Charity Structure and Annual Reports

Company officers

Violet Phillips BA (Hons) MA (ED) FAETC

Violet is a retired senior lecturer in Psychology, mother of five, enthusiastic grand parent and dog owner. She has been fascinated with the lives of the people and the culture of The Gambia since holidaying there to enjoy the bird life in 2011.  Since then, Violet has been heavily involved with The Friends of The Gambia Association, taking on joint responsibility for the UK administration of the 200 or so sponsored children from 2012 up to July 2018.  Violet visits The Gambia every year to holiday and to work for CAC.

As an avid bird watcher and lover of nature, Violet cherishes her sight and believes every single person should have the opportunity to be able to see.  Being able to support and facilitate the life changing work of the dedicated team in Kanifing is something she is hugely passionate about.

JIm Phillips, Director

Jim was born in central London just after the war and graduated in 1968, working as an electronic design engineer until he retired in 2009. He has three children and six grandchildren. Jim and Violet married in 2006 and have been involved with several charities since, their biggest commitment being to the Friends of The Gambia Association when they ran the sponsorship scheme together for six years.

It was during this time that Jim’s attention was drawn to the plight of the poorest Gambians with cataracts. During that period, money to pay for 500 operations was raised.

Since then Cataracts Are Curable are well on the way to raising twice that much.

Allie Bailey, DIRECTOR & Secretary

Allie is a freelance marketing and project management consultant working with social enterprises and charities. After spending twelve years working in the music industry, Allie pursued her dream to become a professional adventurer, and is now Chief Test Pilot at Rat Race Adventure Sports. Her job involves testing never before done multi sport routes across the globe. She was the first woman to have crossed Panama coast to coast on foot, the 100 mile frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia on foot and the only woman to have crossed the Namib-Nukluft park twice. A keen conservationist, Allie has been involved in a number of charities including White Shark Projects in South Africa and IRISi in Bristol. After seeing the vital work that Violet and Jim were helping fund in The Gambia, Allie jumped at the chance to help them develop Cataracts Are Curable - The Gambian Project.