Duncan Africa - "Guitar Builders of Southern Uganda"

Posted 
on Jul 15, 2014
 
Our speaker on July 15th was Jay Duncan of Duncan Guitar. A unique social venture that combines the best of charity and business, creating a new model for development based on sustainability, excellence and merit. And builds great guitars.
 

The Duncan Africa Society is a unique, registered charity in Canada whose purpose is to alleviate poverty. The vision was born from a combination of master luthier Jay Duncan’s desire to bring an affordable version of his instruments to a larger market and his world view that reflects a sense of justice and compassion for the poor and suffering. His dream resulted in the creation of the Duncan Africa Society in April 2005.

Duncan Africa provides business training, assist with the setup of a co-operative guitar building business by the graduates of the trade school and provides on-going mentoring.

The trade school teaches not only luthiery (guitar making), but also English, math, computers, first aid and business skills.

The high end guitars sell for $3000 to $4000 in Canada.