Pageant members Brenda and Keith Farrington have taken a particular interest in several schools in Banjul. One of these is Crab Island Upper Basic School, which is located just south of the centre of Banjul, on the river side of the peninsula [MAP]. It was opened in 1958 and provides education for children aged 13 to 16 (Grades 7 to 9). Brenda and Keith have been visiting this school for a number of years, and have helped to set up a computer lab, woodwork and metalwork rooms, a home economic centre and a technical drawing classroom. Keith's professional background is in computers and engineering, and his expertise and dedication have been a great help to improving the technical status of the school. Pippa and Ian Howard have also visited several times, and there are a number of Pageant sponsored pupils at the school.

October 2003 - Crab Island UBS computer room

The pictures below show the computer room in October 2003. This was set up with help from Brenda and Keith, so that pupils could learn basic computer skills. In December 2003 Pageant supplied them with some more computers which had been donated by Oxford Instruments.

November 2005 - Pageant's visit

In November 2005, Pippa and Ian visited the school again, and met the newly appointed Headmistress, Mrs Admire Loum. She took them to see the two newly completed computer rooms, the results of Keith Farrington's efforts. Both rooms were completely networked and connected to the Internet. The children were doing some real computer studies, and the school now had something to be really proud of. Much of the credit was due to the head teacher, who insisted that the donated equipment was used properly and networks installed. She was ably assisted by the newly appointed Computing Assistant, pictured below, who not only kept the computers running properly, but also prepared lessons and worksheets for the children's classes.

February 2006 - computers, woodwork and metalwork rooms

Pippa and Ian visited again in February 2006, and as well as looking again at the computer rooms, they inspected the metalwork and woodwork rooms - another aspect of Brenda and Keith's help for this school.

March 2006 - update on progress & computer club visits

Brenda and Keith Farrington visited the school in March 2006 to see progress with the computer lab, woodwork and metalwork rooms, and the home economic centre. The computer tutor, Mr Sillah had started a computer club in the school and nearly two hundred students were members. The aim of the club is to give the students awareness of the world of Information Technology. The club had been on several excursions to places like Gambia Telecommunications Company (Gamtel) and Quantum net, and the members were very impressed with the information obtained from the computer experts.

February 2007 - technical drawing room

Keith Farrington, his friends and colleagues have spent a lot of time, energy and money in fitting out a really good technical drawing classroom at Crab Island. They tracked down and sourced all the equipment and shipped it to The Gambia during 2006. The classroom is now fully functional, as can be seen in the pictures below sent to Keith by the Headteacher, Mrs Admire Loum, in February 2007. Pageant would like to say a big thank-you to Keith and all those who helped him with this very large project.