Associates Team

Christine Kallemera, Training Associate

Christine is a qualified accountant, a member of the institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). She is a Senior Financial Consultant and Trainer with ACLAIM Africa Limited (ACLAIM), a management consultancy firm in Uganda. She has vast experience in the area of external and internal audits, having worked with Johnson & Nyende Certified Public Accountants, for four and a half years; and now at ACLAIM Africa Limited. While at Johnson & Nyende, CPAs, she worked with clients in diverse sectors; including parastatals, projects, and trading companies. Some of the international donor funded grants she audited include: Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Children’s Fund (formerly Christian Children’s Fund), DANIDA and Hospice.

Her current duties at ACLAIM include facilitating Financial Management Trainings and mentoring of Finance Staff; developing Finance Manuals; recruitment of finance personnel; installation of accounting software and carrying out Internal Audits. Some of the International NGO clients she has worked with include the British Red Cross Society, Tearfund, CORDAID and Methodist Relief Development Fund.

Dave Tooke, Training Associate

Dave is a fully qualified, chartered accountant, who was working in the private sector until 2005.

Dave has nearly 7 years exposure to field work with INGOs. Initially he worked as a Finance Manager and subsequently a Program Manager. In both North and South Sudan for landmine removal organisations, he helped to oversee a USD 14 Million contract. Following on from this, he has worked in the field for Save the Children, being deployed to many of the major rapid response emergencies since 2008. In this role he has helped to develop financial strategies and budgets within Myanmar (USD 46Million), Haiti (USD 65 Million) and, most recently, the Horn of Africa (USD 80 Million) and has contributed significantly to the writing of emergency standard operating procedures from a finance perspective.

Recently he has also been involved in the development of risk assessment and operational tools to ensure best practice in cash transfer programming.

Debbie Pitt, Training Associate

Debbie worked with Mango as a full-time trainer for 5 years until April 2012 when she transferred to the Training Associate team.

Before joining Mango, Debbie worked for several years as a Financial Manager and in-house trainer in many countries throughout the world, mostly in Asia, in both development and emergency NGOs including Merlin, VSO and Everychild. Debbie’s extensive experience includes working in the field as a Finance Manager; building the skills of a Finance Manager counterpart; and reviewing financial systems and implementing finance manuals.

Working for both large and small International NGOs in the field, has given Debbie an insight to the problems that all organisations face with the financial demands put on international and national staff and the importance of having confident and competent well trained personnel to ensure good financial management.

Frances Leaman, Training Associate

Frances is an ACCA qualified accountant who joined Mango as an associate trainer in February 2008.

Frances worked in the UK social housing sector for eight years culminating in a position as Regional Finance Manager for a national UK Housing Association. During 2006 and 2007, Frances was Financial Controller for GOAL in Mozambique where she introduced systems to enable local partners to manage, monitor and report on donor funds prior to GOAL's withdrawal from the country.

As well as her work with Mango, Frances continues to work with UK Housing Association clients including as Interim Finance Manager for an association specialising in housing for people with mental health problems.

Joseph Kaggwa Mukasa, Training Associate and Consultant

Joseph is a Chartered Certified Accountant, a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors Inc. and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda. Until recently, he worked for several years as a Senior Financial Consultant & Trainer and for three years headed the Financial Consultancy department at ACLAIM Africa Limited, a Ugandan values-based company.

He is now a director at SMART Consult (U) Limited, a management consultancy and training company in Uganda and heads up the training team.

Joseph has vast experience in both external and internal audits with NGOs in Uganda, Mozambique, Rwanda and Burundi. Joseph has carried out various financial management trainings, financial management assessments, internal audits, writing financial manuals for clients and mentoring of finance staff.

Michael Pitts, Consultant

Michael is a qualified accountant (FCA) with 15 years progressive and senior management experience with KPMG. Since 1999 Michael has been working as a consultant to international NGOs, in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin-America. Michael was Treasurer of Sightsavers International from 2001 until 2009 and has worked closely with the International HIV/Aids Alliance on assignments including: feasibility of setting up country offices in Mozambique and Madagascar ; evaluation and setting up salary scales in Burkina Faso; recruiting financial personnel (UK and India) and financial reviews. To date Michael has delivered Mango training courses overseas and in the UK and carried out short term financial management reviews for NGO operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Michael has recently become a member of the Finance Committee of the Institute of Development Studies.

Peter Ewins, Consultant

Pete is a qualified accountant (ICAEW) and a management consultant with broad skills in governance, financial control and organisational growth. He has significant senior management experience of financial management and internal control gained through working with both large and small charities and commercially, working particularly with Tearfund in a range of positions including Interim Finance Director and Head of Internal Audit. He holds an MSc in Development Practice and has worked on various short term overseas consultancies with NGOs and international organisations including the International Federation of the Red Cross.

Rudi Lewin,  Consultant

Rudi is a qualified accountant (ACA) with 9 years post qualification experience as an international finance professional with executive management experience. Following a successful commercial career in SAP consulting with Andersen Consulting and Audit and Transaction services with PwC he joined Action Aid in 2002 working as Head of Finance, and subsequently Finance Director and company secretary of ActionAid in the UK. He is a results-oriented and highly-motivated individual with strong staff management and system skills and proven track record of delivery under tight deadlines. He is fluent in English, Spanish and German. Currently he is working as a consultant for Action Aid and Mango.

Sam Musoke, Training Associate and Consultant

Sam is a qualified accountant (ACA UK), with 10 years’ post qualification experience, mostly in the developing world.  She moved to Uganda in 2001, and  after 2 years auditing, she joined a Ugandan firm called ACLAIM Africa Ltd where she established the Financial Consultancy and Training department.   Sam has been a Mango Associate since 2004.  In 2009, she spent 6 months in the Mango offices in Oxford, developing course materials for Farmer Organisations and updating Mango’s online Guide to Financial Management.

With ACLAIM, Sam has carried out a wide range of assignments with NGOs in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and UK.  She has developed a holistic approach to organisational financial management capacity building.  Other work involves internal audits and systems reviews, accounts computerisation, mentoring, assessments, developing finance manuals and etc. She has experience in the micro finance sector and training at grassroots level.

Sareta Thomas, Training Associate and Consultant

Sareta received a Financial Accountancy degree at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, where after she has worked in the UK with corporate and commercial firms before moving into the NGO sector. Most recently, Sareta was Finance Manager for Save the Children (UK) for the Southern Africa Regional office as well as the South Africa and Lesotho country offices. She also provided assistance and training to other SC UK offices and local partners in the region. She lectured on a part time basis in Accountancy at the Damelin College in South Africa. Sareta is currently a financial consultant and she is advising NGOs' finance teams on best practice in financial management and providing training for project staff. She has recently worked with the Finmark Trust and Save the Children (UK) in Sierra Leone and Egypt.

Siham Bortcosh, Consultant

Siham is an ACA qualified accountant with extensive consulting and senior management experience. Since 1994, Siham has been working with NGOs and national charities in the UK, in senior financial management positions, including Macmillan Cancer Support and VSO, and on a freelance basis. She is a clear, strategic thinker and finance professional who has taken a leadership role in organisations undertaking major strategic change and growth. She is an excellent project manager, comfortable with high level concepts and objectives as well as detail, with an ability to motivate, coach and develop staff, and to plan and prioritise flexibly and effectively. She has excellent analytical skills developed in a variety of business settings, ranging from complex business transactions to management within large voluntary sector organisations. Siham currently designs, plans and facilitates Mango's seminar programme for the Finance Directors of some of the UK's largest international NGOs.

Viraj Jethwa, Training Associate and Consultant

Viraj is a qualified accountant [FCCA (UK); CA (NZ)] and a graduate of the London School of Economics. Over the past 25 years, he has gained extensive experience in the not-for-profit and private sectors as Internal/External Auditor, Forensic Accountant, Finance Director and CEO. He has a track record of working constructively with trustees, senior management and staff. Apart from auditing, his skills are in organisational development, financial and change management. Viraj has worked for seven years in Uganda and has done consultancy work for INGOs in Kenya, Ethiopia, North and South Sudan. In addition to English, he speaks Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu and Swahili.