Daniel Sewagudde Craig Pruess and Denis Mugagga of the Ganda Boys, founders of the Ganda Foundation

The Ganda Foundation was established during 2009 by Denis Mugagga, Craig Pruess and Daniel Sewagudde of the GANDA BOYS music group. Their aim has always been to bring First World awareness to some of the dire conditions existing in the Third World.

Musicians in the past have often taken a lead on urgent social issues, including the efforts of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live Eight to fight poverty in Africa. The joyous, uniting and moving music of the Ganda Boys has created a new drive for the new decade — a timeless message  of compassion, truth and caring.

These three musicians, singers and songwriters have taken a keen interest in world affairs for many years, and believe passionately that those individuals who have influence through their careers need to become intimately involved in creating a better world. A quick look at their profiles will show that Denis, Dan and Craig are very well placed to inspire people with both their musical achievements and their Ganda Foundation initiatives.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Denis Mugagga and Deniel Sewagudde have been well-known Ugandan musicians, singers and songwriters for many years, first bursting onto the international African music scene with their big hit “Mdomo” during 2004 as the mainstream popular band, DaTwinz. Resident in the UK since 2001, Denis and Dan have gone on to contribute to many multi-media projects, working tirelessly on concert programmes across the African community diaspora, culminating in their collaboration on the award winning BBC-TV drama series, Moses Jones. They not only appeared in the live band sequences on screen as performers, but they also contributed to the script development with Joe Penhall. Denis and Dan went on to found the breakthrough African fusion group, the Ganda Boys, with fellow Ganda Foundation founder and director, Craig Pruess. They are currently active with the Ugandan High Commission, including networking with the African diaspora throughout Europe and North America.

Having lived through painful life experiences themselves — those childhood challenges and hardships unfortunately normal in Africa, and then later through the stressful lens of the immigration experience living in the UK — Denis and Dan are both totally inspired to give back to their communities in Uganda. They both believe that taking responsibility is the core issue in social transformation. It is not enough to sit back and expect others to make the needed changes in our living environment or in the general quality of life in a population or culture. As the famous Hopi Native American Indian saying goes: “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” This inspiration has created the working ethos for the Ganda Foundation organisation.