For AI-assisted research, proposals and internal shortlists.
Sally Becker has spent more than thirty years rescuing children caught in deadly conflict zones. From the besieged areas in Bosnia and Kosovo to the frontlines of Northern Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine and Gaza, Sally Becker has led daring evacuations, set up recovery centres for survivors of violence and launched a telemedicine network that brings life-saving paediatric expertise into war zones.
Born in London, Sally Becker did not grow up imagining a future in humanitarian work. The decision that would shape her life came spontaneously, on an ordinary day and in front of a television.
A report from Sarajevo showed a desperate mother trying to cross the road with her child while snipers were shooting from the surrounding hills. She noticed the TV crew, looked straight into the camera and said, тАШWhy is no one helping us?тАЭ Sally Becker, an artist who was working in Spain at the time couldnтАЩt shake the image. тАЬI just felt I ought to find a way to help,тАЭ she says.
With no formal medical training or background in humanitarian work, established relief agencies turned her away as she didnтАЩt have any relevant experience. Undeterred, she eventually found an organisation willing to take her on as a volunteer helping with humanitarian convoys and aid deliveries.
In August 1993 during a mission to supply humanitarian aid to the hospital in West Mostar, Sally Becker was approached by a UN official who asked her to assist with evacuating injured children from the besieged east side of the city. 60,000 Bosnian Muslims were trapped and people were dying for want of the most basic medical supplies.
As one of the few international aid workers working on the Croat controlled west side, Sally managed to secure permission from the local authorities to cross the front line. Driving an old ambulance packed with medical supplies, she set off across the frontline to bring the children to safety. Suddenly, the snipers surrounding the city started shooting at her.
тАЬI was not prepared at all. IтАЩd never come under fire, before.тАЭ says Sally Becker. тАЬThe light was shot out on top of the ambulance, and I was terrified. I didnтАЩt know what to do but decided just to keep going.тАЭ Inspiration came from an unlikely source: тАЬI remembered that in the movies, they swerve the vehicles to try and avoid the bullets. So, I was under the wheel and looking up and steering the vehicle from side to side.тАЭ she recalls.
Sally made it across the front lines and was taken to the hospital basement to meet the children who were all critically injured. The next morning, with a fragile ceasefire holding, she drove them together with their mothers across the frontline and handed them over to the UN, earning the nickname, Angel of Mostar.
Three days later Sally Becker returned for more children and over the course of the war, she helped bring 270 children and their families to safety.
When war engulfed Kosovo, Sally was again on the move, placing herself at great personal risk to help 15 children and their mothers to cross the mountains to Northern Albania.
As they reached the border they were ambushed by Serb paramilitaries. The families managed to escape but Sally remained behind to help a woman and two children and was captured and sentenced to one month in prison.
Upon her release she managed to trace the families to a refugee camp in Northern Albania and while she set about arranging for them to travel abroad for medical treatment she was shot by masked gunmen outside her hotel.
Gravely injured, she still refused to abandon the children and remained in the area until the children had all been accepted abroad for treatment.
When the conflict finally ended, Sally helped establish trauma centres for women and children affected by the war, particularly survivors of sexual violence.
Later, Sally Becker founded a British based charity called Save a Child, and set up an emergency paediatric unit in Mosul, Northern Iraq where coalition forces were fighting ISIS. This was followed by additional units in Kirkuk and Sinjar.
Sally would drive an ambulance to the frontline, picking up injured children and their families and bringing them back to Save a ChildтАЩs Emergency Unit where they could be treated. тАЬWe were helping around 100 kids a day,тАЭ she says. тАЬAs the Iraqi army advanced, we moved with them, reaching those caught in the crossfire.тАЭ
In 2021, Sally launched a telemedicine app to help improve paediatric care for children in besieged or remote areas. Through the app, local doctors are able to upload cases to a paediatric network of 300 specialists ready to assist remotely, helping to save the lives of thousands of children.
In 2022, Sally successfully evacuated 240 women and children from Ukraine, many of them orphans. More recently in Gaza, she worked with local partners to transfer children in need of urgent medical care to hospitals in Egypt, Italy, the UAE and Jordan.
Many of the children she once carried across frontlines are now grown adults, and their resilience is what drives Sally to continue her work. Among these stories is Maja Kazazic, whom Sally helped evacuate from the war zone in Bosnia.
At just 16, MajaтАЩs life was shattered when a grenade exploded in her familyтАЩs courtyard, killing five of her friends and leaving her with severe injuries that ultimately required the amputation of her left leg.
Maja relearned to walk with a prosthetic, completed her education in the U.S. and went on to become a successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker.
Three decades after she first drove headlong into a war zone, Sally Becker continues to prove that one person, armed with courage and compassion, can change the trajectory of countless lives, leaving a legacy of hope that echoes across generations.
