Who We Are

About Us

TackleAfrica was founded in May 2002 by a group of young people from the UK who had all lived or worked in Africa at some point in their lives. The organisation was awarded charitable status in October 2002 and is UK registered charity no 1094439.

From their own experiences in Africa, TackleAfrica's founders recognised the potential of football as a means of bringing people together, and providing a platform from which to convey hugely important messages about HIV and AIDS.

From these origins, the charity has grown and has built good working relationships with local partner organisations across the continent and has carried out a number of successful sports-based HIV awareness initiatives.

Today, TackleAfrica is governed by an executive committee - currently made up of 7 trustees - each with expertise in relevant areas including international development, fundraising, media relations, and working in Africa. The day to day running of the charity is carried out by the Managing Director.

As a small charity which prides itself on having low overheads and spending a very high proportion of its income on charitable services, TackleAfrica is extremely grateful to those people that give their time and expertise to help us reach people affected by HIV and AIDS.

Tackle Africa would like to thank the following volunteers for their immense contribution to our project and fundraising activities over recent years:

Gavin Atkins, Tim Dawes, Neil Peters, Richard Silverton, Stephen Findlay, Tom Handley Graeme Sears, Robbie Wood, Robert Gamble.

TackleAfrica are currently looking for a Trustee with expertise in Communications, PR and Marketing to join our Executive Commitee.  Please contact info@tackleafrica.org for more information.

The Executive Committee

Gavin Atkins

Gavin was invited to the board as Volunteer Co-ordinator Trustee in July 2008. 

Tom Colborne

Tom has worked in fundraising since graduating from Nottingham University in 2001, founding his own company Fresh Fundraising in 2005. As well as organising the annual Football Marathon and other fundraising activities, Tom has visited Uganda and Ghana with Tackle Africa as a football coach and HIV/AIDS educator.

Tom currently works as Fundraising Analyst for the British Red Cross.

Alison Currie

Alison is a qualified Management Accountant with over 20 years experience, primarily in Financial Services and currently works as Financial Planning Manager for the Department of Constitutional Affairs. Her interest in development in Africa arose from working at CDC Capital Partners, the ethical private equity investor, promoting investment in poor countries for development purposes. In addition to her work for TackleAfrica Alison also volunteers for a Microfinance charity.

Charlie Gamble

Charlie first came across TackleAfrica in 2005 and promptly organised a one-year secondment from Comic Relief, his employer at the time. A background in the voluntary sector and football coaching, Charlie remains a passionate player and fan.

He spent 2006 coaching football in Uganda and travelling through Africa, and is now Head of National Development for UK football charity StreetLeague. Charlie conceived and developed the TackleAfrica concept and method of delivering HIV messaging through specially designed football drills, has led two TackleAfrica coaching projects in Africa and is the author of TackleAfrica's first HIV Awareness Football Coaching Manual.

Tom Keyte

Tom is Trustee in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation, and co-ordinates TackleAfrica's strategy.

Ben Maitland

Ben Maitland first travelled to Africa in 1995, when he spent 9 months at a remote secondary school in a small village in northern Tanzania, teaching English and coaching the school's football side.

This experience twinned a love of Africa with Ben's passion for football, and in 2002 he came up with the idea for TackleAfrica, combining the two by using football as a means to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS across the continent. In addition to playing the lead role in the charity's formation, Ben also led the charity's inaugural project between September 2003 and April 2004.

After starting his professional career at a successful communications agency, Ben moved into the Public Sector and currently works at The Home Office.

Jenny Richards

In 2005 Jenny worked in a home for street children in Tanzania teaching English , having experienced the desperate situation first hand wanted to continue helping the education of young children in Africa.

Professionally she spent most of her life as Managing Director of a Computer and Video games company. Recently she has taken a position as a Director of a 3D digital advertising company called Wonderworks Media.

Winnie Ssanyu Seruma

 

The Managing Director

Claire Le-Feuvre

Claire Le Feuvre is an International Development professional with twenty years experience working for a variety of organisations including VSO, HelpAge International, ICR and TB Alert. She has worked in Uganda, the Philippines and Fiji. Her skills and experience are in programme development, project management, fundraising, working with volunteers, supporting education and health programmes and building the capacity of partner organisations.