Hey!

I've been to The Gambia twice in 3 years. The last trip in February, Gerard and I came across a community school which had been 'built' to reduce the 4 mile walk the children had to endure, twice daily, with some getting lost on their way.

They had no access to fresh water or sanitation. One small bucket of water was their supply for the day - for both drinking and cleaning. We wanted to change this so built a fresh water well on the school grounds and then designed and built a 3-cubicle toilet out-building so the children and teachers had access to sanitation facilities. We finished building the exterior compound walls and removed two enormous termite hills that blocked vehicle access to the school.

The existing breeze block school hut is not fit for purpose to teach up to 60 small children. The hut has a dirt floor, no windows and basic wooden benches for the children to sit on. A piece of crumbling wood is a makeshift blackboard, that rests on the floor. There are no desks, tables, books, pencils or toys.

The nursery yard is barren, covered in obstacle-like tree roots with two palm trees providing little shade for the children. The kids play with sticks and stones, old tyres and discarded plastic rubbish.

You and I have the capacity to help give these kids a better start to life. In Nov 2017 we plan to build a proper nursery school with decent facilities and a shaded school yard were they can learn through play.

On August 3rd/4th my friends Jacob Spence, Scott Hume, Neil Wilson and myself will be climbing the UK's 3 highest mountains (Ben Nevis 4,409ft / Scafell Pike 3209ft and Snowdon 3560ft high) within just 24hrs. We'll be managing the drive from Scotland to England to Wales too.

Please HELP us help these amazing kids. I can't unlearn what I saw out there, but with your help I can definitely make it better. Please give what you can and sponsor our climb. This one will hurt!

More project info - www.supportforthegambia.com