FROM THE GRYPHON TO THE GAMBIA

Imogen Kimber & Olympia Pudelko, Gryphon Sixth-Form

It’s an exciting time for us as we prepare to head out to The Gambia in February half-term. We are doing this as part of our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, to volunteer with the Lisa Kent Trust. This small organisation is a UK-based registered charity dedicated to providing the children of The Gambia with the education they need for a brighter future, not just for themselves but to develop their own local communities. The Trust has been working to deliver quality education to children and young people in deprived communities of The Gambia since 2001 and we are very proud to be a small part of the work they do.

The Lisa Kent Trust owns and manages two purpose-built schools in areas of educational demand and provides education to in excess of 600 children at any one time. They have developed a team of experienced Gambian teachers and support staff and supplement this with one or two volunteer trips per year such as ours to help with logistics.

We are working with a small group of students from all over the UK and also from The Gambia itself. Our trip, which is already paid for, will see us carrying out several activities such as volunteering in classrooms, supporting a school trip to the local monkey rescue centre, helping at a medical centre clinic during an antenatal clinic and assisting with small projects, such as sorting out the new resources for the school library and building a sandpit for the nursery class.

Our aim is to raise greater awareness of this charity and ultimately encourage as much support as possible. Every donation however big or small really makes a difference directly on the ground.

73% of the population in The Gambia live under the poverty line and by helping even a little bit we can make a difference. The impact this small charity has is immense in the area it operates. Not only do they support the children in their education but also work with local and national Gambian industries to provide and encourage employment experience and job opportunities as they leave. The schools themselves provide local employment opportunities not just in education but also for local trades and suppliers. They try to buy locally to support the local economy wherever they can. Through the provision of education, the charity aims to develop individuals who can join the country’s economy to not only support themselves and their families but also the development of The Gambia, eventually taking away the country’s reliance on overseas aid.

The schools are embedded in their communities and we are very much looking forward to immersing ourselves in Gambian life. As there are so many children wanting to be educated, the schools run two school days in one, with the younger children coming for a 5-hour day in the morning and the older children coming in the afternoon. We are particularly looking forward to helping in the classrooms with the children’s learning of English and also helping organise sports and art activities for a variety of age groups.

The charity also provides opportunities for the community to develop as a whole and they provide community education as well, for example, they have provided first aid and sexual health workshops. They have recently been encouraging families to move away from wood fires for cooking to using safer stoves. Not only do these reduce the risk of burns but also they mean cleaner air in their homes. We are very much looking forward to seeing this initiative in action and experiencing some traditional Gambian cooking.

In addition, many of the children are sponsored or supported through a scholarship scheme by generous donors from the UK and overseas. The charity has a YouTube video which is well worth a view, to explain more about the opportunities it provides. You can view it at youtu.be/4CNVPgyhX5w

We are asking the lovely people of Sherborne to help us support this charity. If you would like to, you can do so by donating online at gofund.me/dc060b99. All donations will go directly to the charity.

For more information on the Lisa Kent Trust visit lisakenttrust.org