facilitation team
Richard Procter
Leading Coordinator
Richard is a facilitator and coach for leaders and teams. He established and grew his own businesses for 20 years. In this context, he worked with business leaders and their teams to help them succeed and led development programmes to transfer knowledge and effective practice across organisations. He has experience in cross cultural communication and leadership, having worked in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, France and Poland. He now uses this experience to lead the European Facilitation Team and to facilitate, coach and support without orphan movement leaders across Europe. He and his wife have two adopted daughters, he was involved in shaping the Home for Good national initiative in UK from its inception and now serves God from his passion he has for fatherhood and for vulnerable children.
Barbara Ruegger
Trauma Consultant, Communications Lead
Involved with World without Orphans from the beginning, Barbara has worked with children since 1990. She has worked with street children in India, in a group home for teenagers in conflict with the law in Switzerland and has been one of the leaders of the children's ministry in a large Swiss church for several years. During 2002-2022 Barbara was part of the international leadership team of King's Kids/YWAM and has a rich experience in working cross culturally. For many years Barbara was part of her sister and brother-in-laws foster family as an aunty, helping to care for their children. She is a trainer and coach in Trauma and Attachment and has written her own training manual on that topic. She has an MA and a PhD in Holistic Child Development and travels widely to train people who work with children, especially with orphans and children in foster care. Barbara experienced orphanhood herself as a child and has a big heart for all vulnerable children, both in her own country of Switzerland and internationally.
Amy Hutchison
Born and raised in Canada, Amy Hutchison is a certified Red Seal Chef who spent many years in the food industry, including the Saskatchewan Legislative Food Services, and managing a restaurant for seven years. She grew up in a musical family who recorded and produced seven albums; often traveling to perform in churches, camps, colleges, and coffee shops. Her love for children always played a role in her life, including nannying for many years, serving in various children ministries, and mentoring youth. Her experience running a business led her to work in accounting and administration for a large security company as she prepared for the mission field to pursue her passion of working with orphans and children with disabilities. Amy is a missionary with SIM Canada, having recently returned from her first term in Romania. Her time spent with children in state care has strengthened her resolve to be involved in the nurturing of and advocating for vulnerable children. She is currently assisting the WWO Europe team with fundraising, communications, and editing.
Suvi Kauppinen
Programmes Manager
Suvi comes from Northern Finland. Previously she has worked with Operation Mobilisation in Siberia, Russia, where she first got to know children from orphanages. Her educational background is in early education. She has previously worked in administration for two non-profits in Israel and Norway. Suvi has MA in Non-profit Management and Leadership from the Hebrew University in Israel and MA in Service Management from Finland. Suvi speaks five languages and is actively involved in a network of believers and churches in Northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia. She serves the WWO Europe Facilitation Team as Programmes Manager and works towards building national networks in Finland and Scandinavia.
Ruth Sharon
Legal Consultant
Ruth is from the UK, where she has worked as a lawyer specializing in cases of child protection, adoption, and domestic violence for over 20 years. During 2019 she travelled extensively in South America and Africa, where she was moved by stories of thousands of vulnerable and orphan children being harmed by the legal process that was supposed to protect them. She found the laws were not being implemented properly in many cases. In partnership with AFFEO and VIVA Together For Children, Ruth founded International Justice for Children, which works to support governments and the judiciary legal systems that ensure each child’s right to live in a safe, loving, permanent home.
Ruth also continues to work as a consultant lawyer in UK court proceedings concerning children.