By Sarah Marzouk
We are very sorry that Francisco Roque, our Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean and a member of our leadership group, died on 24 March 2014 after a short illness.
A long and successful career
Francisco Roque joined HelpAge in October 2013. Before that, he worked at many NGOs, including Save the Children UK and Oxfam GB, as well as for the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP).
While with WFP, Francisco was Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and also Country Director for Angola and Namibia, Iraq and other countries in Central America.
With Oxfam, Francisco was the Regional Director for South America, providing leadership and implementing programmes across five countries. He was also Save the Children UK’s Country Director for South Sudan, where he successfully merged the three Save the Children programmes in that country.
Cared deeply about communities
Toby Porter, HelpAge’s CEO said:
“Francisco had a long and successful career as a development activist, working all over the world with agencies like the World Food Programme, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK. Francisco was from Peru, and he and we were absolutely thrilled at his joining HelpAge, seeing an obvious and perfect fit between cause and individual.
“Francisco was a great person to work with, and cared deeply about the communities and colleagues that he worked with.”
Yolanda Weldring, former HelpAge Regional Director in East, West and Central Africa, knew Francisco well, having worked with him at Save the Children for many years.
Yolanda had this anecdote about Francisco:
“While working in South Sudan for Save the Children, he always used any time off he had to travel to Peru to spend time with his mother. She missed him very much and was always concerned about him living there in South Sudan.”
We have lost a great friend and colleague. If you have any messages of support please leave them here and we will share them with Francisco’s family.