Latest news - many of you will already know that Afrikaya is now the proud owner of land in The Gambia on which we will build a nursery school to serve the local community. Despite the floods last month, Afrikaya's little piece of Africa escaped the worst of them. The Afrikaya trustees are now putting a hugh effort into raising enough money by June 2011 to build the school.
The journey so far:
February 2007: we (Geoff and Di) went to The Gambia to train with djembe fula, Lebon Traore, and his UK business partner Mike Armstrong. Whilst there, we met an inspirational man, called Kebba Jaina, and his family of dancers and drummers from the cutural group Nimba. Kebba was concerned that the children of the Gambia are still under-educated, living in poverty and turning to drugs. His hero, Nelson Mandela, said that the only way out of poverty is through education. There is no state education in the Gambia for children under 8. So Kebba started a nursery school. He rented a building but was continually displaced as landlords found they could rent to others for more money.
We asked what we could do to help. Kebba asked for more benches for the children to sit on. Even if they had no building for the school, at least the could sit under a mango tree. Returning to the UK, we raised enough money.
February 2008: we arranged for benches to be made and presented to the Kebba and his students. Along with pencils and text books.
Kebba said that his main dream was to have a building which belonged to the school. Just 2 classrooms and a store room. Geoff and Di agreed that they would 'see what they could do to raise money' to fulfill Kebba's dream.
Summer 2008: Geoff and Di received the sad news that Kebba had died. The plan was that his dream would live on through his nephew who had taken over the school. A good and trusted friend in The Gambia, Alimamo Cessay, checked out the situation and reported that all seemed above board. We decided to go ahead with applying to the Charity Commission for Afrikaya to become registed as a charity. 2 friends, Pauline McCrann and Roz Bradley Sylvester, both drummers in the UK, agreed to join us as trustees.
February 2009: The trustees visited The Gambia again. Met the nephew, saw the 'school', and decided that they would continue to support Kebba's vision. The local community held a street party in our honour. Words are inadequate to express how each of us felt.
February 2010: We returned to The Gambia with the intention of buying land. Things went drastically wrong. Rather than burden you with all the details, suffice to say, Kebba's nephew and Afrikaya parted company. Another 4 trustees came on board: Helen and Sanjeen Payne Kumar, Tracey Roberts and Kathryn Creed.
August 2010: Afrikaya bought a plot of land 30m by 60m in a different community in The Gambia; engaged the pro bono services of 2 amazing trainee architects (Jack Munro and Yashin Kemel); appointed 3 Gambia trustees; began phase 2 of fund raising - to raise enough to build the school. Fund raising will include - Climb Kilimanjaro - see afrikaya.co.uk for details.
November 2010: 3 of us return to The Gambia to meet with the community, the elders, the Gambian trustees, the lawyer, the Ministry of Education - and to work and have fun with our friends, the musicians of Kotu.
Great first blog, well done.
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