Michael Meegan Founder ICROSS Kenya

Michael Elmore-Meegan, also known as Michael Meegan,[1] (born 26 March 1959) is the co-founder of the International Community for Relief Of Starvation and Suffering (ICROSS),[2] an aid agency operating in East Africa that describes itself as "a small international organisation working to fight poverty and disease in the poorest parts of the world."[3] Meegan also co-founded an Irish branch of the charity known as Icross Ltd, which broke with Meegan in 2010.[4] ICROSS Kenya's website currently lists "Dr. Michael Elmore Meegan - Founder and International Director ICROSS."[5]


At age twenty, he went to Kenya where he began to work among the Masai people to address village devastated by diseases such as malaria, tuberculous, and, eventually AIDS.[10] This work led him to found ICROSS and begin advocating for the poor villagers with whom he worked.[11] Under Meegan's leadership, ICROSS worked with a number of other organization on Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland led project to develop a Solar water disinfection system that could be used by village households.[12]
In the 2000s, Meegan became a prominent figure in Ireland whose fundraising activities for ICROSS attracted the public support of former Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald and entertainment celebrities such as Elton John, Chris de Burgh, Caroline Corr, and Andrea Corr.[13] His writing and charitable activity brought him Ireland's well-regarded 2003 International Person of the Year Award presented in a nationally televised ceremony by the Irish charity Rehab.[14]
In May 2005, Ireland's state owned RTE televised a documentary about Meegan entitled When You Say 4000 Goodbyes.[15] After the broadcast, Meegan's charity ICROSS received 400,000 euros in donations.[16] On 19 November 2005, When You Say 4000 Goodbyes. was shown at Harvard University's prestigious Magners Irish Film Festival.[17] On 5 May 2006, the documentary won the Radharc Award 2006 for the "documentary programme of outstanding quality which addresses a national or international topic of social justice, morality or faith."[18]
On 7 April 2006, he was honored with an honorary degree from the National University of Ireland in a ceremony at the ornate Royal Hospital Kilmainham where other honorees included actor Martin Sheen, Philip Treacy (millner to celebrities including Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall), and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Louise Arbour.[19] On 5 December 2007, Meegan spoke at RedR UK's conference entitled Future Shocks: disasters and relief in a changing world on the same platform as the charity's British president

Publications
• Conroy, Ronán M.; & Michael Elmore Meegan. Dwindling Donor Aid for Health Programmes in Developing Countries, The Lancet, 14 May 1994.[32]
• Conroy, Ronán M.; Michael Elmore-Meegan, Tina M. Joyce, Kevin G. McGuigan & Joseph Barnes. Solar Disinfection of Drinking Water and Diarrhoea in Maasai Children: A Controlled Field Trial, The Lancet, 21 December 1996.[33]
• Conroy, Ronán M.; Michael Elmore Meegan, Tina M. Joyce, Kevin G. McGuigan & Joseph Barnes. Solar Disinfection of Drinking Water Protects Against Cholera in Children Under 6 Years of Age, Archives of Disease in Childhood, October 2001.[34]
• Conroy, Ronán M.; Michael Elmore Meegan, Tina M. Joyce, Kevin G. McGuigan & Joseph Barnes. Solar Disinfection of Water Reduces Diarrhoeal Disease: An Update, Archives of Disease in Childhood, October 1999.[35]
• Elmore-Meegan, Michael; Ronán M. Conroy & C. Bernard Agala. Sex Workers In Kenya, Numbers Of Clients and Associated Risks: An Exploratory Survey, Reproductive Health Matters, May 2004.[36]
• Joyce, Tina M.; Kevin G. McGuigan, Michael Elmore-Meegan, & Ronán M. Conroy. Inactivation of Fecal Bacteria in Drinking Water by Solar Heating, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 1996.[37]
• Konings, E.; , R.M. Anderson, Donald Morley, T. O'Riordan, Michael Meegan. Rates of Sexual Partner Change Among Two Pastoralist Southern Nilotic Groups in East Africa, AIDS, Londond, England, April 1989.[38]
• Mccormick, James; & Michael Elmore-Meegan. Maasai Diet, The Lancet, 24 October 1992.[39]
• McGuigan, Kevin G.; Tina M. Joyce, Ronán M. Conroy, J.B. Gillespie, & Michael Elmore-Meegan. Solar Disinfection of Drinking Water Contained in Transparent Plastic Bottles: Characterizing the Bacterial Inactivation Process, Journal of Applied Microbiology, June 1998.[40]
• Meegan, Michael; & Manuel Scrima (Photographer). 100 Ways to Change the World, London: Eye Books, 1 March 2011 (anticipated)[41]
• Meegan, Michael. All Shall Be Well: On Compassion and Love, London: Fount, 13 Oct 1986.[42]
• Meegan, Michael. All Will Be Well, London: Eye Books, 15 May 2004[43]
• Meegan, Michael. Changing the World from the Inside Out: Connecting Your Intellegences, London: Eye Books, 30 November 2007[44]
• Meegan, Michael; Donald C. Morley, & R. Brown. Child Weighing by the Unschooled: A Report of a Controlled Study of Growth Monitoring Over 12 Months of Maasai Children Using Direct Recording Scales, Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, November–December 1994.[45]
• Meegan, Michael Elmore; Ronán M. Conroy, Sarune Ole Lengeny, Kate Renhaul, & J Nyangole. Effect On Neonatal Tetanus Mortality After A Culturally-Based Health Promotion Programme, The Lancet, 25 August 2001.[46]
• Meegan, Michael; & David Morley. Growth Monitoring: Family Participation: Effective Community Development, Tropical Doctor, January 1999.[47]
• Meegan, Michael; & James, McCormick. Prevention of Disease in the Poor World, The Lancet, 16 July 1988.[48]
• Meegan, Michael. The Reality of Starvation and Disease, The Lancet, 17 January 1981.[49]
• Meegan, Michael. Rethinking Famine Relief, The Lancet, 21 November 1992.[50]
• Meegan, Michael. Starvation and Suffering, The Lancet, 31 December 1983.[51]
• Meegan, Michael. Surprised by Joy: Out of the Darkness - Light, a Story of Hope in the Midst of Tragedy, Dunboyne, Ireland: Maverick House, 2 May 2006[52]
Meegan, Michael; & Sharon At age twenty, he went to Kenya where he began to work among the Masai people to address village devastated by diseases such as malaria, tuberculous, and, eventually AIDS.[10] This work led him to found ICROSS and begin advocating for the poor villagers with whom he worked.[11] Under Meegan's leadership, ICROSS worked with a number of other organization on Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland led project to develop a Solar water disinfection system that could be used by village households.[12]
In the 2000s, Meegan became a prominent figure in Ireland whose fundraising activities for ICROSS attracted the public support of former Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald and entertainment celebrities such as Elton John, Chris de Burgh, Caroline Corr, and Andrea Corr.[13] His writing and charitable activity brought him Ireland's well-regarded 2003 International Person of the Year Award presented in a nationally televised ceremony by the Irish charity Rehab.[14]
In May 2005, Ireland's state owned RTE televised a documentary about Meegan entitled When You Say 4000 Goodbyes.[15] After the broadcast, Meegan's charity ICROSS received 400,000 euros in donations.[16] On 19 November 2005, When You Say 4000 Goodbyes. was shown at Harvard University's prestigious Magners Irish Film Festival.[17] On 5 May 2006, the documentary won the Radharc Award 2006 for the "documentary programme of outstanding quality which addresses a national or international topic of social justice, morality or faith."[18]
On 7 April 2006, he was honored with an honorary degree from the National University of Ireland in a ceremony at the ornate Royal Hospital Kilmainham where other honorees included actor Martin Sheen, Philip Treacy (millner to celebrities including Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall), and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Louise Arbour.[19] On 5 December 2007, Meegan spoke at RedR UK's conference entitled Future Shocks: disasters and relief in a changing world on the same platform as the charity's British president HRH The Princess Royal.[20]

• Conroy, Ronán M.; & Michael Elmore Meegan. Dwindling Donor Aid for Health Programmes in Developing Countries, The Lancet, 14 May 1994.[32]
• Conroy, Ronán M.; Michael Elmore-Meegan, Tina M. Joyce, Kevin G. McGuigan & Joseph Barnes. Solar Disinfection of Drinking Water and Diarrhoea in Maasai Children: A Controlled Field Trial, The Lancet, 21 December 1996.[33]
• Conroy, Ronán M.; Michael Elmore Meegan, Tina M. Joyce, Kevin G. McGuigan & Joseph Barnes. Solar Disinfection of Drinking Water Protects Against Cholera in Children Under 6 Years of Age, Archives of Disease in Childhood, October 2001.[34]
• Conroy, Ronán M.; Michael Elmore Meegan, Tina M. Joyce, Kevin G. McGuigan & Joseph Barnes. Solar Disinfection of Water Reduces Diarrhoeal Disease: An Update, Archives of Disease in Childhood, October 1999.[35]
• Elmore-Meegan, Michael; Ronán M. Conroy & C. Bernard Agala. Sex Workers In Kenya, Numbers Of Clients and Associated Risks: An Exploratory Survey, Reproductive Health Matters, May 2004.[36]
• Joyce, Tina M.; Kevin G. McGuigan, Michael Elmore-Meegan, & Ronán M. Conroy. Inactivation of Fecal Bacteria in Drinking Water by Solar Heating, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 1996.[37]
• Konings, E.; , R.M. Anderson, Donald Morley, T. O'Riordan, Michael Meegan. Rates of Sexual Partner Change Among Two Pastoralist Southern Nilotic Groups in East Africa, AIDS, Londond, England, April 1989.[38]
• Mccormick, James; & Michael Elmore-Meegan. Maasai Diet, The Lancet, 24 October 1992.[39]
• McGuigan, Kevin G.; Tina M. Joyce, Ronán M. Conroy, J.B. Gillespie, & Michael Elmore-Meegan. Solar Disinfection of Drinking Water Contained in Transparent Plastic Bottles: Characterizing the Bacterial Inactivation Process, Journal of Applied Microbiology, June 1998.[40]
• Meegan, Michael; & Manuel Scrima (Photographer). 100 Ways to Change the World, London: Eye Books, 1 March 2011 (anticipated)[41]
• Meegan, Michael. All Shall Be Well: On Compassion and Love, London: Fount, 13 Oct 1986.[42]
• Meegan, Michael. All Will Be Well, London: Eye Books, 15 May 2004[43]
• Meegan, Michael. Changing the World from the Inside Out: Connecting Your Intellegences, London: Eye Books, 30 November 2007[44]
• Meegan, Michael; Donald C. Morley, & R. Brown. Child Weighing by the Unschooled: A Report of a Controlled Study of Growth Monitoring Over 12 Months of Maasai Children Using Direct Recording Scales, Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, November–December 1994.[45]
• Meegan, Michael Elmore; Ronán M. Conroy, Sarune Ole Lengeny, Kate Renhaul, & J Nyangole. Effect On Neonatal Tetanus Mortality After A Culturally-Based Health Promotion Programme, The Lancet, 25 August 2001.[46]
• Meegan, Michael; & David Morley. Growth Monitoring: Family Participation: Effective Community Development, Tropical Doctor, January 1999.[47]
• Meegan, Michael; & James, McCormick. Prevention of Disease in the Poor World, The Lancet, 16 July 1988.[48]
• Meegan, Michael. The Reality of Starvation and Disease, The Lancet, 17 January 1981.[49]
• Meegan, Michael. Rethinking Famine Relief, The Lancet, 21 November 1992.[50]
• Meegan, Michael. Starvation and Suffering, The Lancet, 31 December 1983.[51]
• Meegan, Michael. Surprised by Joy: Out of the Darkness - Light, a Story of Hope in the Midst of Tragedy, Dunboyne, Ireland: Maverick House, 2 May 2006[52]
• Meegan, Michael; & Sharon Wilinson. Take My Hand 2008.[53]
• Meegan, Michael; & Colin Meagle. Tribe of One: A Guide to Personal Happiness, London: Eye Books, 11 July 2011 (anticipated)[54]
• Meegan, Mike; David Morley, & Desmond Chavasse. Fly Traps, The Lancet, 22 March 1997.[55]
• Wilinson. Take My Hand 2008.[53]
• Meegan, Michael; & Colin Meagle. Tribe of One: A Guide to Personal Happiness, London: Eye Books, 11 July 2011 (anticipated)[54]
• Meegan, Mike; David Morley, & Desmond Chavasse. Fly Traps, The Lancet, 22 March 1997.[55]

ICROSS, which stands for "the International Community for the Relief of Suffering and Starvation" is a Kenyan-based non-governmental organization founded by Michael Meegan, Joseph Barnes
which specialises in long term primary health, community health care and public health programmes. The organisation's headquarters are based in Ngong, Rift Valley, Kenya. ICROSS www.icrossinternational.org . ICROSS has a long established research programme with a number of different patners and research collaborators.

ICROSS www.icrosskenya.org works as a Kenyan-based development NGO, with a focus in the field of health,[1][2] with key international lectures [3] including the RedR Future shocks lecture,.[4] ICROSS is responsible for a large terminal care programme and a series of public health programmes. One of ICROSS's key research streams has been investigating means of solar disinfection (SODIS) of contaminated drinking water, and has helped conduct a number of control trials of SODIS.[5] Engaged in multi country collaborative programmes www.rcsi.ie/hwts09 ICROSS stresses traditional tribal values, building development programmes through the exisyting decision systems and creating locally driven agendas.

International profile ICROSS campaigns have included Africa awakes which tries to change the stereotypes and negative perceptions of Africa www.africa-awakes.com These exhibitions have received wide media coverage in Italy and France. ICROSS public health work has been cited Internationally , medical work has appeared in key scienticif journals since 1981. Meegan who received many international awards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Elmore-Meegan was featured in BBC's Hardtalk current affair's programme for his work for ICROSS[6] while in 2006 the organisation was the subject of an award winning documentary by Irish Television.[7] ICROSS and its Founders have received widespread recognition for their work, especially in long term public health and creating lasting community development programmes. ICROSS spcialises in long term pastoralist health programmes, the most recent example of which was opened in December 2010 at Ilkilorit, Maasai land in Kenya. They have been covered extensively in the media, most recently for SODIS and for Africa awakes campaigns fighting racism, prejudice and stereotypes. In 2003 the founder received International person of the year in Ireland and in 2006 was the second person ever to receive a D Med Honoris Causa for his work in International health.www.nui.ie/college/docs/citations/2006/meegan.pdf

ICROSS work is widely cited ( see google scholar ) and the administration is entirely Africanied since August 2000.

Media news items include research http://www.emwis.net/initiatives/fol060732/proj634131 http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/letter-2003-10-16.html The International NGO which has multi lateral and bi lateral donors. Since 2003 the expansion of ICROSS International has seen the creation of an International Advisory board in 2009 chaired by Dr Davida de La Harpe. In October 2009 ICROSS launched www.icrossinternational.org and www.icrosskenya.org

Michael Meegan has also written numerous books on his work with ICROSS including 'All Will Be Well'(the successor to 'All Shall Be Well'), 'Surprised by Joy' and 'Changing the World 2008 A new series of books is being published by eye books www.eye-books.con

In January 2010 ICROSS Kenya extended its Rural health programmes. In March ICROSS Kenya began legal action in Ireland to try and establlish where funds raised for Kenyan projects had gone. The co founder of ICROSS Dr Joe Barnes installed a new Board of Directors in ICROSS Ireland july 2010 and funding to ICROSS Kenya programmes resumed. This funding was raised by the Founders
[edit] Research

Published research conducted by ICROSS includes:

1 Elmore-Meegan M, Conroy RM, Agala CB. Sex workers in Kenya, numbers of clients and associated risks: an exploratory survey. Reprod Health Matters 2004;12(23):50-7.

2 Meegan ME, Conroy RM, Lengeny SO, Renhault K, Nyangole J. Effect on neonatal tetanus mortality after a culturally-based health promotion programme. Lancet 2001;358(9282):640-1.

3 Conroy RM, Meegan ME, Joyce T, McGuigan K, Barnes J. Solar disinfection of drinking water protects against cholera in children under 6 years of age. Arch Dis Child 2001;85(4):293-5.

4 Meegan M, Morley DC. Growth monitoring: family participation: effective community development. Trop Doct 1999;29(1):23-7.

5 Conroy RM, Meegan ME, Joyce T, McGuigan K, Barnes J. Solar disinfection of water reduces diarrhoeal disease: an update. Arch Dis Child 1999;81(4):337-8.

6 Meegan M, Morley D, Chavasse D. Fly traps. Lancet 1997;349(9055):886.

7 Meegan M, Morley DC, Brown R. Child weighing by the unschooled: a report of a controlled study of growth monitoring over 12 months of Maasai children using direct recording scales. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1994;88(6):635-7.

8 Conroy RM, Meegan ME. Dwindling donor aid for health programmes in developing countries. Lancet 1994;343(8907):1228-9.

9 Meegan MK. Rethinking famine relief. Lancet 1992;340(8830):1293-4.

10 Konings E, Anderson RM, Morley D, O'Riordan T, Meegan M. Rates of sexual partner change among two pastoralist southern Nilotic groups in east Africa. Aids 1989;3(4):245-7.

11 Meegan M, McCormick J. Prevention of disease in the poor world. Lancet 1988;2(8603):152-3.

12 Meegan M. Starvation and suffering. Lancet 1983;2(8365-66):1506.

13 Meegan M. The reality of starvation and disease. Lancet 1981;1 (8212):146.