Pageant News 8 October 2005 -
update 19 October 2005
For some time Pageant has been providing help for school and
village gardens in The Gambia in the form of packets of seeds and
also occasional
donations of money to buy tools such as watering cans, spades,
rakes, hoes etc. . The idea of combining this with
Harvest Festival was originally suggested by Mary Baker of the
Ladies' First Thursday Group, after a Pageant presentation to the
group at the Church Hall of St John the Baptist Church at Belmont,
Surrey last May.
The suggestion was warmly received by the Vicar, Mark Williams and
on Sunday 2 October the amazing total of 294 packets of vegetable seeds and
£386 in cash for garden tools was donated at the St John's Harvest
Festival.
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St John's Cub Scouts
with some of the seeds |
St John's Brownies |
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<< St John's Rainbows with
packets of seeds and their 'Seeds for Africa' poster
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We will be taking these seeds out during the next few weeks - this
is particularly good timing, as it is during this current term that
the children in The Gambia start to plant their school gardens, ready for
harvesting next term. These school gardens are a valuable resource -
not only are they used for teaching purposes, with each child having
a small patch of his/her own to tend, but much of the produce is
used in the school kitchens. Any surplus is sold, providing welcome
revenue for the school funds.
The village gardens are also in full swing at
this time of the year, as the rainy season is just ending and
attention will be turning from the rice and peanut crops in the
fields to the vegetable patches, rather resembling allotments, in
the villages. It is usually the women who tend these gardens and
they are often the only source of support that the family has.
We will update this page with pictures of the
gardens, both this term as they are being started off and next term
when we hope for some bumper crops
Read more about the
vegetable gardens
in Bakalarr.
Update 19 October 2005 - More Harvest
Festivals
The Rector of St Mary's Church, West
Horsley, Anthony Delaney was also enthusiastic about the idea
and St Mary's Harvest Festival, held on 9 October, brought donations
of 316 packets of seeds and £447.05 in cash.
Glenesk School in East Horsley has given us a further 322
packets of seeds - these were offered at the school's Harvest
Festival Service, which was held on 6 October.
On a smaller scale, but no less welcome, were
the seeds received from the 6th Horsham Beavers, following a
Pageant presentation at their meeting on 10 October.
In total, we have received 942 packets of
seeds and we will be taking all of them, and the money for tools,
out to The Gambia during the next few weeks.
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