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Club Africa showcases the best examples of companies actively supporting local sustainable business projects in African nations and rewards them with a Flying Blue Gold Elite Card

Open Arms Projects

Sharing skills, transforming lives

After visiting Uganda in 1999, Genna Wilkinson (Exeter, UK), felt she wanted to contribute to the lives of the vulnerable children she had encountered there. Seven years later, she founded Open Arms Projects, in which she and ten volunteer-fundraisers in the UK support 600 Ugandese projects in their own down-to-earth way. Today Open Arms can use some support; and not only money, but also knowledge and experience.

Genna lived in Uganda for nine months, during which her ideas were shaped. “I lived among villagers, who I soon became friends with. Several women in the village even sort of adopted me and lovingly claimed to be my mothers, grandmothers or sisters. They shared with me their strong desires to be able to educate and provide for their children.” During her stay, Genna also learned a crucial lesson: true progress comes not from aid alone. “Sharing skills, combined with small loans is what works. Helping people to make their own living became the base of what ‘Open Arms Projects’ does in Uganda.”

Share knowledge and skills

Genna found that many locals were eager to share their knowledge and skills. She says: “We started training local tailors to teach women how to make clothes. We help local craftsmen like carpenters, shoemakers and jewellery makers to find new markets. We help look for new buyers to whom they can sell their products. We offer small loans – microcredit – to enable people to start their own business. Open Arms Projects offer a very practical approach that is based more on the transfer of knowledge and skills than of money. ”

Not just money

The training programs, the materials, the local salaries and the loans are funded by the money that is gathered by Genna’s ten volunteer fundraisers in the UK. While there are 15 paid local staff members in Uganda, Genna makes her own living by working for a real estate firm in Exeter, UK. Though money is tight, it is not just donations that Genna and Open Arms Project are asking from Club Africa members. “We would love to cooperate with NGO’s in Africa that would like to implement the Open Arms rural development approach in the communities in which they work. We offer programs for professionals who would like to dedicate three, six or nine months of their time - as part of their sabbatical or post-retirement project – to strengthen our organisation in Uganda.”

Mentors wanted!

“Furthermore, our local manager and accountant could really benefit from having mentors that offer their advice by email and skype conversation on a regular basis, to help them cope with their challenges. Expert advice from legal professionals and experts in the international trade is very welcome. We can use the support of education professionals to help train the trainers. I would really welcome experienced office managers, administrators, trainers and so on in Uganda. Imagine what a professional art designer can do in helping local craftsmen to design new products that sell! The list of possibilities to help is endless.”