Author: Girls Take Action In The Gambia

Today we have been for a walk to the local fishing village. Fishing is one of the main industries in this part of The Gambia. They catch yellow tailed mullet and sea snails.   Dried fish In the smoke house Fishing boats We planted some trees to give much needed shade and some tomatoes in the local Women's Association garden.     Carrying water from the well We also gave the Gunjur...

Today we had a group of local teenage girls come to see us at Gunjur Project. We ran 2 peer education sessions with them, firstly on self esteem, then on menstrual hygiene. It was a really successful and rewarding session. As they were leaving, they were telling our Gambian guide Alagi how much they'd enjoyed it and they were going to stick all the positive words about themselves by their bed....

At the end of Scout and Guide camp, our Gambian hosts put on a grand display with lots of marching and music. It is an impressive sight to see and hear and they had spent a lot of time practising.   Leaders pictures with Gambian Girl Guide Leaders and Scout Leaders The Scouts marching band We were so proud to see the Guides had formed a band and they looked so smart in their Uniform which...

We had 4 different topics at day 2 of scout & guide camp: water sanitation & hygiene, campfire cooking, craft, then for the 4th session we split the groups into male and female. The boys did traditional tracking signs, whilst the girls did a session on menstrual hygiene. We are grateful to Earthwise Girls for supporting us with a generous discount on their reusable sanitary pads, so...

We had 4 topics at day 1 of scout & guide camp: teamwork, knotting, science and a skills challenge. We had around 85 young people with us - they seem to have enjoyed themselves with all our activities!   Testing reaction times in the Science session Learning how to make coasters using decorative knots One of the skills challenges Science session More photos: Gambia 2015 Album on Flickr

We've had a cultural day today - we spent the morning at the craft market in Brikama and this afternoon we've learnt African drumming & dancing. The tailor made came to measure up for items of clothing African Drumming African Dancing More photos: Gambia 2015 Album on Flickr

This evening we are having some local teenagers entertaining us. They are putting on a play (about teenage pregnancy) and are reading us some poetry. Some of the girls in the group have come early and Sue, Cat and Lucy are spending some time with them trying to build their self confidence to help them deliver their poems better.

We've spent our morning at Gunjur high school doing a 'science made fun' workshop, put together by our team's toxicologist Laura. We had 5 bases: nature, senses, space, forces, chemistry - the students were all from the science & maths club and they were able to try each base.  They only ever get to learn theory, so they loved the chance to do some practical work. We've left a lot of our...

Whilst some of our group were learning about Gambian cookery, the rest of us were able to try Batik.  We made patterns and designs on cotton bags using hot wax - some us added sand for extra texture. Then the bags were dipped in dye.  Once the dye had taken, the bags were put in boiling water to melt the wax, then hung out to dry. After a few hours drying in the sun, they looked really pretty!...

Some of us spent an afternoon at the compound of Omar, one of the staff at the Gunjur Project. The group were learning a traditional Gambian dish which is about one pot cooking.  The dish contained fish (yellow tailed mullet), crushed peanuts, chilli, stock, bitter yellow tomato and rice.  It took us ages to pick the bones out of the fish!  The final dish was very tasty!   More photos:...