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A
one week only visit to Gambia to join the charity of Castellan West
African Trust, with whom we are merged two years ago, served to enable me
to visit the village of Bwiam
that CWAT support.
Led
by the Chairman of CWAT Mr. David Goss and his wife Jules along with the
Chairman of GETsuk Mr. Francis Glynn, I travelled along with a GETSuk
volunteer and 16 CWAT volunteers.
| We were warmly
welcomed by the villagers and spent two days meeting the children
sponsored by the volunteers, distributing gifts and sponsorship
monies for the forthcoming year's school fees, visiting the local
hospital for an arranged women’s health advice session delivered
by two doctors in our group and seeing the progress of the ladies'
farm served by the wells enabled by CWAT. |
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We also visited a nearby
village to inspect a rice/couscous machine which it is planned to
purchase for the village – with GETSuk volunteer Mrs. Joyce
Turner having already raised £2,714 towards its purchase price. |
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Returning to the
coast I was able to again visit the Busambala site where it is intended to
build The Sunrise Centre - a school to service children from 3 to
university level alongside mixed facilities to support the villagers and a
swimming pool to enable children to learn to swim – to reduce the
appalling numbers of Gambia children who drown each year.
The
facilities will also provide accommodation for volunteers, opportunities
for tourist to visit the site and thus become encouraged to support the
development of the project and the children both financially and by
volunteering their expertise in the many areas of assistance that will be
required over the ensuing years as the project expands.
Current
legal arrangements and planning issues are underway and a full report will
be delivered by the Chairman of GETSuk at our Annual General Meeting on
August 22nd 2009 in Shrewsbury. It is hoped many of our
volunteers and those of CWAT will be able to join us this year.
Julie Limbrick.
Secretary of Gambia Education and Teaching Support (GETSuk.)
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