My close friend of 40 years David Wright recently made visits to The Gambia in December 2025 and February 2026 in his volunteering role for The Gambian Schools Trust, a small charity based in West Yorkshire. I am a regular supporter of David on his trips to The Gambia and when he told me all about what he was currently up to over there I was keen to get involved in the fundraising.

The recent trip for David once again centred around his current project which is helping and improving Conteh-Kunda Lower Basic school. The school is in a remote area approximately 5 hours drive from the coast, there is no electricity and what limited running water there was from a neighbouring village has now stopped. See pic of the children crowding around the tap which no longer provides water.

The fund raise for Phase 1 of the project which started in spring 2024 was very successful with around £15k in total raised across the team. This allowed David to transform the school from it's previously dilapidated state by:

- Replacing the severely damaged roof on the school and building external pillars to secure the roof to in an effort to avoid further storm damage to the roof

- Tiling the classroom floors and outdoor walkway

- Building a standalone classroom for Early Learning

- Painting the school buildings inside and out

Phase 2 of the fund raise which raised another £9k has recently successfully concluded allowing David to have built new sleeping quarters for the 7 teachers at the school. See picture of David standing proudly in front of the freshly painted sleeping quarters.

David is keen to push on to Phase 3 of this fund raise to provide a borehole for the school and village. See main picture of a borehole installed by the charity at another Gambian School, Jamwelli Lower Basic School. The cost of the borehole will be in the region of £7,500 and it goes without saying the benefit to the villagers and school children will be immense allowing them to grow their own fruit and vegetables as one of the key benefits.

You can read all about the great work of the Trust https://www.gambianschools.org/ led by Steve & Hilary Lawther, a retired but still hardworking couple who base themselves in The Gambia for six months of the year overseeing all the works undertaken by the charity. They have recently been awarded the MBE for their contribution to education in The Gambia which was well deserved.

Every year in October a 40 foot shipping container full of school stuff is shipped out there with a small team of volunteers visiting in February for a couple of weeks to help with building renovations and distribution of goods. David visits in the November prior, looking at the projects to be undertaken. All trips are totally self-funded.

Every penny raised will be spent in Gambia, no expenses/salaries whatsoever are paid by the charity to the Trustees or volunteers. The Charity having built 6 schools out of the ground plus several libraries, extensions and new classroom blocks has a regular team of local tradespeople who are paid direct by the Charity. As Steve & Hilary are based over there for half the year, funds are always tightly controlled and every penny accounted for.

If you are daring enough you could consider a trip to Gambia in support of the charity or alternatively volunteers October time are always needed for container loading in Bradford, tea and biscuits provided!

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