Who we are

The Marlborough Brandt Group is a community based charity that supports the partnership link between Marlborough, Wiltshire and Gunjur, The Gambia. The link is founded on mutual learning through reciprocal visits, development and business skills programmes in The Gambia and education in the Marlborough area.  We work with partner charities and NGOs including Gambia run TARUD and Gunjur Community Link in Gunjur.

We have been running since 1981 and now support a range of organisations operating in the Gunjur area to deliver development, health, inclusion, employment and education programmes as well as working in the UK to educate and provide the opportunity for people in the Marlborough area to travel to and experience community life in Gunjur.

Find out more about our work in our latest annual report and other publications here

If you would like to donate to support our work just send us a donation.  Membership of MBG is £40 a year.

Make your donation go further with Gift Aid 

Remember to Gift Aid your donation. If you are a UK tax payer you can Gift Aid your donations, making them worth 25% more to us, at no extra cost to you! We can claim back the tax you have paid on your donation (25p for every £1 you donate) through Gift Aid.

In order for us to claim gift aid, please complete the Gift Aid Declaration Form and email back to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Covid-19 response - MBG response

In addition to the over £10,000 of match funding MBG has given from the donations, we have also looked to distribute funds to support both on the ground responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and also to help secure the stability and futures of our partner charities working in the Gunjur area, many of whom come from the 39 year Marlborough-Gunjur link.   

Disability Africa
£10,000 donated to Disability Africa to support their core costs.  We are delighted to say that St. James's Place Charitable Foundation and Bilal Patel of Think Wealth Limited have both also donated £10,000 to specifically support the work of Disability Afirca in Gunjur, securing the future of the fantasic disability centre there.  £30,000 in all. 

Gunjur Project
£1,000 in support of the amazing work being doing by everyone at the Gunjur Project Association and lodge.  They have raised over £10,000 and a re focusing their efforts on the Kajabang area of Gunjur made up of around 175 compounds, 2,000 people.  Find out more about their Covid-19 repsonse here.  https://www.facebook.com/GunjurProject/

Gunjur Development Association
£1,000 to support of teh GDA to distribute food around Gunjur.  There is a more detailed update on the MBG homepage and Gunjur Online News.

Other partners
We have also brought forward our 2020 payments to our charity partners regarless of the time frames that their work would usually be planned for including £2,500 for Thriving Through Venture and £3,500 for Project Gambia.  

Covid-19 appeal

MBG established a community fund offering to match fund all donations up to £20,000. Please contribute to support our Emergency Fund set up to support the poorest members of the Gunjur community who will suffer greatly as a result of the COVID-9 pandemic.

UPDATE: over £22,900 riased, 468 families supported

Thank you to the many people who have donated to support this emergency fund. Over £22,900 has been raised so far, amazing. Through our Gambian NGO partner TARUD 893 bags of rice have been distributed to 468 of the most vunerable and marginalised familes in Gunjur.  The two bags of rice will feed a family compond for two months preventing hunger and financial pressure while global supply chains and food prices are so variable. 

Read our latest Annual Report for a full update.

Baai Jabang, Director of TARUD, the Gunjur deveopment agency we set up in 1997 reports:

"At the start of May there have only been eleven reported cases of coronavirus in The Gambia and one death, but the land and sea border with Senegal is extremely porous and there have been many more cases in that country, 1024 with 9 deaths. There is also a very limmited ability to test for the virus.  The outlook for The Gambia is not good.

"The Gambian Government has demanded the appropriate measures of lockdown, hand washing and keeping one’s distance from other people. But in country with large families living together in small compounds, often without piped water, the water having to be fetched either from a nearby tap or well, and in a community where social gatherings and five times daily communal prayers at the Mosques in Gunjur are all the norm, it is difficult and often impractible to persuade people to lockdown and keep their distance from friends and extended family in neighbouring compounds.

"Food supplies are becoming limited and of course it is the poorest who suffer most. 25 years ago 80% of the rice consumed in The Gambia was ‘home grown’. Climate change has meant less rainfall and therefore a requirement for irrigation. But the combination of the reduced amount of rain and with sea levels rising, this has resulted in salination of the Gambia river a further 50 miles upstream. The river bisects the whole country and was a vital source of water for crops in neighbouring fields, but that salt water cannot now be used to irrigate crops.

"CRITICAL

"More than 80% of Gambian staple food (Rice) is imported from other countries hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Food reserves in the Gambia are sufficient for not more than 6 months or even less. This situation may plunge the country into hunger and chaos in search of survival options. Food prices are already rising fast hitting the poorest in the community.

"A seven member task force representing the Alkali and the council of elders, the Village Development Committee, Linking Without Boarders, Gunjur Development Association and TARUD is responsible for assessing abject poor families and ranking them based on the levels of poverty: ability and frequency of buying a bag of rice, daily ration purchase - per cup buying from the shop and how often is this done, the ability to provide minimum of two square meals per day, family or household head - M/F, family size, means of living, other livelihood activities, sources of income if any and other measure of variables." 

Read Baai Jabang's detailed report on the second food distribution here.

FOOD DISTRIBUTION

Two food distrubtions have taken place, covered by Gambian local and national media / TV.  The lorry below was just half the rice distributed. 

TARUD has also distributed bucket pumps, soap and some sanizers to be distributed to strategic locations in Gunjur including the health centre, market and other areas.

Update your MBG contact information

The law on data protection has changed. 

Please update your contact informtion with MBG here. 

We will send you emails about our charity work and events, about once a month, and, if you want, post you a copy of our Annual Report and information about our AGM once a year.

Thank you