Background

Brikamedina is a village on the southern edge of the town of Brikama, which is itself some 15 miles south of Banjul. [MAP showing Brikamedina] Pippa and Ian first visited this school in February 2008. It is another village initiative and has been built on a small piece of ground belonging to the local mosque. The village elders and the Imam have decided to give the land for the school, so that is a very good start. At the time of the first visit, the building consisted of a shell of mud blocks, with holes for doors and windows and a corrugate roof. The floors of the two little classrooms, the tiny office and store room were sand. The mud block walls had no plaster in or out, so were at the mercy of the rain, if it should come down in force before any protective cement plaster had been applied.

When Tina and Pippa visited again in April 2008, they gave the school committee funds for rendering the outside and laying concrete floors before the rains came. This has been done, plus they have fitted a strong door on the office. They have started to build a veranda that will protect the building from surface water in the rainy season. Wandifa says that they have done really well, so Pageant has given them the remainder of the money raised for the school by several Horsham youth and school endeavours; namely 2 Brownie packs, 1 Beavers pack, Horsham Methodist Junior Church and the collection taken at Collyer's Founder's Day service. This should be enough to plaster the inside walls, fit classroom doors and all the windows, and hopefully finish the veranda.

The school committee sent us this email at the start of the work:

"The committee of the school and the entire community of the Medina Pipeline would like to thank Pageant for the wonderful package donated during the recent visit of Pippa and Tina. The said package was presented to the community last Sunday and the work on the building has started about three days ago. The children are asked to sit at home until Monday, hopefully the work on the floors will be completed by then. We wish to assure you that we will put the donation into good use. Thank you once again for this pleasant surprise and certainly will endeavour to make every single project a success. Once again our special thanks to all the wonderful members and supporters of Pageant, the true ambassadors of the children and the future of The Gambia."

Pageant's agent, Wandifa, took these photos to show us the progress that has been made with the first lot of money.

Update April 2009

The projects detailed above were all quickly completed to a good standard. Since, Pageant has funded internal plastering, painting, doors, windows, etc. and enough tables and chairs for both classrooms. In addition, we have donated uniform for all the children, as well as providing art and sports equipment. During a visit in April 2009 we had a special morning at the school, when our Pageant team sang songs, told stories and took all the chairs and tables outside so that the whole school could do some painting.