Jinja, a sleepy town by the shores of Lake Victoria in eastern Uganda, is a coveted place for tourists. It is also the cradle of the “white saviour complex”, according to the group that took the television journalist Stacey Dooley to task for posting a photograph of herself with a black child on social media while filming for Comic Relief in Uganda.

Kelsey Nielsen, who runs No White Saviours (NWS) with Olivia Alaso, told the Observer: “We see it in restaurants, when a white person is served first while a black person receives crappy services. We see it in the way organisations pay black workers less.”

Alaso added: “There was a time when black workers at an organisation in Jinja got into an accident … their white boss called just to ask how the car is. It is like the workers – the black people – do not matter.”

Alaso and Nielsen started No White Saviours to challenge the way development and evangelical work was done on the African continent. They first met at a clinic in Jinja in 2013 where Alaso had taken her child, who had malaria. “I was carrying my child and there was this white woman carrying a black child seated next to me. I just wanted to get to know her, to know what she was doing,” Alaso said.

The pair say there is an underlying discrimination in development narratives and the relationship between white and black people.

An issue that dates back to the first Europeans who raided Africa for slaves and raw materials, the white saviour question emerged once again following Dooley’s visit. David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, said the photograph perpetuated tired and unhelpful stereotypes of Africa, adding: “The world does not need any more white saviours.”

NWS, which emphasises on its website that it is a “majority female, majority east African group”, extended an invitation to Dooley, saying it hoped she would take it as an opportunity to listen and learn. But it said she did not reply.

The group wrote on Instagram: “Ms Dooley, we need you to know our invitation is still open, we provided feedback about how you could do better, so has David Lammy as well as countless others. You’ve chosen to disregard, double down and ignore the constructive feedback.

Because of our white privilege, we get away with so much Kelsey Nielsen, No White Saviours

“We never said that you had ill motives. That you are not a good person. We are talking about historical, systematic and institutionalised power structures that span hundreds of years. White saviourism is a symptom of white supremacy and something we all have to work together to deconstruct.”

Alaso and Nielsen said they shared a desire to open a difficult conversation about race and to cause people to be uncomfortable enough to act.

Nielsen’s parents are conservative evangelists and, at 23, she, like many white development workers, came to Uganda on a trip she thought was necessary. She set up an organisation, Abide Family Centre, that she now says she had no business setting up in the first place.

“White people need to know that young and passionate is not a qualification. Africa is a playground and experimental ground for so many. Because of our white privilege, we get away with so much.”

While she describes herself as more aware of white privilege than most white people, she is not immune to it. “I have been part of the problem. I am still part of the problem. But how do you work through this?”

Alaso and Nielsen work with organisations and individuals to raise awareness about the white saviour complex. It is a difficult issue because of the high levels of poverty in much of Africa. Charities including Comic Relief step in to provide services where governments are failing.

But Alaso said that while their campaign was not about the necessity of aid or getting rid of white people, there must be recognition that Africans are not helpless. She said: “We are trying to give our children a better education. We are developing our countries. We need aid but it must not come with strings attached. We are saying that if you want to help, first listen to us and provide what we need – not what you think we need.”