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News Archive
2003 - 2007 |
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17 June 2008 - Progress in building
work - Building work has progressed well in four schools,
taking full advantage of the period before the rainy season
begins.
- Brikamedina is a village on the
southern edges of Brikama town. The village started a nursery
school as a local initiative, on land donated by the village
mosque. Pageant is funding completion of the building work here. (see
details)
- At Bakalarr, work is progressing
on the construction of an accommodation block for school staff.
(see
details)
- Kings Kid Academy are
constructing a new classroom block. (see
details)
- At Siffoe, they have finally
completed work on a new block of five classrooms. (see
details)
16 June 2008 - Toilets and Textbooks
- Nigel Walsh has completed Comrades Ultra-Marathon (56 miles)
in South Africa. He finished the gruelling race in 11 hours, 16
minutes and 15 seconds. (see
details)
6 June 2008 -
Schools Index We have produced an index to Gambian (and UK) schools which
Pageant is associated with - both those with major projects, and
those which just have sponsored pupils. We have used Google Maps
to plot the location of each school. Sometimes this is just the
general area, but in many cases in 'satellite' mode you can zoom
in to see the actual buildings. Our Schools page contains an
enormous amount of information, so there are probably lots of
errors. If you spot anything you think we have got wrong, then
please let us know.
26 May 2008 -
Toilets & Textbooks
- Change of Plan - The team will not be able to visit Kings
Kid Academy in July to construct the new toilets. Instead local
tradesmen will build the toilets.
20 May 2008 - Maps showing Gambian
schools - We have created a number of Google Maps which show
the exact location of many of the schools which Pageant is
associated with in The Gambia:
Make sure you select the 'Satellite'
view, and in many cases you can zoom in to see the actual
buildings. Please let us know if we have got anything wrong.
1 May 2008 -
Ridgemede Junior
School now has its own page on
the Pageant website. In their most recent fundraising event,
they have raised £421 to sponsor children and provide
educational equipment at Abuko Lower Basic School.
15 April 2008 - Nigel Walsh will
be running in the 56 mile Comrades UltraMarathon in South Africa
on 15 June to raise money for the
Toilets and Textbooks project.
See further
details and a link to sponsor
him.
10 April 2008 -
Mahmoud Achten Nursery
School - This is the latest
school to be brought under Pageant's umbrella. John Emery and
Jane Bull have been helping this school for over a year, and
have achieved some great improvements. A lot still needs to be
done and the school will need continuing support.
9 April 2008 -
Foundation for
Disabled People update - hand
over of 15 wheelchairs built with the money from the Mayor of Haslemere’s
fund.
8 April 2008 -
Quotes from sponsored children
- Read what our sponsored children have written in letters to
Pageant.
5 April 2008 -
Furniture
shipment from Harwell - UKAEA
and NDA joined forces with Pageant to ship surplus furniture to
schools in The Gambia.
5 April 2008 -
Toilets and Textbooks
- Students from Oakham School and Copenhagen International
School will be travelling to The Gambia in July to build new
toilets for
Kings Kid Academy.
See our new
web page for further
information. You can also
donate online
to help their efforts.
Recent News
20 March 2008 -
Chris
Robertson's Gambia Diary -
Chris has compiled a diary (with pictures) relating his exploits
during his visit to The Gambia in February. This complements the
blog postings included in
Live from The Gambia.
18 March 2008 - Revised Sponsorship
Costs - For the first time in seven years, Pageant has had
to increase the cost of sponsoring children and young people's
education in The Gambia. (See
note about revised costs)
16 March 2008 - Five new members for
the Blog Team - We are pleased to announce that we now have
five new contributors to the
Pageant News Blog in The
Gambia.
Meet the new team members.
13 March 2008 - Breaking news from The Gambia -
We are in the process of signing up team members in The Gambia
who will be able to report directly on local news relevant to
Pageant's activities. Our first new team member, Lamin Jammeh,
has made his first post. Check the
Pageant News Blog for the
latest news from The Gambia.
5 March 2008 - Live from The
Gambia Pageant members Frances, Lauren, Rosie and Sarah have
spent a large part of their recent trip to the Gambia teaching at KMJ
Nursery School and Campama Lower Basic School in Banjul.
Following this Frances, Lauren and Rosie, together with Ian, Pippa and Chris, made a trip up-country to visit schools at Bakalarr,
Jarreng and Jurunku. Later they visited more schools in
Banjul. During this time, Frances has kept us up-to-date with
their exploits on the
Pageant News Blog. These
reports have been copied onto our
Live from The Gambia page as
a permanent record.
30 January 2008 - Transplant Titans have
reached Banjul They left Manchester
on Friday morning, 11 January, heading for
Portsmouth and the overnight ferry to St Malo. They then drove south via Bordeaux, crossed the Pyrenees
into Spain, spending the night at Burgos. From there they drove
across Spain to Tarifa, and spent a whole day there. On Tuesday 15
January
they took the ferry to Tangier, and drove to Rabat for an
overnight stop. Their journey through Morocco has featured overnight stops
at Marrakech, and Ouarzazate, and Sidi Ifni. On Saturday 19
January
they drove to Laayoune in Western Sahara, and on Sunday headed
south to Dakhla.
After a day's rest, they headed into Mauritania and the
desert, where mobile phones don't work. After three days, they
were in touch again and had a rest day at Zebrabar just inside Senagal.
On Sunday 27 January, they set off on the final leg of the
journey across Senegal and into he Gambia. They caught the early
morning ferry across the Gambia River and arrived at the
finishing point at 9.15am on Monday 28 January. On Tuesday and
Wednesday they visited Kings Kid Academy and other schools, and
were given a tour of rural Gambia by Pageant agent Wandifa. (see
daily progress reports)
20 January 2008 - The
4Ts adventure
is over The
teams left the UK on 26 December, travelled by
ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain and drove through
Spain to Tarifa. They crossed over to Morocco by ferry reaching Fez on 29
December, and then via Er-Rachida, reaching Tata on 2 January
2008. They left the Atlas Mountains and headed
south along the coast into Western Sahara, camping
near Laayoune. On 5 January, they crossed the border into
Mauritania, reaching Nouakchott on 6 January and crossed
the desert towards Nema. By 10 January they were into Mali
and reached Timbuctu on 11th. On 12 January, they visited the
Festival of the Desert. On 13th they returned to Timbuctu,
where they sold both cars, and set off to tour Dogon country
using
a hired car and driver, with overnight stops at Mopti, Djenne
and Segou. They spent a day relaxing in Bamako,
before flying home via Casablanca. So that's the end of another
adventure! We have some new photos, and hope to have a full
report on their trip soon. (see
daily progress reports)
5 January 2008 - Trouble in Mauritania
The Lisbon-Dakar Rally has been cancelled due to the shooting of
four French tourists in Mauritania. This may affect teams taking
part in the Plymouth-Bamako and Plymouth-Banjul Challenges. (see
news item)
3 January 2008 - Transplant Titans
ready to go on 11 January Final
preparations are in hand for departure in a weeks time.
We will bring you news of their progress as we get it. (more
details)
Also, the
Transplant Titans Blog was
launched today, giving you an alternative way of keeping up with
the latest news.
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