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Our history | Partners | Awards and Recognition | Employee Profiles | Board of Directors | Getting Involved | Mango_tree_Profile Mango TreeMango Tree's mission is to work side-by-side with educators and communities to:
Organization DescriptionBased in Kampala, Uganda, we operate as a private, limited company. Our office and production facility are located in the Ntinda/Naayla area of Kampala. Our staff of over 30 collaborates with the Board of Directors and scores of clients. Mango Tree's ImpactOur products and services have touched many lives in Uganda and around the world. Here are some indicators of our impact and reach:
Future PlansWe are excited about several new developments. Below are some of our projects in early stages:
A Brief History of Mango TreeMango Tree was founded in January 2000 by Craig Esbeck, an American primary school teacher. Craig was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in eastern Uganda from 1997-99. As a PCV he worked as an outreach tutor at a primary teacher college to build the capacity of village teachers. After experiencing first-hand the issues facing rural educators, Craig decided to stay in Uganda and look for new ways to contribute. Craig decided to start a business that would help rural schools make teaching more fun and effective. He established his business in the village where he had been a PCV. By creating local employment, making an important social impact, and using environmentally-friendly materials, Craig hoped to provide a positive model for other private companies. He named the business "Mango Tree" after Uganda's traditional classroom: the shade beneath a large mango tree. Mango Tree's first products were Draughts, Ludo, and Snakes and Ladders, games made on Craig's kitchen table. The time was right for this business as the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports was promoting the use participatory classroom instruction. This was a departure from the typical lecture-only system inherited from colonial times and teachers were finding it challenging to make the shift. Mango Tree's product focus was on games, educational toys, and other participatory, learner-centred teaching tools. In 2001, Mango Tree opened a Kampala office. The business grew to twelve employees. The company did workshops that demonstrated the use of their interactive tools and showed teachers how to make these tools for themselves. Mango Tree's work caught the eye of development agencies since the technique came from the grassroots and was replicable. In 2002, Mango Tree landed its first contract with USAID. Due to the success of this contract, other USAID-funded contracts followed which focused on rural education in the northern conflict areas. To address this new business, Mango Tree opened a second workshop in Kampala. Employment jumped to 25 staff. Mango Tree worked non-stop to ramp up production and meet program management demands. During this time, Mango Tree began working with subcontractors. Many of these subcontractor groups supported disadvantaged people, such as the NEED Foundation (an employment training organisation for the disabled) and Roses of Mbuya (a group of HIV+ women tailors). These groups benefited by raising employment, and by accessing capital needed to build their own capacities through the purchase of sewing machines and other equipment. In May 2004, Mango Tree became a private limited company. Most of the shareholders were Ugandan employees of the company. Today more than 95% of Mango Tree's shares are owned by Ugandans and Ugandan residents. Since the beginning of 2005, Mango Tree has designed and developed many new products for the health and education sectors. We have increased the number of products offered to more than 200. Currently, Mango Tree is creating new educational tools for health workers and community volunteers to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS issues. Mango Tree is contributing to improved educational service delivery in Tanzania, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and other countries by providing a new model, one that reaches across the division of rich and poor to provide low-literacy audiences with quality educational tools and training. Our most recent development is the launch, in 2007, of a non-profit organization that can work more directly with donor agencies in reforming education and communication efforts in regions of need.
Partner Organisations
We build strong relationships with partner organizations for
the long-term. In seeking quality products and reliable services from our
subcontractors, we help build their capacities. Over the years we have developed
contractual relationships with over twenty different organizations, both
non-profit and for-profit. At times as many as two hundred people may be
employed in the manufacture of Mango Tree's products. Whenever possible, we try
to give business to partners that employ marginalized groups or individuals.
Some of our many business partners include: Roses of Mbuya
The Need Foundation
Kiwatule Women's GroupA group of women tailors in one of Kampala's impoverished neighborhoods has organized themselves into a contractor group that sews grain sack charts for us. KATS Creations
Shaban Musisi
GLADJO Designer
Awards and RecognitionOur company has been honored with awards, fellowships, media coverage and select memberships. Some of these include:
Print articles:
Membership
Client Testimonials about Mango TreeMany clients return to Mango Tree time and again for high quality products and services. Here are some remarks from our customers:
Employee ProfilesThe achievements of Mango Tree draw from the energy, talents, skills and knowledge of an unusually diverse group of employees. We introduce some of them below, and encourage you to spend time with them if you can! Craig Esbeck, Founder
Sjoerd Herms, Executive Director
Sjoerd comes from Amsterdam in The Netherlands, where he worked as a consultant in the Financial Sector for 7 years. He had been in Uganda for 18 months as a VSO volunteer, before joining Mango Tree as the Executive Director from October 1st, 2008. Sjoerd earned a Master’s degree in Business Econometrics from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
Guustaaf VAN DE MHEEN, Assistant Director for Business Operations
Jeanel Drake, Assistant Director for Product Development & Project Management
Abdul Kagga, Human Resources & Operations Manager
Stephen Wandera, Office Manager
Kawooya George William, Marketing Manager
Angella Namaganda Mutabuza, Sales Representative
Fred Emolu, Assistant Accountant
Fred joined Mango Tree in 2008 as an Assistant Accountant. He holds Diploma in Accounting and Finance from YMCA.
Nathan Walosi, Production Assistant
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The Roses of Mbuya sewing
workshop trains and employs HIV positive women to make a range of clothing for
women, men and children, as well as household items. Since 2002 they have made
educational products for Mango Tree. The Roses are part of REACH OUT - Mbuya Parish HIV/AIDS Initiative,
an innovative response by the local parish church to meet the health needs of
its many community members being challenged by AIDS. They currently serve over
800 clients using a holistic model that provides medical care, nutritional
support, income generation and spiritual guidance. Learn more about this
amazing organization at 
The NEED (New Era for the Disabled) Foundation is a self-help
organization that works with disabled people in Uganda. The NEED Foundation has
a tailoring workshop, craft center, and restaurant. These projects have helped
their disabled clients to acquire jobs and improve their general standard of
living. The NEED Foundation is further described at 
The founder of this business, Abubaker Katamba, first worked with
Mango Tree when he was hired on a part-time basis to paint puzzles. From there,
he was directly employed by Mango Tree as a graphic artist. His enterprising
nature, problem-solving skills and talent for product design saw Abubaker rise
to Production Manager at Mango Tree. Now Abubaker has established his own
business, making an innovative line of products for Mango Tree and other
clients. One area of specialization he is focusing on is adaptive educational
materials for children with visual impairment.
When Mango Tree began making alphabet letters and numbers from recycled
flip-flops Shaban was the only person in Busolwe village that had the upper
body strength to make them in the quantities we needed. Using a simple
cobbler's knife, Shaban could hand cut many sets each day. Walking using his
hands and pushing himself in a locally made wheelchair gave him the power and
endurance to do the work with ease. 
John Hasahya and his wife Gladys oversee a group of tailors in Busolwe
village who sew products for Mango Tree from their homes. The original Mango
Tree workshop was established in Busolwe in 2000 and at one time grew to a
staff of 20 tailors and artists when we had a large USAID contract. Long-term
sustainability was a problem, however, and we reluctantly closed our Busolwe
workshop in 2006. 
Craig was a teacher in Iowa and Minnesota before coming to Uganda in
1997 to work as a Peace Corps Volunteer. In Uganda he worked as an outreach
tutor for Mukuju Primary Teacher College for two years before deciding to start
Mango Tree Educational Enterprises. Craig has a bachelor's degree from the School
for International Training and a master's degree from Holy Names College in
Oakland, California. He is the founder and served as Managing Director of Mango
Tree until April 2007. He now resides in Jinja with his family where he
continues to work with Mango Tree as a consultant and field worker.
Jeanel, a U.S.
citizen came to Mango Tree in 2007 to lead the talented Research and Design
team. She brings graphic design, photography and development experience from
her previous work in Niger
and Kansas, USA.
Abdul joined Mango Tree in 2001 as sales manager. Before that he had
worked both as a secondary school teacher and as a language and technical
facilitator for Peace Corps/Uganda. Abdul has a postgraduate diploma in
education from the Islamic University in Mbale. Abdul now manages Mango Tree's
HR department and anything to do with the physical operations of our office and
production studio.
Stephen is part of the early history of Mango Tree because he was the
first graphic artist to make Mango Tree products in 2000 during his
school
holiday and he is one of the founders. He returned to work at Mango
Tree in
2003 and served as the Studio Supervisor. In 2006 he became the Office
Manager.
He holds a diploma in Education from Kyambogo University, a Cisco Certificate in
Computers & Networking and a
Certificate in Computer Applications from the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology,
Makerere University. He is a sociable, hardworking person with
good customer service and relationship skills.
George joined Mango Tree as a Marketing Manager in
March 2008. He has many years of experience in technical management in
health services, accident prevention and bank loans. Before joining
Mango Tree, George worked with the former Uganda Commercial Bank as a
banking officer, FINCA Uganda as a accounts relationship officer, Crane
Health Services as head of marketing and Mukono Community Health
Initiative as a finance officer. He holds a Bachelors degree in
Business Administration from Makerere University and is currently
pursuing an MBA in Information Systems from Sakkim Manipal
University.
Angella joined Mango Tree in 2008 as a Sales Representative. She was previously working
with FIT Uganda Ltd under a program called Access to Markets funded by CORDAID
as a Junior Consultant. Concurrently, she worked with Infopoint Uganda Ltd a
Tourism Advertising Company as Head of Sales. Angella holds a BA in Mass Communication with Upper Second class degree
from Makerere University (MUK). She’s currently
pursing a Masters Degree in Business Administration (Marketing) at MUK.
Nathan is part of Mango Tree's production management team. He has
worked for Mango Tree since 2002. He is among the founders of this company and
is also a graduate of Makerere University Business School.
Monica is part of Mango Tree's dynamic group of graphic artists and
product developers at its Kampala studio. She is also the
administrative
assistant for the Research & Design team. Monica has a diploma in
Art and Design from the Michelangelo School of Creative Arts, Entebbe.
Goretti is a graphic artist in the Research and Design department. She
has worked with Mango Tree since 2003. She has a bachelor's degree in
Industrial and Fine Arts from the Margaret Trowel School of Industrial and Fine
Arts, Makerere University.
Charles Nakugoba joined Mango Tree in July-2007 as the Production Manager. He possesses a bacherlor's degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (BIEM) from the Deparment of Mechanical & Production Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Kyambogo University- Uganda. Before Joining MangoTree he worked with Uganda Tea Corporation (UTC), Kasaku Lugazi Tea estate as assistant Production engineer. Also taught Maths & Physics in several secondary schools for four years.