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Bumper bundle of mosquito nets for
Jarreng
Christmas 2008 produced the largest ever amount donated for mosquito
nets through the Pageant
Ethical Gift Token scheme. We received
enough money to buy 50 family sized nets, which we took to Jarreng
during our April trip up-country. Jarreng is called the mosquito
capital of The Gambia - an unenviable label.
Fortunately our minibus-type vehicle was equipped with a large roof
rack, onto which we could tie the very large bundles of nets during
our extremely bumpy journey. The first photo shows our driver,
Abdoulie, getting one of the bundles down after we had arrived at
Jarreng so that we could distribute them. Yankuba, our trainee agent
(in blue Pageant T-shirt and cap in the same photo) comes from
Jarreng, so he was in charge of the distribution of the nets. We
started at a compound at one side of the village, and distributed
half the nets to families with small babies and pregnant women
living in that area. Photo 2 shows the delight of one woman
who punches the air as she receives her family's net and photo 3
shows a group of the happy recipients with their nets.
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Abdoulie unloading the
bundles of nets |
One woman's joy at
receiving her net |
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a group of happy recipients with their
nets
Yankuba explaining
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Then, at Yankuba's suggestion, we moved some distance away to his
grandmother's compound at the other side of the village, where the
rest of the nets were distributed. Once more, it was the pregnant
women and those with small babies who received the nets, as they are
the most at risk from malaria. The nets were greeted with just as
much enthusiasm here - Yankuba organised the whole of the
distribution with great tact and explained carefully how the
decisions were being made as to who received the nets - see photo 4. It was obvious that these nets were among the most precious
gifts that these families could receive - Yankuba explained how the
gift token system worked and the women all burst into spontaneous
applause, so we offer a very large 'Thank you' to all our generous
donors on behalf of the women and families of Jarreng.
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