Evan and Connor are raising money for We Are Mad 4 Africa

Focus of our Work

Our main objectives for the year continue to be the development of the school in Farato, the finishing of a clinic, also in Farato, and providing a secure compound for agriculture in Farato and Suwareh. The strategies we used to meet these objectives included:

Working in partnership with our key Gambian contact, Mamadi Keta;

Sourcing materials locally while also supporting the local economy;

Providing working parties from the UK to aid in construction projects;

Raising adequate funds in the UK in order to allow our objectives to be met.

The nursery school in Farato continues to be the most prominent achievement for the Charity which supports three separate classrooms for different stages of education, supported by qualified teachers who are partly remunerated through Charity funds. A new Primary school is now under way to allow transition from nursery to main stream education.

One of the key aims of the Charity is to educate the children in the Farato area so they are then able to fulfil the necessary Government requirements to qualify for further education. The Charity aims to provide these children with opportunities that they would not otherwise be in a position to receive.

The medical clinic is still a ??work in progress?? with the main structure completed. The aim is that all the locals in the area will be able to benefit from this facility as, when fully fitted out and inspected, the Government will send out a qualified doctor on a weekly basis to tend to the sick. Current facilities in the vicinity are out of reach of the locals due to distance. Therefore, the benefits of having such a facility should improve the quality of life and life expectancy of the Farato villagers.

The agricultural land in in Suwareh has now been successfully secured and the villagers are now growing a wide range of crops for their personal use and also to trade with other local communities. This supports our aim of providing a sustainable infrastructure and this has been achieved through this particular initiative.

In addition, 10,000 sq.m. of land has been secured in Farato for the Women??s Agriculture project which allows up to 100 women to grow vegetables to support their families. Two wells and a store have recently been added to the project as well as having fenced off land to keep wildlife and roaming animals out.