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> Container for The Gambia - July 2009 |
Enough time has obviously lapsed since the
traumas of the last container, and on Tuesday 28 July 2009, a
Pageant team packed another container for The Gambia. This is now on
its way, this time to the Tilbury docks.
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the packing starts |
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This time we were given a considerable amount
of really first class book-shelving by pharmaceutical company
Novartis in Horsham, where
their library was being extended and upgraded.
A total of 37 bays of double-sided and 7 bays
of single-sided shelving (each bay being ~850mm long) was sent
out and will be shared between 2 Nursery schools, 3 Primary
schools and one Senior Secondary school. The photos show one
assembled bay and some of the shelving in store before being
packed. |
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One of the shelf units partly assembled >> |
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shelves, uprights and
backs before packing |
We also received a donation of a considerable
amount of classroom furniture (mainly chairs and tables) from
Southwater County Junior School, which will be shared between 3
Nursery schools and 3 Primary schools in The Gambia. One of the
Primary schools is dependant on the chairs and tables we have sent
them to enable them to enrol the next year's intake of children, as
no furniture is available to them from official sources. The photos
show the furniture being loaded - in all there were 136 tables, 270
chairs, 5 storage cabinets and a 3-drawer filing cabinet.
Other donations included school uniform,
sports clothes and equipment, clothing for men, women and
children, books, toys, tools and a large quantity of nails, all
of which will be shared between schools and village communities.
These were bagged and labelled in advance and then used to stuff
between the furniture to ensure a tightly packed container.
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the door is closed at
last |
team photo |
As ever, our grateful thanks go to our
packing team, all of whom were truly amazing. Team members are shown
in the last photo - from left to right, Brian, Andrew, Ian G, Sally,
Helen, Ian H, Tina, Craig, Joe, Emma, Demelza, the driver, Sue and
Ann, plus Robin and Sandra, who had to leave before the final photo
was taken, and Pippa (who took the photo).
This container will be
unpacked by a Gambian team led by Wandifa (see
account of its unloading), as we will not arrive in
The Gambia until some time later - we wish them well and hope to see
all the furniture in use during our next trip, planned for October.
We will be showing the schools how to assemble the shelving during
our visit.
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