The team
Ritah is the Art Gallery Supervisor at Makerere University. She has had this role since 2003 and in that time has been instrumental in putting Ugandan art on the map. She has revamped the building from a dark and musty room filled with piles of dusty art (dating back many years), to a modern vibrant space filled with natural light to showcase some of the country’s finest works.
She facilitates weekly learning and development study programs for students, tourists and the general public. The gallery is maintained to a high standard with a constant rotation of works of Uganda’s artists on display and available to purchase.
Ritah has made connections with many charities and saw the opportunity to connect art and those in need. She realised that Ugandan art can be exhibited and sold to raise money for charities but more recently she has been developing the idea of engaging with artists to teach some vulnerable communities a skill to enable them to sell their work to raise funds for themselves.
Art Aid Africa is a fusion of these two fundraising techniques and aims to raise money for the needy as well as giving the public an opportunity to enjoy some of Uganda’s finest works of art.
email: Ritah@ArtAidAfrica.org
Genevieve moved to Uganda in early 2008 (along with her husband Adam) to volunteer as Kiva Fellows. Prior to this, she practiced as a dentist and lecturered at the University of Melbourne School of Dental Science.
During her time in Kampala she has devoted herself to various charitable projects. During her time at Kiva she met hundreds of Uganda's working poor. Drawing from this she learned that microfinance is only beneficial if accompanied with finance and business skills training.
With this in mind, she set up Ki Kati - a non-profit initiative to raise funds for the tailors of Nakawa Market. Ki Kati designs and sells bags, aprons and other textiles in USA, UK and Australia in order generate income for a school fee and healthcare fund for the tailors. Adam Williams, a chartered accountant, has designed and implements basic financial skills training for the tailors to ensure the financial benefits are sustainable. Ki Kati is a new initative in its early stages and Genevieve is currently looking for stockists.
Genevieve has always been a talented artist. She has designed and developed an art which combines her love for Afican animals, fabric and sewing. He creates and handmakes fabric names - each letter in the shape of an African animal. Her organisation is called Alphabet Safari. A percentage of all profits go directly to various animal charities around the world.
Genevieve's move from dentistry to community based work continues with her recent acceptance of the position of Director of Community Programming at Byoona Amagara on Lake Bunyonyi.
Genevieve is Art Aid Africa's event coordinator.
email: Genevieve@ArtAidAfrica.org
Adam is a chartered accountant with ten years experience at two of the world’s largest accounting companies (Deloitte & BDO) in United Kingdom and Australia. Throughout this time he has worked in both an analytic and advisory capacity in various departments including audit, growth solutions and corporate finance. In 2007 he contracted for the Red Cross Australia and was involved in the complete restructuring of the finance department.
Adam is ACA qualified and has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW) since 2001.
He has lived and worked in four continents and has travelled extensively, visiting almost 60 countries to date. Although he is a British Citizen Adam has spent the past five years in Australia where he met Genevieve, now his wife.
Together, they moved to Uganda in early 2008 and volunteered with the Kiva fellowship program. Adam put his financial knowledge to full use, concluding his time with Kiva by writing a report which detailed his observations and offered his recommendations based on a needs assessment of the working poor in which he came into contact. Adam has applied this knowledge by designing and implementing a financial skills training program for the Ki Kati tailors.
Adam has recently entered the world of website design and is responsible for the design of the ArtAidAfrica website along with both the Ki Kati and Alphabet Safari websites. Feel free to contact him about this website or with any other website design queries.
Adam, along with Genevieve, has been working at Lake Bunyonyi as a Director of Community Development for a tourism project.
Adam's role at Art Aid Africa includes marketing, financial management, website design & maintenance and facilitating events & exhibitions.
Adam has also recently set up Enlighten Africa. This is an organisaion which aims to help the people of Africa meet their most basic needs and enhance their quality of life in affordable and sustainable ways.
email: Adam@ArtAidAfrica.org
