is affiliated with Makerere University in Uganda, specialising in general and abdominal surgery.
He received surgical training from Dr Réginald Moreels and has undergone training on the treatment of gunshot wounds.
As a team leader at the World Health Organization, he helped stop the Ebola epidemic in North Kivu.
He is one of the founders of UNICHIR and, as a researcher, is our local anchor in Beni.