There’s so much to catch up on, so let’s gooooooo!
This trip was incredibly special. Eleven of us travelled to the village, and my goodness, the welcome they gave us was unforgettable. I was so proud of every single visitor — they all shone in their own unique way. Watching them experience village life filled me with such pride. It honestly felt surreal.
I’ve become so used to travelling here alone that seeing people not only trust me enough to join this journey, but also feel passionate enough to make the sacrifice, really touched me. They could have chosen beaches, cocktails, and comfy hotel beds… but instead they settled for dusty floors under the stars and almost getting trampled by donkeys!
One of the biggest honours of the trip was being made an honorary *Alkalo* — a leader of the village. It was such a beautiful gesture, and I truly see it as a thank you to every single one of you for helping us achieve so much for this community.
Claire, our trustee, was completely in her element with the children, helping register them into their new school. A huge thank you also goes to Connor for documenting the trip so beautifully — he worked tirelessly to capture some incredibly special moments.
As for the rest of the visitors, they became our eyes and ears. They noticed things my overloaded brain had missed, from the dusty school floors to children needing urgent medical attention. Every observation matters, and we’ll be working through them all.
Part of this journey is learning to work *with* the village, and we’re discovering that progress is not always a straight road. We’ve come such a long way in a short amount of time, but we always strive for better.
As trustees, we are extremely conscious of making sure every donation is used in the best possible way. At the same time, we continue encouraging our Gambian partners to complete projects efficiently and on time. Our finances are balanced carefully between what comes in and what goes out, so we are constantly working hard to make projects sustainable.
That’s why we’ve been focusing heavily on getting the garden and rice field projects underway. Recently, a wonderful lady donated enough money to purchase rice seed for two hectares of land, along with 20 banana plants, 20 orange trees, and 20 papaya trees. How generous is that?
This will make a huge difference in helping the school become self-sufficient. Hopefully, one day we’ll no longer need to send money for food, and those funds can instead support so many other important projects. The more I think about it, the more incredible that achievement feels.
During the visit, a couple of our ladies noticed a young boy struggling badly with his eyesight. Samba managed to find an eye specialist, who confirmed the problem was cataracts. This month he will undergo treatment — how incredible is that? We’ll hopefully be able to get him back into school and enjoying his childhood again.
We also visited Kumba’s mum, who told us how much Kumba has changed since her procedure to treat the exposed tooth in her jaw. Seeing Kumba smiling again made everything worthwhile.
Then, after we returned home, Samba contacted us about a little boy who had been severely burned across his body. He had gone two days without medical support. We immediately instructed the family to take him straight to hospital. Thankfully, the hospital staff did an amazing job, and before long he was back outside playing with his friends again.
The heartbreaking reality is that many families simply cannot afford transport or medication costs. Because of this, we have now given the village permission to send anyone with serious medical needs straight to hospital, and we will make sure the costs are covered. Thank goodness the hospitals themselves do not charge for treatment.
On the school front, we now have four beautiful classrooms fully built, painted, and tiled. A huge thank you to Michelle and her friends for making the tiled floors possible — creating a cleaner, safer environment for both the children and teachers to learn in.
Two more classrooms are almost complete and are simply waiting for the roofing work to finish.
There is honestly so much more to share, but I’ll keep this one brief! Our lovely Emma will no doubt be chasing me to keep these blog posts more regular, so until the next update — stay safe, and thank you so much for all your continued support.