Pageant
could not function without the dedicated work of our agents in The Gambia.
Wandifa Saidykhan
is Pageant’s main agent in The Gambia and does an enormous amount of
work with both school projects and sponsored children. He also still works
as a tourist guide at the Atlantic Hotel in Banjul when he has any spare
time. He became Pageant's assistant agent in 2002 and stepped up to the
main role in 2007.
Yankuba Ceesay is Pageant’s assistant agent
in The Gambia. He helps Wandifa cope with the increasing load of work
connected with the sponsored children and has special responsibility for
the up-country regions on the South Bank such as Jarreng.
Abdoulie Gibba is now the regular driver for
Pageant and has made himself so useful that he is now warmly welcomed as a
full member of the Pageant team.
Momodou Kanteh is a part time assistant
agent for Siffoe.
Kemo Ceesay was Pageant's first agent in The
Gambia, from 2001 until he left Pageant in 2007. Pageant also has two lady
'go-betweens' who run the Pageant loan schemes.
Mariama Gitteh runs the loan schemes for
Sika and Bakalarr
Binta Jammeh runs the loan scheme for the
Mum's Club at Gunjur SHM Nursery School.
Pageant has appointed Lamin Njie as
'Artemisia Ambassador'. Following training at Gambia's National
Agricultural Research Institute, he will tour the country providing
training and support to help village communities grow their own Artemisia
annua - a plant with proven anti-malarial activity. (more
details)
We must also mention Pageant member Linda
Murgatroyd who now lives in The Gambia and works for the US Peace
Corps, and who is always available to help us.
Sending Goods to The Gambia
For several years, Pageant
shipped items in containers handled by another charity 'Friends of Gambian
Schools' (FROGS). Subsequently FROGS lost most of the space it used to
store goods and pack containers, so Pageant decided that large scale
shipments were no longer viable, and has found
alternative ways of shipping only essential things to The Gambia. We also
decided to source things in The Gambia wherever possible, as this also
helped the local economy. For a full description see
How things get to the Gambia
Equipment for Schools
Many
schools in The Gambia have no mains electricity. Thus they are unable to
use many of our normal gadgets. Schools need manual typewriters, sewing machines
etc. See more
details and also a
list of suitable equipment. In October 2002, Pageant gave microscopes to three schools, Bakalarr, Jarreng and Sinchu Baliya.
The microscopes were partly sponsored by the Royal Microscopical Society,
and were equipped with small tilting mirrors so that sunlight could be
used for illumination of samples.
Ten further microscopes were fully sponsored by the RMS in February 2003 and distributed to a selection of schools. Members of the EMUS SEM user group
sponsored prizes for the best drawings of things seen under the
microscopes at each of these schools. See details of
2003 competition and
2005 competition
In The Gambia, lack of suitable equipment means that science is largely
taught as a theoretical subject. Pageant member Frances Boswell, a student
at Collyer's, a sixth form college in Horsham, enlisted the help of Head
of Science teacher Joe Brock to devise practical equipment specially for
The Gambia.
Collyer's has been awarded Beacon Status for Science by Ofsted,
and is working on several initiatives, including the production
of teaching units and resources. As well as developing the
Gambian teaching kits, Joe also produced a specially written
teacher's manual. This, in it's latest edition, is called 'Teaching Practical Physics
Anywhere' and has now been used for an Institute of Physics
project in Tanzania.
Frances and other Pageant members put together teaching kits,
before taking them to The Gambia in
February 2006
for 'pilot' workshops, where the kits were demonstrated to both
staff and students at various schools.
Pageant held its first
Practical
Physics Workshops for Gambian science teachers in
February 2007, staffed by Joe, various
Pageant members and students from Collyer's, with Collyer's
providing much of the equipment and funding. Pageant's second Practical Physics Workshops
were held in
February 2011, utilizing an
incredible donation of £13,000 worth of educational science
equipment donated by Technology Supplies Ltd. Our Third
Practical Physics Workshops are planned for February 2012, in
conjunction with the Microscopy Workshops mentioned below. (see
more details)
Microscopy
Workshops
Pageant supplied donated
microscopes to quite a few schools and colleges in The Gambia,
but not all teachers fully understood how to get the most benefit
from them. Pageant is therefore running a series of Microscopy Workshops for
science teachers, so they can pass on practical
microscopy skills to their students. The impact of
these workshops is immense. If each teacher interfaces with
just 200 pupils, then in the course of one set of workshops, we will have introduced practical microscopy to
8,000 children in The Gambia. In 2009, Pageant was awarded
£3,000 by the
Royal
Microscopical Society Vice
President’s Fund, enabling us to set up the first Microscopy
Workshops in
February 2010.
In 2011 Pageant was again fortunate enough to be awarded £3,185
from the Vice President's Fund, and this will be used to fund
our second Microscopy Workshop in February 2012. (see
news about 2012 Workshops)
Millennium Health Microscope
A new low cost, compact microscope is being developed, which will
revolutionise the diagnosis of infectious diseases, such as Malaria, in
developing countries. The MHM will be rugged enough for field use,
so that examination of blood and other samples can be carried out in
remote rural areas, eliminating the delay caused by sending samples to a
laboratory. It is a high specification instrument, with interchangeable
objectives up to 100:1, standard RMS eyepieces, integral lighting
and an indexing stage. Despite this, the target price in quantity
production is £40. (more
details)
When Ian, Pippa, or any other Pageant
member visits The Gambia, they normally try to see as many
schools, and visit as many sponsored children as possible. We try to
report these visits in detail, as it gives our friends in The
Gambia the opportunity to see themselves on this website.
Ian & Pippa's
October 2003 visit was to Sinchu Baliya, Bakalarr, Kalagi, Jarreng
and Crab Island schools, and two nursery schools.
In October 2004,
they saw nearly 40 sponsored children.
In
November 2005, Pippa again visited many schools.
Visitors from The Gambia
Pageant thinks that it is essential that the people we rely on in The
Gambia get to know how things happen at this end.
In 2004, Pageant's
agent at the time, Kemo, spent about 6 weeks visiting schools and other
locations in the UK.
In 2005, Bakary Gitteh, the headmaster of Bakalarr School visited the UK. See the reports
on his visit
starting here.
Primary education is provided by the state, but the family must
still pay for books, food, uniform and travel. At secondary level, tuition
fees are also charged. Virtually every child is keen to go to school, as
education is seen as the way out of the poverty trap. Pageant has a
sponsorship scheme to enable members to donate the cost of a child's
education, with all the money sent directly to the sponsored child, and no
deduction of administration costs.
See
further details and read more about
how sponsorship works.
Pageant Loans
Pageant loans are locally run
micro-loan schemes, which lend small amounts of money to enable people to
start up small businesses.
The first Pageant Loan was launched in the
Village of
Sika in November 2005. The
Pageant Loan Page
describes the launch of this scheme, and will report on the progress of
this and other schemes.
Pageant has recently set up a Loan
Scheme in Gunjur. The ladies taking part are members of the
Sheik Hatab Memorial Islamic Nursery School Mothers' Club. (see
further details)
Malaria is a constant hazard in The
Gambia, and villagers cannot afford the drugs and treatments routinely
used by visitors from developed countries.
A relatively inexpensive treatment has been in use in China for
centuries. This is a tea made from the leaves of Artemisia annua.
Unfortunately, this plant does not grow well in hot climates, but recently
a variety, called 'Anamed', has been developed which is more suited to
African conditions. This has been trialled at the Gambian National
Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), and the leaves are already in use
for malaria treatment in some surrounding villages. Growing the plants
from seed is a bit tricky, so Pageant provided funds for NARI to grow
plants, to distribute them to several villages, and then to
train villagers in cultivation and further propagation by
cuttings.
Following on from this, Pageant appointed Lamin Njie as
'Artemisia Ambassador'. After training at NARI, he will be touring The
Gambia providing
training and support to help village communities cultivate, harvest and
use Artemisia in treating malaria. (more
details)
Tina's art project
Pippa's
sister Tina brought hands-on art to the children of Kings Kid Academy,
where they created a jungle with flowers and animals. She then went on to KMJ Nursery School,
where they made an ocean with fishes and other sea-creatures. (more
details)
The
Foundation for Disabled People is a
Registered Gambian Charity that was set up in 2001. They produce
wheelchairs specially designed for use on unmade roads in
developing countries. Their workshop provided Sarjo
Badjie, one of Pageant's sponsored students, with one of these.
(see
this news page) They also
operate a computer training centre for people with a physical
handicap. The initial batch of computers was provided by Pageant
member Keith Farrington in 2004-5.
Sarjo's special 'all terrain' wheelchair
>>
Six year old Modou Lamin
was born with his right leg permanently bent at the knee.
Initially he got about on his knees, but then learnt to walk
with crutches. Orthopaedic surgeon Douglas Sammon decided that
the best way to help Modou Lamin was to amputate his deformed
leg at the knee and fit a prosthetic leg. The operation has
been successfully carried out, and Modou Lamin is making an
excellent recovery. Pageant has launched an appeal to pay for
his new leg, so that Modou Lamin can get on with living a normal life.
(more details)
<< Modou Lamin before his operation
For further information about
all the schools and educational institutes which Pageant is
associated with in The Gambia, please look at our
Gambian Schools Index
page.
The
Goats Appeal
In February
2011, Pippa heard about a very poor Gambian family who had all of
their seven goats stolen. This was a terrible blow, as the goats
were the only things of value that they possessed. An adult goat
costs about £40 - £48, so Pippa initially set herself a target of
collecting £240 - enough to replace maybe five of the goats. This
target was reached in just five days, so a new target was set, so
that all seven goats could be replaced. The success of the appeal,
which closed on 10 April, was almost overwhelming – in 5 weeks we
reached nearly £810. This was enough to replace all seven goats,
provide a lockable shelter where they will now be secure at night
and to buy and donate some goats (and maybe shelters) to two other
deserving families. Our grateful thanks to all who contributed to
this amazing total, especially staff at ERA Technology, and members
of St John's Church, Broadbridge Heath. The amazing success of this appeal prompted us to add goats to
our list of
Ethical Gifts.
(Read more
about this story)
Baba with two of his
family's new goats >>
Play
Equipment for Gambian Nursery and Primary Schools
Nursery and
primary schools in The Gambia often lack the basic essentials of
classroom furniture. Sue and Phil Taylor have started a project
to ship donated outdoor play items to The Gambia. This first
consignment went to the Sheik Hatab Memorial Nursery (SHM) in
Gunjur. Sue and her family visited SHM to set up the play
equipment, and work with the teachers to structure the outside
play activities so that all the children get a chance to learn
to play and co-operate. They are now collecting more equipment
for other schools, and are fundraising to cover the costs of
sending further containers.
(Read more about
Sue & Phil's project)
