About Us

The Marlborough Brandt Group (MBG) is one of the oldest community links in the world.  Set up in 1981, we connect the people of Marlborough and the surrounding area with the people of Gunjur ...

Become a Friend

Support us now as a friend Joining MBG as a friend couldn't be easier. Use the drop down to select which level of payment you would like to make, then click on the 'Become a Friend' button, which ...

Experience the REAL Gambia

WGEC runs an annual teachers' study visits to Gunjur, The Gambia and literally hundreds of teachers from Wiltshire and beyond have benefitted personally and professionally from the experience of ...

Projects

Vision: To support TARUD to alleviate poverty and hardship faced by the community of Gunjur In 1990 MBG started several development projects in Gunjur and the surrounding area based around health ...

Setting up School Links

Linking schools in Wiltshire (and beyond) with schools in the Gambia is at the heart of what we do at WGEC. For any school that has been involved at any level with school linking, whether with a ...

Small Business Development

In common with many international development agencies the focus of MBG and TARUD's work in Gunjur has focussed on women's development. We have been involved in a women's literacy and numeracy ...

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2019 St. James's place trips

Three groups from St. James's Place travelled to Gunjur in November to work with WasteAid on a DiFD funded project on plastic recycling.

Each group of 10 people, with two Venture Force leaders, spent a week living in Gunjur building a new office/changing rooms and factory site in the south-eastern part of Gunjur on the Sefo road. The light industry is piloting an appropriate technology to melt waste plastic and turn it into durable floor and ceiling tiles.  WasteAid is in the second year of the two year project to test the technology in the hope of taking it across Africa.  The project is lead on the ground by Babucarr E Camara.

The group also spent two days living with a local Gunjurian family spread out around the village.  Participants were aged 20 to 65 but all were active on the project working in unusually hot 35 degrees heat.

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2018 MBG Summer Trip

Students from St. John's Marlborough arrived in Gunjur on the 17th July for a three week stay as the 16th MBG Summer Group. 

View their video on YouTube here.

Interested in going? Find out more

The group lived in the Gunjur Multipurpose Community Centre in the middle of the village. This is the old MBG pre-school building. 

Their project was to build a new fence around the old Marlborough Garden, a 200mx150m area of land that has become overgrown with mango trees.  The group will reference the area to protect it from animals so that the village can then begin to clear the land for use.  The site will hold 200 allotments to allow women to grow food for their families and to sell.

Congratulations to the group on a fantastic trip.

View the group's presentation here.

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2018 St. James's place trips

Two groups from St. James's Place travelled to Gunjur in November to follow up on the work by the 2018 Summer Group.

Each group of 10 people, with two Venture Force leaders, spent a week living in Gunjur building a store and crop preparation unit at the revitalised Marlborough Garden.

The group also spent two days living with a local Gunjurian family spread out around the village.  Participants were aged 20 to 65 but all were active on the project working in 33 degrees heat.

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2018 Science Group

St. John’s Students travel to Gunjur on science trip with Raise Gambia.

A second group of St. John’s students and staff visited Gunjur in the Autumn half term staying at Halahin lodge.

The trip, organised by Steve Atyeo, with £1,500 support funding from MBG, saw 16 upper sixth form students work with local students on practical science lessons and experiments.

Raise Gambia supports a science lab and classroom in Sifoe (the next village to Gunjur) and in pairs then worked with five local students to deliver biology, chemistry and Physics experiments.  

The trip offers a very different kind of cultural visit to our traditional summer trip and building led trips.  This enables a wider range of young people to participate in these life changing experiences.

Based on the success of the trip Steve has secured it for a third year and is talking to a second interested school.

Find out more at www.raisegambia.co.uk