School Development Fund donates over £6,000 to Gambian Schools

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Kathryn Burrington

On 29th of March, The Gambia Experience’s resort team and the Gambian Ministry of Education held a presentation on behalf of the company’s School Development Fund, giving donations to local schools.

Held in the Senegambia hotel, the presentation was a great success and was reported in most Gambian newspapers. Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie, the minister of Tourism and Culture spoke at the awards thanking The Gambia Experience and their clients for their support and urging them to keep up the good work.

Two of our UK staff also attended the presentation.
“It was nice to see how The Gambia Experience is showing it cares for the community and not just bringing tourists to the country.
As a company we are giving many more children the opportunity to progress to a successful future.
I look forward to seeing the completed projects and to getting involved with any other projects that schools bring to our attention.” Andy Murphy (IT Assistant)

above: Some of the resort team, UK staff and the Minister of Tourism and Culture with the headmasters from five Gambian schools

Funds were given to five Gambian schools for the following projects.

1. Baati N’darr Lower Basic School, Central River Region – D24,240
The school has received money for wire and other fencing materials to protect their school garden. Leaves from palm trees are currently being used. These are often damaged by animals resulting in the locals stripping the trees in the area to repair it. As the Gambia Experience are committed to carbon offset schemes and making a difference with tree planting, it was felt that this was a worthwhile project for us to support.

2. Niani Senior Secondary School, Central River Region – D52,100
The school has received assistance in order to build 60 tables and benches for the children following the schools expansion to cover children’s education up to grade 12.

3. Kabafita Upper Basic School, Western Region – D29,850
The School Development Team were recently made aware that the school has no kitchen and that food preparation currently takes place under a tree outside the school building, which is unhygienic. Funds have therefore been donated to buy materials such as roofing timber, gravel and cement in order to build a kitchen next to the domestic science classroom. On returning from a recent visit to the school, Kathy from our School Development Fund Team said “The project is already under way. It will be a very useful addition to the domestic science facilities of the school.”

above: Kabifita Upper Basic School – over 1,000 pupils aged between 13 and 16 will benefit from the new kitchen

4. Pakalinding Lower Basic School, Jarra West District – D50,925
Based between two communities with over 510 pupils, the school has been given funding towards materials to renovate staff quarters enabling some staff to live onsite.

5. Kanuma Basic Cycle, Western Region – D85,000
Funds have been provided to erect a perimeter wall for the upper division of the school. Its garden is currently fenced with temporary sticks however a sturdier structure will prevent stray animals from entering the premises, which in turn will create a more conducive teaching and learning environment.

We are currently looking into new projects to support so keep your eyes open, we will be announcing them soon as well as launching a new School Development Fund website.
The School Development Fund team

George Butler’s Travel Sketch Book

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Matt Smith

At Banjul Fish Market. Sketch by George Butler

You may well have been keeping an eye on George Butler as he sketches his was along a 8,500km journey from London to Libreville, the capital of Gabon. He’s been with the Tuareg’s in Algeria, visited the Festival in the Desert in Mali and has slowly made his way south through Senegal to the smiling coast of The Gambia. He’s helped bring fish in at Banjul fish market, and spent a lazy day on the River Gambia and has now made his way up river to the fantastic chimp rehabilitation centre set up by Stella Marsden. The posts themselves are all a great insight into the way of life in each country, but it’s the sketches that really capture something new. And whether the sketches are simple captures of a human face or a widescreen view of intense human activity they have a vividness about them that paradoxically photography often fails to capture. The sketches really need to be seen in large format so click on the images to see them in all their glory.

Chimp rehabilitation in The Gambia. Sketch by George Butler.

Jason Florio’s Gambia photographs

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Matt Smith

We’ve featured Jason Florio’s brilliant Gambia photography on the blog before now, and followed closely the progress of the walk he undertook with Helen Jones and the 700Miles team on their epic circumnavigation of The Gambia back in November and December of last year.

Well now the fruits of that walk are starting to appear – aside from calf muscles the size of small principality, there is a new suite of photographs taken during the walk now available to view on Jason’s site. And as you can see from the examples below there are some dazzling images. Jason’s style is unique – his use of the black screen has at once something of a distancing effect, yet the images become like naked singularities, events almost. They’re quite something. The first picture below is of Acting Alkalo Herouna Tonkara from Suduwole. He’s a member of the Serra Houle tribe who are renowned in the area as great traders. The couple are Salafo & Penda Bah from Tuba Dabbo. Mr Bah is a marabout and a cattle farmer. You can view the complete set here. (And you can also see their Flickr photos and follow the guys on Twitter too. Plus, don’t forget you can follow us on Flickr, Twitter and Facebook as well!)