The Kambeng Trust

UPDATE FOR 2011

2011-12-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

Its been a year of achievements in the village.

Following the installation of a tube well and solar pump at the end of last year, the school garden has really flourished and the fruit and vegetable produce
supplements school meals, with any surplus being sold.

There are now improved toilet facilities in the school and the office has been tiled.

The groundnut harvest was not so productive this year, due to a poor rain season, but we really enjoyed taking part during our visit. All the children join in to help pick the nuts from the roots,

with some of them finding a tasty bonus!

The school buildings continue to be used in the afternoons by the Department of Education, to provide Lower Basic level classes, and the numbers are growing. We met with the local director of education and agreed that this could continue to the end of the 2013 academic year. Hopefully by then, the government might have found the funding to build a school, as the village have now allocated some land for it.

In November and December the school had its first volunteers, two sisters from Dartington, Florence and Raphy Seck, spent several weeks helping the staff. Their contributions were greatly appreciated.

Also in November Gambia held presidential elections, and the school was used as a polling station.

The new playground equipment is all being greatly appreciated, and our thanks go to Bristol Breakfast Rotary Club for funding it all.

In the spring the clinic was visited by Dr Michael Hart and by Dave Parry from Festival Medical Services. Both expressed concerns about it, and as a result of their feedback we decided to close it for a complete refurbishment. It was quite a problem organising the details of it without being there, but Dave was amazing and gave up a great deal of his time to help with the logistics of it.

We have tiled and repainted the whole building, making it easier to keep clean, provided more storage space, and secure drug cupboards. A tube well and solar pump have been installed, and the running water now feeds flush toilets, a shower, and hand basins in the consulting rooms. There is also a kitchen sink with a gas stove and a pressure cooker to sterilize equipment. We are immensely grateful to Festival Medical Services for their continuing support, which enabled us to both keep the clinic running and also do this refurbishment.

In November a new nurse, Yahya Bojang was appointed to run the clinic. He has had seven years experience in running a similar clinic near the coast, and has also worked for the Medical Research Council. His experience there means that he has a good understanding of not over-prescribing drugs, which is very prevalent in Africa. He is a trained midwife as well as being a nurse, so the women will be able to give birth in the village, rather than have to go to hospital.

Again this year, with the funding from Festival Medical Services we were able to provide the most needy in the village with impregnated mosquito nets, to help protect against contracting malaria. We continue to receive malaria treatment from the government, and this year will be applying for a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Health which will hopefully bring more benefits to the clinic.

The highlight of our summer was a visit from our manager Pa Gibba. We finally managed to get him a visa, and he came to the UK for a month. He had a fantastic time, joining in with life here and seeing a bit of the area. He spent a

lot of time pulling grass out from under our Christmas trees for us! We held two successful fundraising events while he was here. Our thanks go to all the helpers at those events, and to the Bad Knees Blues Band and The Hothouse Band for their great performances. Thanks too to everyone who gave Pa such a good time while he was here.

One of the things he enjoyed most was canoeing up the Erme from Wonwell in the Kambeng canoe, which was made for us by Steve Hoare. The canoe is available to borrow in return for a donation to the trust. Thanks Steve!

In November we sent out a vehicle for Pa to use, as his car had come to the end of its days. Nick Legg, who helped us a few years ago to get the bus, sourced a great vehicle from Germany, and Les Medus drove it to Tilbury. Our thanks to them both.

Needless to say Pa was delighted with it, and is the envy of all his friends!

The beekeeping project has had a good year and while we were there Mr Manga came to help the trainees harvest some honey, and make skin cream from the wax. This is sold in the village and is in great demand.

The best bit was seeing the children making the most of the unusable comb!

The community bus is running well and making a very good profit, so at least part of the project is running sustainably. Our aim is to achieve more sustainability in the other areas, and we continue to discuss this need with the various village committees.

On our trip to Gambia in November, it was a huge pleasure to have Vivi Stamatatos with us. She is a film maker and came with us, entirely at her own expense to make a documentary about the project. I'd like to say a very big thank you to her, and we can't wait to see the results!

A very profound thank you from the village and from us, to all who have supported and helped us this year. Without you, all this could not have happened.

PS The Kambeng Trust is in need of a new treasurer. Peter Stevens who has done the job so brilliantly for us for many years is retiring soon. If you know of anyone with accountancy skills and quite a bit of time to spare and a lot of good will...........do let us know!

Thank you Andy Hamilton!

2011-11-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

We are immensely grateful to Andy for coming to South Brent on 13th November to do a benefit gig for The Kambeng Trust. It was really generous of Andy to this, and was a great way to celebrate the 10 years we have been running the project.
It was an absolutely brilliant evening and raised nearly £3000 .
Thanks Andy!

Thank you to Bristol Breakfast Rotary Club

2011-01-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

A donation from Bristol Breakfast Rotary Club has enabled us to purchase long wanted playground equipment. It had to be fabricated in metal, as eventually termites destroy wooden structures.

It was made in the nearby town and transported by truck to the school.

Amidst great excitement, it was then assembled and fixed in place.

There are now 175 very happy children making the most of it every playtime!

The Rotary Club also gave us funding to fence the school garden, which had been suffering from raids by hens which flew over the school wall from a neighbouring compound.

The well and irrigation system funded by The Halcrow foundation are now in place, so it was perfect timing to begin again with the garden, which provides fruit and vegetables to supplement school meals to improve the children's diet.

UPDATE FOR 2010

2011-01-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

It has been a year of amazing achievements, mainly due to the continuing hard work of our manager in the Gambia, Pa Gibba.

He lives in Brikama, the nearest town to Bakary Sambouya, with his wife and two children.

In addition to all the work he does for us, he also does hours of voluntary work to help the village. It has not been an easy year for him, because on top of all the projects he has managed, the roof blew off part of his house during the rain season. Not only were many of his belongings damaged by the rain, it took weeks to repair because of the incessant rain.

It was an incredibly stressful time for him and his family, and we are extremely grateful to him for continuing to do his job through it all.

One of his biggest achievements this year has been organising village volunteers to build a dining room for the school, taking them from this.......

to this......

We have long wanted to build a dining area, in order to improve hygiene, as the children used to eat on the ground outside. Last year the villagers agreed to provide the labour if we funded the materials. Thanks to continuing support from Festival Medical Services there was enough money to do this in 2010

Several months of very hard work by a stalwart core of volunteers achieved a great dining room just about on budget, but the concrete floor was very dusty and not ideal for the children to eat off. With perfect timing a very generous donation came in, which enabled us to tile the floor.

The other amazing development in the school is that it now has its own water supply. So we have gone from this.....

to this.....

In September,The Halcrow Foundation agreed to fund a tube well, solar pump and irrigation for the school garden, and work on it has just been completed.

Having this system in place will have immense benefits. It will take pressure off the village well outside the school and save both staff and children hours of time spent carrying water for cooking, washing and keeping the school garden alive.

A generous grant from Bristol Breakfast Rotary Club has enabled us to fence the school garden to protect the crops, and also provide some more playground equipment, which is just being built.

As you can see, what we managed to send out in the bus is woefully inadequate for 175 children! They continue to enjoy and make good use of all the equipment collected here.

Another of Pa's achievements this year has been to co-ordinate the building of a fence to protect the women's communal garden, with funding from the World Bank.

Over the years we have helped in a small way with repairs to it, but it is brilliant for them that it is now completely protected from wandering animals.

The bus which we sent out last year is doing really well.

It's predecessor was a considerable drain on our resources, but with this newer, larger vehicle they are managing to run it partly as a commercial venture, whilst it is still available for communal village needs.

Bakary, shown here,is responsible for it, and it has not needed any funding from us for the whole year. We are very grateful to him for doing such a great job.

The ambulance is still going strong and is a great asset to the clinic. It takes emergencies to hospital, not only from the village but many surrounding ones too.

The funding we received last year from Festival Medical Services has enabled us not only to keep the clinic running, but also to provide bed nets for the most vulnerable in the community, for a second year.

They are by no means a complete protection from malaria, but do make a significant difference. This year the clinic has finally started receiving malaria medication and testing kits through a government scheme. We have been trying to set this up for a long time, and it is great, not only in that it reduces our drug bill, but also because the clinic is recognised by the Gambian Health Department and this will hopefully bring additional benefits, such as vaccinations in the future.

There has been much joking because nearly all of the school staff had babies this year. Adama the head teacher and Jainaba, both took maternity leave, but we are fortunate in that we have a Delphine, a 'floating' teacher, who was able to cover for both of them. She has begun her training after a probationary year working in the school.

It really does feel that the school can now have a time to consolidate where it's got to. It is well equipped, has a great team working in it, and for the moment doesn't need anything else. It has taken eight years to get to this point and it feels very satisfying. The Education Department have just started using it to run primary level classes in the afternoons, which is a great asset for the village. This is supposedly on a temporary basis until land can found to build on. However there is no spare land available so we will just have to see how that situation develops.

We were lucky again this year to have a dry day for our Christmas tree sale, it didn't look like this! But late callers did struggle a bit....

We don't have a final total yet but it promises to be over £1000 which is fantastic. Our thanks to all of you who came to that and the other fundraising events during the year. Thanks to the Crux craftspeople, for making us the beneficiary of their amazing raffle, which raised a record £1400. Thank you to The Halcrow Foundation and Festival Medical Services for their ongoing help and support for what we do. Thank you Bristol Breakfast Rotary Club. Thank you to all the individuals who have made donations this year. Thank you to the wonderful core of people who support us monthly, we couldn't do it without you.
And finally, thank you Pa Gibba, without all your dedication and hard work, none of this would have happened.

Calendar Pictures

2010-11-08T03:22:00.000-08:00

Gambia December 2009

2009-12-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

Hannah and I spent a week in the village at the beginning of December. As ever it was a very full-on time, and it became clear that with the project having grown so much over the last eighteen months, a week just isn't long enough to get everything done, without causing everyone a lot of stress.

The highlight of our visit was the arrival of the new minibus. It had been scheduled to arrive in November, but we got a frantic message from Pa to say that the wrong vehicle had been delivered! We eventually established that an error had been made at Tilbury, and six vehicles had had their paperwork mixed up. Our bus got sent to Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, and had to be sent back to Antwerp, before it could go back to Gambia. It was a worrying time as we knew it had sat there for ten days before the error was discovered, so we were very concerned that the contents might have been pilfered. The upside of all this was that we were in the village to welcome it.

It took two long days of unbelievable bureaucracy at the docks, not to mention a few bribes, and trips to the education department to get a duty waiver on the contents, before it was released. Miraculously, although it was clear that the contents had been tampered with, very little had been taken.

All afternoon of the second day, the villagers had been getting ready to welcome it, with a group of drummers booked and a big meal being cooked. The tension grew and grew as every call to Pa brought the same message ' they haven't let it out yet'. We started wondering if the celebration should be called off as the afternoon drew to a close, and darkness wasn't far off. At the very last minute the message came, 'I'm out!' I hadn't realised how much emotion was in me till that message came.

The welcome was wonderful, everyone in their best clothes poured out through the school gates and gathered on the dusty red dirt road, singing, drumming and dancing, till the small white speck in the distance turned into a triumphant and exhausted Pa at the wheel of the new bus.

After welcoming him back we unpacked in the darkness, filling a part of the big classroom with a large quantity of materials and resources for the school and clinic that seemed too big to have come out of the bus.

The school is looking terrific. Now the perimeter wall has been in place for some time all the flowers, plants and trees are flourishing, and there should soon be bananas to harvest. The vegetable garden is doing well and providing crops to supplement the lunches, but keeping it watered is a big headache for them as there is no well in the school compound, so everyone helps with carrying large quantities of water to keep it growing.

This is fine during the week and in term-time because all the children help, but at weekends and in the holidays staff have to come in to do it, which takes a lot of their time.

Ansumana, the teacher who had TB is now well and back at work. Two of the staff are getting near the end of their training and it is great to see how this is benefitting the children. All the toys and equipment that we have sent out are getting well used and it is great to see the difference at break times.

Instead of just a ball or two to play with, there are now swings, bikes, a sandpit, and lots and lots of toys.

In the new bus was a climbing frame and we spent our last morning frantically assembling an impossible muddle of metal bars with no instructions and too many helpers!

We built a 'Tip Tap' so that the children wash their hands in clean water before lunch. They used to use a couple of buckets for all 160 of them

Last January we receive a donation of £15,000 from Festival Medical Services, the charity which gave us the ambulance. It proved to be incredibly timely as Mary Sylva, who established the health clinic in the village, was unable to continue funding it during 2009, due to personal circumstances. We were therefore able to take over the running of it from March 2009 for a year.

During the rain season from June to October the clinic was incredibly busy, as this is when Malaria is at its highest incidence. People come from all the surrounding villages for treatment, and there isn't enough room for the numbers waiting to be seen. It also means that the bill for medication is very high, so one of the things we did during our stay was to meet with representatives of the Health Department to see if the clinic can be included in the free supply of Malarial drugs which The Gambia receives from overseas. There are still a few hoops to jump through, but it is looking hopeful that this will happen, and it may also be a source of other drugs and vaccinations. The annual cost of drugs is about £3000, so anything we can do to reduce this will make a big difference. We are now looking for further sources of funding and drugs for the clinic.

It is looking unlikely that Mary will be able to finance the clinic again this year which gives us a bit of a dilemma. The cost of running the clinic has been in the region of £11,000, a sizable amount to find on top of our normal running costs, but I can't imagine letting it close for lack of funds, it provides such an invaluable service to the village and surrounding communities. The trustees have just met and decided that we will continue to fund it for one more year.

During the year we also used some of the money from FMS to buy more mosquito nets, as they make a big difference to the control of Malaria.

The beekeeping project has been slow to get going because the weather last year was unfavourable for swarms, which meant that only a small proportion of the twenty hives were colonised. We met with Mr Manga, who has trained all the participants in beekeeping and making products from honey and wax, and he is confident that this year will see the project get well established. Just before Christmas the first honey was taken off the hives.

What has been very encouraging this year is the way that the people in the village have been doing their best to support what we do. The school have held a fundraising event and opened their own bank account to try and meet some of their needs themselves. The clinic committee are looking at opening a pharmacy or general store in the nearby town, to generate income for the clinic. Since our visit there has been much discussion about how to involve more of the community in volunteering, especially the young men. Like in any community, there are the stalwarts, who help with everything and those who enjoy the benefits. We have said that we will pay the costs for the materials needed to build a dining area for the school, but that they must find volunteers to build it. So they have started a scheme whereby every compound is to pay a small amount to contribute to the builders if not enough people follow through with offers to help the building work. We have also asked that parents now contribute a small fee for their children attending school, in line with all other schools in Gambia.

Overall the project is running smoothly and well, thanks to the very hard work of our manager in the Gambia, Pa Gibba. He gives so much of his time to the village and there is no way that we could manage without him.

Our plans for this year are to build a dining area so that the children don't eat their lunch on the dusty ground. To build a well in the school compound to help with the water supply and to find funding to support the clinic for one more year. We have some needs which I will also mention in case anyone can help. Laptops in good working order are always useful. Last year someone donated a very good digital camera, which meant that Pa was able to make some great videos and take photos which not only recorded the development of the project, but were also great for publicity and fundraising. Sadly while we were there, a vital screw came loose in its mechanism and it cannot be mended. So if anyone has a camera they don't need we can find it a good home.

We would like to say a big thank you to Festival Medical Services, The Halcrow Foundation, and Nick Legg of Bundesvan Ltd, who gave amazing help with the minibus, and to everyone who has made donations or helped with our fundraising

Happy new year and many thanks for your support.

NEW MINIBUS

2009-10-07T01:22:00.000-07:00

At last we have a replacement for the community bus in Bakary Sambouya. It has been on the urgent list for more than a year, but finding something with the specific criteria of being left hand drive, old, in order to be easily serviced in Gambia, and in good condition, proved very hard.

Nick Legg of Bundesvan Ltd. came to our rescue in spectacular style. Within a few hours of contacting him, he had found a number of suitable vehicles in Germany, and within a week he had the best one delivered to us.

It is an ex-police vehicle, so really well maintained and in excellent condition, with a low mileage.

In order to maximise the space for packing it, we removed all the double seats and stacked them at the back.

Then we painted over the windows so that the contents weren't visible from outside. The vehicle is being shipped, and there is always quite a risk of the contents being pilfered on the dockside, especially in Gambia. So we have done all we can to keep things safe, and in a couple of weeks time we will know if it worked!

Over the months, we've collected a vast quantity of things, ranging from a bed and baby scales for the clinic, to a climbing frame and paints for the school, to a honey extractor for the beekeeping project.

Everything was labelled, packed into boxes and then carefully stacked in the bus. Amazingly we had exactly the right quantity to fit the space and nothing had to be left out.

Fitting the last few things in was quite a struggle, especially the mattress, which we only noticed after we thought we'd finished. Brute force finally squeezed it through a small remaining space, onto the top of the load.

Nick once again came to our aid and drove the bus overnight to Tilbury, leaving it at the docks. It is now loaded on the ship and will arrive in Banjul at the end of November.

Our thanks to The Halcrow Foundation for their very generous funding of this project.

2009-07-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

KAMBENG TRUST UPDATE DECEMBER 2008

So much has happened since my last update that it feels like a good time to bring you up to date with how the project is going.

THE SCHOOL
We now have five teachers but Ansumana, the founder of the school sadly has TB, so will be off work for at least six months. This means taking on another teacher, and the committee will be addressing this soon.

Two teachers are currently being funded to do their Early Childhood development training. This is done throughout the school holidays for a year, so is a big time commitment for them on top of all their other activities.

Last summer a big new classroom and store were built with money raised by Willmott-Dixon Construction Ltd. It is being used by the reception class, and means that at last they have plenty of play space.

The wall around the school has been fitted with gates, so the whole compound is safe from animals. Crops such as groundnuts and cassava can now be grown.

Fruit trees and flowers have been planted, and the whole area is looking much nicer. The school vegetable garden is under way, and this will both provide produce to supplement the dinners, and also be a way for the teachers to develop the curriculum.

A big new sand play area is just being built, and we hope to be able to build a frame for swings, the first part of the outdoor playground.

WOMENS GARDEN
The repair work to two wells, done after my visit in February, has been successful, and all three wells are functioning. It was a good rain season this year, and the water table is much higher, after several years with comparatively little rain.

There was a good communal rice harvest, and while we were there the women were threshing and winnowing the rice. Its hard physical work, pounding the sheaves with pestles, then collecting the grain and teasing out the chaff, so they take it in turns and the whole occasion has something of a party atmosphere.

BEEKEEPING PROJECT
With support from The Halcrow Foundation a beekeeping project has been started. Initially twelve women will be trained. An area of land has been cleared, to protect the hives from fires in the dry season. Twenty hives are now in place, waiting for the bees to arrive. Unlike beekeeping here, there is little management of the hives. African bees are very prolific and extremely fierce, so the hives are set out to wait for swarms to find them. They are then left pretty much alone until the honey harvest, which is done three times a year and always at night, to avoid attack by the bees.

Potentially this project will provide a good source of income as there is a good demand for honey and also the wax can be made into products like skin cream and candles.

THE CLINIC
Earlier in the year we were donated a 4-wheel drive ambulance and £5000, by Festival Medical Services. This meant that we were able to collect large quantities of materials and equipment for the school and clinic, and fill it to the roof, before shipping it out there. Having considered driving it out, we finally decided that it was too much of a risk, and in the end it proved cheaper to ship it.

It is now serving the village clinic and also five other villages in the surrounding area, taking emergencies to hospital. We have also been able to fund the training of two drivers for it.

The very generous donation from FMS, has meant that we have been able to provide mosquito nets for the youngest and the most vulnerable in the village. Also to provide relief after a severe storm wrecked many homes. We were able to help families with new mattresses, rice and money towards repairs.

During our visit we went to see the storm damage and how people are rebuilding. Many families are still staying with relatives and neighbours, their homes having been completely destroyed.

THE COMMUNITY BUS
You may remember from my last two updates that we have been trying to replace the community bus. The Halcrow Foundation has pledged funding for this, and we are currently trying to source a new vehicle in Europe, so far without any luck. During our visit we had a serious breakdown in the middle of nowhere, and were rescued by an intrepid team of Dutch travellers who were just completing their journey from Holland to a small village inland.

Their mechanic not only saved us from hours on a dirt road with a major problem, but also offered to try and find us a new vehicle on his return to Holland. So we have all fingers crossed as the need gets ever greater!

We already have masses of toys, games, bikes, school materials and equipment for the clinic, ready to fill the vehicle before it is shipped, so hopefully that will happen early in the new year.

FINALLY….
As you can see it has been a pretty amazing year. For me, there were two great things about this last visit. The first was going with all my family to celebrate my birthday, which made it a very special trip.

The second was finding that the changes in the village, which I mentioned in my last update, have lasted and grown. There is a strong feeling that the villagers are working with us now. They have decided that the money raised by beekeeping will fund a kitty for community development, and have proposed that the next project should be to build a bakery.

There is considerable demand for bread, and potential to supply the surrounding area as well, as currently bread is sourced from the nearby town. The idea is for the profit from a bakery to be put into the school. It is unlikely that it would ever completely cover the running costs, but it felt both encouraging and significant that they were thinking in a much more sustainable way.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone; the individuals, the groups, the companies and the charities, who have supported us over the last year, both financially and with practical help. Your money has stretched a long way and made so much possible.

As ever our income is about £500 short of our outgoings each month, so if you know of anyone who might be prepared to give a small amount each month, please send them our way!

It is hard to know what the coming year or two will bring, the news today was full of gloom and doom for charities. I remain optimistic, but am being increasingly careful in what we agree to fund, until it becomes clearer how the economic situation is affecting us.

Thank you too from all the staff of the school, they are absolutely thrilled with all the improvements.

WHAT WE DO

2009-07-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

THE KAMBENG TRUST

The Kambeng Trust is a Devon based Registered Charity, which supports the village of Bakary Sambouya in The Gambia.

We started this project eight years ago, by agreeing to pay a salary of £25 a month to the village schoolteacher. Since then it has grown dramatically. Last year the charity had an income of £44,000. All money donated goes to the project as there are no UK salaries and our administration costs here are minimal.
We support the village by :

Funding the salaries of six teachers, a manager and other school staff

Funding training for the teachers

Providing educational materials and equipment for the school

Providing community transport, which takes the women to market with their produce, takes women to clinics and is used by the school and community

Providing a daily meal for the 175 children in the school

Improving school premises

Responding to natural disasters with financial and material aid

Improving water supply

Supporting the development of the women’s market garden, and other projects to help the economy of the village

Funding the Health Clinic and ambulance

If you would like more information, would like to make a donation or hold a fundraising event, please contact: Sue Currant scurrant@hotmail.com

2009-07-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

THE KAMBENG TRUST
from the beginning

For eight years we have been sponsoring a rural village nursery school in The Gambia. It began with a simple request from a friend,something along the lines of “Could you find a way of providing £25 a month to pay the teachers, at the moment they volunteer?” That seemed so easy and so little in our terms.

At that time the village school in Bakary Sambouya was a crumbling one roomed building, with a blackboard at each end, a few tables and benches, and no equipment or books. There were two voluntary unqualified teachers and about 50 children aged between 3 and 7. The villagers had built the shell of two new classrooms with money which had been donated, but were unable to complete it when the money ran out.

For many years we have grown and sold a quantity of Christmas trees and donated the proceeds to various charities. From the tree sale in 2002 we made enough money to provide a quantity of equipment and materials for the school, and to complete the new building. South Brent Primary School collected masses of books and materials. A group of our friends agreed to donate a small monthly amount by standing order to make up the pay for the staff. The project had begun. Our annual Christmas tree event is now wholly devoted to the project.

Since that time we have raised money to help with materials, to build toilets, a kitchen and classrooms, to equip the kitchen and fund a daily meal for all the children.

In 2004 two new classrooms were built and in April 2005 the first qualified teacher joined the school, bringing a wealth of expertise and energy. We have funded the training of five teachers,four of whom have now graduated, and one is currently training. A perimeter wall has been completed around the school compound, making the area secure, enabling staple crops such as cassava and groundnuts to be grown to supplement the lunches. We have begun a school garden, which will both increase the range of vegetables in the children’s diet, and provide an area to develop the curriculum.

Also last summer, a big new classroom and store were completed for the youngest children.

We were donated an ambulance for the village clinic, which we were able to fill with equipment, books, toys and games, before shipping it to Gambia. We have twice been able to provide disaster relief after severe storms have destroyed homes.

We support the women’s communal market garden, and help with repair and maintenance of wells, as the water table is constantly dropping and water supply is an ongoing problem.

Sometimes the project feels overwhelming, at other times its quite simple, we just need to find ways to raise more money to ensure the long-term survival and growth of the school!

The Gambian Government does not provide any education at nursery level, so it is unlikely that the project can ever become self-sufficient.

Community Projects

We have also provided the village with a four-wheel drive mini-bus and pay a driver, which helps the wider community in the following ways:

Daily transport of the women and their garden produce to market in the nearby town
Taking pregnant women to clinics
General school and community use

Our aim is to help this rural community to develop their children’s education and assist the welfare and economy of the village. While the school cannot become financially independent, it is our intention that any future financial input will be for self sustaining projects.

With funding from The Halcrow Foundation we have begun a beekeeping project with a group of women. They are learning beekeeping and marketing skills, and part of the income from the project will be put into a village community fund to aid future development.

Village Health Clinic

With the help of the UK Charity, Festival Medical Services, we have taken over the sponsorship of a health clinic in the village, which was started four years ago by a nurse from London. This provides basic medical treatment and has two delivery rooms. It is hoped that eventually anti and postnatal clinics will also be provided. We provide staff salaries, drugs, mosquito nets and an ambulance service.

Projects for 2009

We need to provide a covered dining area so that the children are not sitting on the ground to eat, and have shelter in the rainy season.
Provision of playground equipment, books and educational materials
Replacing the community bus
Building a village bakery, to help fund the school

If you would like to help The Kambeng Trust, by contributing a small regular monthly amount, making a donation or holding a fundraising event, please contact us on 01364 73237 or scurrant@hotmail.com