Dick Sisman: giving something back

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Matt Smith

Dick Sisman with a Gambian community

Dick Sisman, Serenity Holiday’s sustainable tourism advisor and an industry expert has started a new and exciting initiative based in The Gambia. With his help we are offering you the opportunity to donate a stove to a Gambian family. Here he tells us how he fell for The Gambia and how his Mayan Stove project is helping him to ‘give something back’ to the country he loves. See details at the bottom for how you can help!

During the past 25 years as the main tourism industry advisor on sustainable tourism I visited over 60 different countries around the World, working with tour operators and others to develop sustainable tourism strategies and projects. One destination I visited often in this time was The Gambia.
My first visit was organized by the owners of The Gambia Experience and my brief was to advise the company about how they could best engage with local communities and make changes within the company to make their business more sustainable. Now, many years later The Gambia Experience, through their group operation Serenity Holidays, are the proud recipients of a 5 star (the highest) sustainable tourism award by their industry association AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators).

My long association with The Gambia and The Gambia Experience has enabled me to get to know many people in The Gambia and I have made many friends. The Gambia is not a rich country in terms of money or material wealth but is rich in many other ways. The strength of extended families, which is lost in much of Western Europe, a respect for age and experience and a genuine fondness and love for life gladden the heart. I have one friend who is blind and always feels my face and comments on my health and disposition from touch alone. When I asked him why everyone in his village seemed happy he told me that “You in England always seem to carry the weight of the World on you. We look after our own first and then others if we can”. What wise words!
During my time in The Gambia I have tried to “put something back”, helping children through school; setting up trade not aid projects and helping specific people to develop skills and careers. Most recently I have been working with The Gambia Experience to develop sustainable projects funded by carbon offset contributions from customers.

Mayan Turbo Stove in action

As I move towards the end of my career I now want to set up a longer term programme which will benefit families, especially those living on subsistence levels of income. My chosen method is through a community stoves programme which will replace more traditional 3 stone fires with one of three newly designed alternative fuel stoves bringing many benefits.

• They will reduce the time in collecting fuel wood (in some areas women spend one day in three collecting fuel wood)
• They can be used in commercial applications, thus creating supplementary livelihoods
• They will help to empower women through incorporation of women’s cooperatives in project activities
• They produce significant cost savings through the use of alternative fuels such as rice husk and peanut shells
• They reduce particulate matter by 67% compared with traditional stoves, this brings a number of respiratory and bronchial health benefits and reduces indoor pollution
• Alternative fuels are much cleaner and less bulky than wood and charcoal

The demand for new stoves is already high as awareness has been heightened through other work in which I have been involved. Many stoves will be sold directly to those who are able to afford them; we sold 15 stoves on the first day of operation and have many more orders. The payback time in terms of saving in fuel alone can be just a few months and the stoves will last for several years.

However there will be many of the poorer families in The Gambia who will not be able to purchase stoves without financial help. It is not my intention to seek “charity” or “international aid” as a means of supporting my work as this is subject to the vagaries of donor whims and far less sustainable than a good business model which provides long term continuation through its pricing structure. Also, once the business is self financing and without liabilities it is my intention to transfer ownership free of any charges to those Gambia nationals who have been engaged to run it through a process which I term “beneficial business”. This will act as a significant local empowerment.

So, with the blessing and approval of The Gambia Experience I am asking any customers who may wish to contribute or support families in The Gambia to consider sponsoring a stove as a present for either a family they know or one selected on the basis of restricted income. Each present will consist of the most appropriate new stove design for particular circumstances; an initial supply of 10kg of fuel and personal training by one of the programmes staff in use and maintenance. The cost per gift is £20 and this can be paid either in the UK or in The Gambia. Every donor will receive an acknowledgement and a digital photograph of the stove recipient. My personal guarantee is that every payment will result in a stove and fuel being supplied to a family in The Gambia.

If, like me, you do want to provide help to families who would benefit greatly from a relatively low priced practical and life improving gift then in the first instance contact me by e mail at dick@dicksisman.com or alternatively if you wish to place an order when in The Gambia contact Fanna Njie, Gambia Community Stoves sales executive on 7703041.

Vetericyn Veterinary Mission to The Gambia

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Matt Smith

A guest post from Pat and Laura who are currently engaged on an epic trip to The Gambia with some much needed supplies for the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust. You can follow their travels and travails on YouTube and if you can spare any cash please do support them. It’s a brilliant cause and a brilliant charity!

In October this year two Suffolk-based vets, Pat Sells & Laura Heaps, plan to drive 4,000 miles to a veterinary clinic in The Gambia, West Africa (http://www.gambiahorseanddonkey.org.uk/). Pat Sells (of Rossdales, Newmarket) has worked as a volunteer vet in Africa before, and Laura too has a keen interest in the welfare of working animals in the developing world.

The Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust is an independent charity that runs a busy clinic in Sambel Kunda, The Gambia. They carry out essential work, providing free veterinary care to a large population of horses, donkeys and mules that normally wouldn’t have any access to such help.

The trip will be made in a 4×4 which will be donated to the clinic, where it is sorely needed to get help to ill and injured horses and donkeys in the region. The vehicle will also double up as a human ambulance to get local casualties to the distant hospital. During the following months Pat & Laura will stay at the clinic to work as volunteers. Apart from the day-to-day treatment of animals, this will involve taking samples to investigate the myriad of infectious diseases that run riot through the local horse and donkey populations, leaving their owners unable to support their families.

‘The Gambia Experience’ travel company has pledged its support as one of the company sponsors, providing a very generous donation which will directly help in reducing the suffering of the animals (and people!) of the region. Every year horses and donkeys die needlessly from disease and neglect. The scale of the animal welfare problem is staggering. 95% of the world’s veterinary care focuses on just 5% of the world’s animals and livestock! There are over 100 million equines (horses, donkeys, mules) in the developing world, the vast majority without any access to veterinary care, and under the constant threat of fatal infectious diseases. It’s time we tried to balance this inequality and make a difference! With the help of sponsors such as The Gambia Experience, we will be able to do just that.”

There is a website for fundraising which shows the running total raised by the trip: http://www.justgiving.com/gambiaroadtrip. Any donation, no matter how small is greatly appreciated – this vehicle will make an immeasurable difference to the welfare of animals in the region. For any more details please contact Pat at patricksells21@hotmail.com.

Nyodema fundraiser for The Gambia

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Kathryn Burrington

Saturday 19th November 2011
Aldwick Baptist Church
Gossamer Lane, Aldwick, Bognor Regis PO21 3DD
from 7pm
FREE entry but you will be asked to make a donation and your seat must be booked in advance on 07974 472137

I will be singing and drumming with the Nyodema World Community Choir and the Nyodema West African Drummers so if you are in the area please do come along and support us. All proceeds will go towards Nyodema’s health and education projects in The Gambia. Visit Nyodema’s website for more details.

The Nyodema West African Drummers

Photograph copyright The Bognor Regis Observer

Project Gambia

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Kathryn Burrington

Back in December 2010, Gambia Experience clients, Eleanor and her husband visited a local nursery school in Brufut and being shocked by the primitive conditions they decided to help.

Eleanor explained ”I realised that the couple of bags of coloured pens and pencils I had brought with me would not go far amongst 120 children, especially as they had no proper desks to work at nor paper to work on.

I asked the headmaster (Lamin) what would be his priority if he could have something done to help his school. He said the floor of the classrooms needed concreting as the dust was getting into the children’s lungs and causing them to cough. We found that it would cost £80 to concrete all three classrooms; some phone calls were made and the workmen started the next day! PROJECT GAMBIA had begun!”

Above from left to right: The Taxi Driver, one of the village elders (who is on the local council and the equivalent of a school governor), Lamin (the school headmaster), Bamba (his friend who introduced us to Lamin), Ismaila (local villager), Andrew Buchan (my husband) and another local who offered to help with painting.

Since their initial visit, Eleanor and her husband have raised the funds to:

paint the walls of the classrooms
renovate the toilets
build new benches and tables for all 120 pupils
build desks and chairs for the staff

Eleanor and her family and many of the pupils at Burgoyne Middle School where she teaches have kindly donated much needed teaching equipment including:

Over 1000 pencil crayons
Felt tip pens
An Oxford Reading Scheme
Pop-up books
42 laminated posters of the alphabet, times table, time etc….
Basic Maths and English teaching books
A large variety of children’s fact and fiction books
6 footballs
Basic atlases
2 space hoppers
A type writer

“Over the Easter holidays in April 2011 we returned to The Gambia and were delighted to see the progress the school was making. The Headmaster and the friends we had started to make were absolutely delighted with our efforts. We were invited to a local ‘naming ceremony’ which is the equivalent of a Christening to us. In the morning a poor old goat gets slaughtered and the whole village celebrate the birth of the child by eating, drinking, singing and dancing-not so different to our own culture in many ways. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Gambian people and found them to have a very similar sense of humour to us Brits!”

Whilst they were there they also completed the following projects:

Rendering and painting the perimeter wall of the compound.
Painting the school gate and flag pole. (The Gambian people want a Union Jack flag to put up next to their Gambian flag)
Supplying play equipment in the form of 3 sets of swings.

Eleanor has talked to many of the pupils in her school about The Gambia and the school in Brufut. “All pupils showed a real interest in the subject and I believe there are great learning opportunities for Burgoyne. Many pupils in Year 7 have written letters to pupils at the nursery school. We spent time considering the nature of our audience, what sort of information to include and what questions would be polite to ask. I found that even pupils who usually do not like writing, responded well to this task. I would like to thank all supporters of ‘PROJECT GAMBIA’, especially the Year 7 and 8 pupils of Burgoyne Middle School, for their continued support and generous donations of books and other learning materials. Many parents have been extremely generous in their donations and I wish to thank them and assure them that all materials have been very gratefully received.”

Project Gambia have also just launched a website for the school which they are still developing but please do visit it if you would like to find out more about the project. I must add that I think they have achieved an amazing amount in less than a year. Congratulations to Eleanor and all Project Gambia supporters!

Help blind children in The Gambia receive an education

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Kathryn Burrington

The Gambia Experience and their School Development Fund supports the international charity Sightsavers vision.

“Our vision is of a world where no-one is blind from avoidable causes, and where visually impaired people participate equally in society.”

Sightsavers supports the principle of inclusive education which is now accepted as the preferred approach to education. It is about the system adjusting to fit the child. It is broader than just formal schooling as it also involves making changes in the home and the community. It acknowledges that all children can learn and enables education structures to adapt to meet the needs of all children, so visually impaired children and sighted children can study alongside each other.

The Bakoteh Upper Basic School was established in 1999 near Serrakunda, the largest town in The Gambia, and has over 2,000 pupils. Sightsavers has asked the School Development Fund to assist the school in two ways. Firstly, to fund the building of 14 ramps into the classrooms enabling the visually impaired children that attend the school easier access to the classrooms and secondly to fund a vegetable garden including the fencing, tools and seeds. This will benefit all the children at the school enhancing their studies of agricultural science.

The total cost of these two projects is £2,280.

The School Development Fund team were only to please to support these projects and hope to work or further projects with Sightsavers in The Gambia in the future. Once the funds have been raised they will be paid directly to the schools, as with any other of the SDF projects, and you can rest assured that no part of funds will be lost in administration costs.

You can help us raise the funds for these important projects by way of a one off donation through the SDF website or a monthly donation by standing order (please email sdf@gambia.co.uk or call us on 0845 330 2060 for details).