Author: Girls Take Action

There are around 70 women who are part of a group running a community garden. This afternoon they invited us to help them plant some pepper seedlings and water them. It's their tradition to return home after working in the garden by singing and dancing all down the path. This is quite something to be part of and the whole group loved it!    

Today we have been painting at the medical post. We chose to paint a mural about hand washing.  

We started today with a walk down to the beach to watch the sunrise. There were lots of fisherman bringing in their morning catch. This morning we visited the craft market which was filled with wood carvings, jewellery and drums. Everyone bought something to take home! We also visted a shop selling colourful African fabric (watch this space!).   This afternoon we took part in a dancing and...

We had our final day with the 100 scouts & guides today. They really appreciated all the workshops we did for them. They did a big parade for us with their band marching & playing. We gave the scout & guide leaders lots of resources from Girlguiding and WAGGGS. They had no resources at all before. The local guides didn't have any uniform so we paid to have 50 made and they were ready...

Last night we had a campfire with the Gunjur Guides and Scouts. There was lots of singing and dancing!  

Today we have been running sessions with the local guides and scouts on a range of topics including compass skills, backwoods cooking, climate change, water hygiene and sanitation, advocacy and the rights of the child. We were welcomed with the scouts' marching band! Tonight we are having a big campfire.    

This afternoon we were shown around Gunjur village. We saw the main well where the villagers collect their water. Then we visited a blacksmith who showed us how he makes silver jewellery. We went to visit a compound which is typical of how Gambian people live. Lots of people live in the same building - several generations of the same family. It was really interesting to see. All along the visit...

This morning we went on an environmental walk, where we learnt about the project to protect a local nature reserve. A group of mainly volunteers, supported by the Gunjur Project, have been successful in re- establishing many species of Gambian animals and plants. We saw lots of different birds, learnt about a variety of trees, sampled some strange fruit and saw 3 crocodiles on the far side of the...

  This afternoon a group of local teenagers took us for a walk around the local village. It was so interesting - we went through the village and saw people's houses and saw some ladies making soap. Then we went down to the beach where there are hundreds of fishing boats and racks of fish drying as far as the eye can see. The area is clearly very poor and it was humbling to see how people...

We had a great morning at the science & maths club. We ran 2 peer education sessions - 1 on climate change and 1 on water sanitation and hygiene. We had around 24 young people in each session.   The young people loved it and especially loved playing splat and dancing the hokey cokey!