Projects
Since 2017 MBG has has focussed on linking trips and achieving its development objectives through giving grants to the many other charities that now operate in Gunjur thanks to the link. To learn more about our previous and ongoing projects, please read our annual reports here.
TARUD Pre-School and Women’s and Children’s Health
In 1990 MBG started several development projects in Gunjur and the surrounding area based around health education, literacy, water, business education, micro-finance and a pre-school programme. Since 1998 the development programme has been managed by the Trust Agency for Rural Development (TARUD) and receives ongoing support from MBG.
MBG currently supports TARUD with management and maintenance funds connected to a £10,000 per annum multi-year heath project from St. James’s Place. These funds were focused on supporting the village during the Covid-19 pandemic, but since 2021 funds have been able to go to the original plan of supporting women’s and children’s health. The Gunjur Health Promotion Project aims to contribute in reducing micronutrient deficiency levels such as iron, zinc, vitamins A & C and other essential nutrients required for growth and development of children under 5.
The primary focus of health education projects has been getting information into the community on how to combat the common health problems faced in West Africa, including:
Malaria
HIV/AIDS
Tuberculosis
Childhood illnesses
Family planning
Poor nutrition
A significant proportion of the Gambian population are illiterate which means that traditional printed methods of communication such as poster campaigns have historically been ineffective. For a number of years puppetry and drama groups have been used by TARUD to spread key health messages to the wider community. Travelling Puppet Shows and Womens' Drama Groups have performed all over The Gambia, visiting village centres and clinics, and giving regular TV and radio appearances.
MBG and TARUD have always adopted an integrated programmatic approach to development, recognising that above all else, education is a precursor to development. Since 2004 TARUD pre-school has provided an invaluable education for 300 pre-school (3-7 years old) children annually prior to moving on to primary school. The TARUD pre-school has six classrooms (originally built by students from Marlborough), toilets, hall, playground and flourishing garden that provides extra food for the children. A water pump provides water from a well to three taps. Thanks to help from the wonderful Dutch Happy Gunjur Foundation, a meal is provided at lunchtime.
TARUD and three other pre-schools formed the Gunjur Pre-School Group, and together they created the first curriculum written by teachers for pre-school children in The Gambia. The curriculum was viewed by both Gambia College and the Regional Education Department who sought to use it for teacher training and for wider use across The Gambia.
Disability Africa, Gunjur Inclusion Project
The Marlborough Brandt Group first introduced Disability Africa (DA) to Gunjur in 2011. Disability Africa support disabled children in Africa, who are some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people on our planet due to the stigma of disability and negative traditional beliefs. Disabled children may not be known to the world outside of their homes, confined to single rooms, left behind. They suffer comprehensive deprivation of a normal childhood; social interaction, exclusion from education, lack access to basic medical care and are even deprived of food.
The Gunjur Inclusion Project supports disabled children in Gunjur and the surrounding areas, where there are at least 1,500 disabled young people. Our mission is to find them, bring them out of isolation and into a loving environment, and support them and their families, while in the process creating an inclusive community.
Since 2019, MBG has provided grants to DA to run playschemes in communities across Kombo South including central Gunjur. Playschemes prove to be an inexpensive approach which enable DA to raise awareness of the rights and needs of disabled children while developing and delivering services to meet their needs.
Read more about Disability Africa’s work in Gunjur here.
Project Gambia
Project Gambia is a small charity which has been operating in the preschools in Gunjur since 2003. They support and work alongside the teachers of five preschools in Gunjur helping them to give their children basic education whilst learning through play.
Since 2019, MBG has provided teacher training funding ensuring a consistent and reliable source of long- term professional skills development. MBG has also made grants to support the infrastructure in the preschools, including to renovate and rebuild the toilets and provide hand washing facilities to everyone.
To read more about Project Gambia please click here.
Raise Gambia
Raise Gambia was set up in The Gambia in 2011 as one of nine Science for Africa projects established in Africa by the UK based Institute of Physics. In 2015 the IOP ceased funding the project and in 2017 Raise Gambia established as an independent charity, with its aim to enhance the teaching and learning of science in Gambian schools by promoting the use of practical experiments in the classroom, something that is currently rare.
MBG has supported Raise Gambia by providing grants for the science lab in Sifoe just West of Gunjur for several years. In 2022 MBG supported a summer school for Senior Secondary School students in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The pilot programme was a success and MBG made a further grant for the 2023 summer school.
BEREEL (Building Empowerment: Rural Economic Engagement in Life)
BEREEL is a charity endeavouring to support sustained economic development at the micro, grass roots level in rural communities in The Gambia. Their formal purpose is the prevention or relief of poverty in The Gambia by assisting through the provision of education and training, and the necessary support to enable individuals to generate sustainable income and be self- sufficient.
BEREEL is delivering two to three micro-business training workshops per year with up to 30 participants on each. They emphasise inclusivity and fair representation of the community on the programme with an open welcome to different religious groups, tribal affiliations, gender, educational background, disability and other marginalised groups.
Read the 2021-2023 impact report here.
VIBE Challenge / WasteAid
A group of Year 10 boys from Pewsey Vale School in Wiltshire won a competition with their inspiring idea to make roof tiles from recycled plastic bags in Gunjur. This inspired WasteAid’s 2018 two-year plastics recycling programme in Gunjur, working with TARUD. The project captured plastic waste from Gunjur and turned it into useful products, including low-cost, durable paving tiles, to stop it reaching the ocean. UKAid funding ended in 2020, however in a joint agreement between WasteAid, MBG and St. James’s Place, funding was agreed for two more years until 2022.