JUST THE TWO OF US (and 7000 Gambians)

Just the two of us (and 7000 Gambians)

Walking with a guide in the jungle in The Gambia, West Africa, we casually asked, “where is that smoke coming from”? He replied, “That’s not a village we normally take people to visit.”. Well we decided we’d head there anyway and the path led us to Bafaluto, and a whole new venture in our lives.

The feeling of hopelessness was overwhelming and the poverty was unbelievable, very few chairs or tables. Makeshift beds in the mainly one room adobe mud brick houses, some of which didn’t survive the annual wet season. No furniture as we know it, not even a hook on the wall. Yet the villagers took us in, made us welcome and produced two dusty out-of-date bottles of orange juice... for free. We were moved by their generosity and the pride the women had in their houses..It was impossible not to think, “how can we help”? We decided we needed someone local to advise us and the next day at a school we visited we met Mr Momodou Joof who was about to retire and had a real interest in rural development. He has been “our man on the ground” for 9 years now. With Momodou we met the villagers a few days later and I insisted the women attend the meeting. They drew a series of boxes in the dust, each representing an idea of what the village might need, a clinic, a road, clean water, a nursery school, electricity, a market garden and so on. Using small stones every villager voted for what they wanted most. The pile for Clean Water was the biggest by far and a Market Garden was strongly supported by all the women.

We went off to get the prices and started to fundraise. In 2009 we opened Bafaluto’s Clean Water System with 11 Standpipes around the village. The ladies got their wish for a Market Garden, 5 acres fully fenced with shallow irrigation wells where some 50 families have their own vegetable plots.

The population is now up to nearly 2000 and when we were back in January 2018 we decided to help them extend the water distribution network. The villagers will dig the trenches and there is a planned maintenance programme funded by the villagers! Much of it coming from the sale of vegetables from their flourishing Market Garden. The entire project cost close to £50,000.00 stg and with solar panels the running costs for the Water System is Zero! If the sun shines the pump pumps.

This was the start and we have completed 6 villages with the next 5 on the North Bank of The Gambia. And we've got smarter! Now with just one borehole, one bank of solar panels, one submersible pump and one 25,000 litre storage tank feeding water to Two villages 4kms apart, MBullet Ba and Njongon completed in 2011.

We repeated this very efficient arrangement, letting gravity help to “push“ the water along, for a group of 3 villages Kerr Wally, Chessey and Ndofin, completed in 2015. These 2 boreholes very economically provide Clean Water for some 5,000 people.

The women in the villages tell me how it has changed their lives being able to turn on a tap, how they have more time for their children and their gardens and how the health of the children and themselves has improved every year. Technology had improved in the Gambia and they can now send pictures of work being completed and how the gardens are looking. We have developed bee keeping, and brick making and chicken breeding to add to their economic activities. We are delighted with all the projects being so successful and the younger generation in the villages are very active in ensuring everything is looked after and expanded. We only insist that every meeting and committee has to have women involved and voting.

This trip we met a group of women who set up The Girls Agenda in Gambia 7 years ago and they are articulate, passionate graduates of Gambian University who want to help the young girls in Gambia who have a difficult situation. They educate girls from rural towns and villages about FGM, human rights for women, domestic violence, early marriage and forced marriage. They have already spoken to over 10000 girls .They asked us for a centre to be built in Brikama to allow women to come for education, advice and if need be a residential safe space. Fortunately we now have a team of trained brick builders who will be able to build a centre. We were so moved by this group we are going to build the centre next instead of doing another water system, because we firmly believe and have seen the effect of supporting the women. This produces the greatest benefit in a society.

We fund raise from family and friends but more recently I run jewellry workshops teaching people how to make earrings and necklaces; my partner Brian does woodturning and we sell the lovely pens and bowls he makes .Plus we have a picture framing workshop and frame pictures ,prints, textiles and all the money goes to our account in Gambia to support our projects. Mr Joof is 69 now and we have developed a team of young men and women to look after each project for the future. The economic activities and the small payments for the water ensure a protected future without us.

Women do not want charity they just want a chance. Every time I visit it is humbling as to how they smile, laugh and dance when they have nothing. I am so grateful to have been born in Europe and we can learn a lot from them. This is the best thing we have ever done in our lives.and I would encourage every western women to do something for their counterparts in Africa.

You can read all about us on our website www.pingcharity.co.uk