Key people

SCIAF was started in 1965 by the Scottish Bishops with the help of three key people: John McKee, Monsignor Rooney and Bishop Foylan.

The beginnings of SCIAF date back to the campaign to end world hunger which was started in 1961 by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations. The Catholic Church in Scotland was asked to take part in the Scottish committee that was set up to support this campaign. The Church appointed John McKee and Monsignor John Rooney as it representatives. This committee was known as the Scottish Standing Committee for Voluntary International Aid (SSCVIA).

Both men joined the committee and worked together with colleagues from the Church of Scotland, OXFAM and Christian Aid to support the important Freedom from Hunger campaign.

Around the same time, new documents were being produced by the Catholic Church from the work that was taking place during the Second Vatican Council. These documents (called encyclicals) encouraged people of goodwill around the world to work together to help end poverty in the developing countries. It became obvious to John McKee and Monsignor Rooney that the Catholic Church in Scotland needed an international aid organisation of its own to respond to this challenge. They took the idea to the Bishops' Conference and on 24th August 1965 the Bishops' Conference decided to set up SCIAF.

Bishop Michael Foylan was appointed as the first President/Treasurer of SCIAF and worked energetically with John McKee and Monsignor Rooney to build SCIAF into a highly professional organisation dedicated to helping the poorest people in the world.