News Archive October - December 2013

14 October 2013 - Chestnut Grove Comedy Evening - The Comedy Evening was a huge success, and raised a lot of money for Pageant and the village building project in Cambodia. [more on this news page]

News Archive July - September 2013

21 September 2013 - Comedy Evening at Chestnut Grove - Chestnut Grove Academy in Balham, South London are holding a Comedy Benefit Evening at 7:30pm on Friday 11 October. Tickets are on sale at the school for £15. The line up includes Arthur Smith, Kevin Day, Ivo Graham and Suzi Ruffell. Proceeds will be split between Pageant and a village building project in Cambodia. [more information]

25 August 2013 - Packing a container for The Gambia - On 23 August, a team of volunteers loaded a shipping container with a huge assortment of things for The Gambia - office & classroom furniture, books and lots of other goodies. Read all about it and see the photos.

14 August 2013 - Aid for Bongo-Bongo Land - There seems to be a mood in the UK to question the amount of aid that is sent to developing countries. An extreme example is a British politician talking about 'Bongo-Bongo Land' where aid is supposedly used to buy "Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris..." As we know at Pageant, the truth is very different, Please read this letter published in yesterday's Guardian newspaper which tells what really happens.

23 July 2013 - Pageant summer party 2013 - Pageant held its annual summer get-together on Sunday 14 July. It was the biggest so far with around 70 members attending. A splendid lunch was enjoyed in superb summer weather. Gambian knick-knacks were on sale, and as usual there was a raffle. Altogether we raised £455 for our work in The Gambia. [more details]

News Archive April - June 2013

27 May 2013 - Bishops Waltham Junior School Worldclass Fayre - The 2013 Fayre took place at BWJS on 20th & 21st May. The children raised an amazing total of over £500, which will be used to help Abuko Lower Basic School in The Gambia. [See Pippa's report]

16 May 2013 - Two New Ethical Gifts - Pageant's list of Ethical Gifts now includes a solar powered scientific calculator for senior students and a set of buckets for carrying water into vegetable gardens to irrigate the plants. See our complete list of gifts for more details.

27 April 2013 - CH visit - newspaper article - The Horsham local newspaper, the West Sussex County Times, published this article on 21 April, describing the visit of the Christ's Hospital team to The Gambia in February.

16 April 2013 - New Pageant Loan Scheme - Our latest Loan Scheme is now up and running in Siffoe.
[see details]

15 April 2013 - Pageant's April visit to The Gambia - A Pageant team visited The Gambia for their regular April visit. They visited schools and villages and checked on how Pageant's sponsored children were progressing. Frances and Pippa posted their news on the Pageant News Blog, and managed daily updates, in spite of unreliable internet access. We have collected all their posts on this web page.

News Archive January - March 2013

24 February 2013 - Microscopy Wokshops - Latest News - The Microscopy Workshops at Gambia College have finished and some of the Pageant team have returned to the UK. Problems with internet access meant that they couldn't update the Pageant Blog. But Kathy has now posted her latest news, which we have copied onto this web page.

13 February 2013 - Pageant's February visit to The Gambia - Once again a team from Pageant is in The Gambia, visiting schools, checking up on Pageant projects and also running two Microscopy Workshops. There will also be four Christ's Hospital students with their own programme. We are hoping for lots of posts from people taking part in this visit, and all of these will be collected onto this web page.

6 February 2013 - Mali in better times - Pageant has benefitted from sponsorship raised by a number of teams driving the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge. In 2007, one of these teams Shap Ahoy took part in a preliminary expedition before setting up of the new Bamako Challenge. Tim Lovatt and Nick Capron drove from the UK to Bamako, Timbuktu and many other places in Mali. Their story is detailed in a set of Pageant web pages which you can read here. They liked the people and country so much that in 2008 they drove to Timbuktu again. You can read here about this second trip. With Mali now in the news for all the wrong reasons, it is good to read their accounts and see their photos of this fascinating country. (Please note these are archived pages, so a lot of the external links no longer work)

4 February 2013 - CH visit to The Gambia Four students from Christ's Hospital (CH) will be accompanying Pippa & Ian to the Gambia on their regular February visit to The Gambia. They have an ambitious programme of activities planned, and we hope for regular reports on our News Blog. We are collecting all their posts onto this web page.

31 January 2013 - Photos of SHM Solar Pump System - We now have some photos of the solar cells, battery and inverter for the water pump at SHM Nursery in Gunjur. [see the photos]

29 January 2013 - infocus article 2012 Workshops We have a copy of the article written by Kathy and Pippa for the RMS 'infocus' magazine. [read the article]

21 January 2013 - Video of Pageant in The Gambia Frances Boswell has uploaded a marvellous video to Youtube, which shows some of the things Pageant does in The Gambia. [view the video]

9 January 2013 - Appeal to re-bore Bakalarr School well - Pageant is trying to raise £2050 to re-bore the well at Bakalarr School, and install a water storage tank, so that their vegetable garden can flourish once again. [see details]

5 January 2013 - Solar Pump Appeal  - In June last year, we launched an appeal to pay for the installation of a solar powered pump to raise water from a borehole at Sheik Hatab Memorial Nursery School (SHM Nursery) in the village of Gunjur. Our target was £1025, and we managed to raise £622. See this page for more details.

Gavin Sandison had raised £785 in sponsorship for his run in the 2012 New Forest Half Marathon [see details]. Gavin generously suggested that some of this should be used to make up the shortfall in the pump appeal, and Pageant were able to send enough money to get the pump installed. The pump was working in November 2012, it has since been supplying water for the school.

 A New Appeal - We are now in the process of setting up a new appeal to raise £2050 to re-bore a well which supplies the vegetable gardens at Bakalarr school. The £395 left in Gavin's sponsorship fund will be used to kick start this appeal, and we hope to announce further details shortly. You can see details of Bakalarr's vegetable gardens on this set of pages.

4 January 2013 - Pageant on Twitter - Pageant now has a Twitter account [see this link] We will use this mainly for quick links to news stories.

News Archive October - December 2012

20 December 2012 - Taking Stock of the Pageant Website - As 2012 draws to a close, we consider how the website should evolve, and ask for your feedback. more details

16 November 2012 - Pageant launches its 2013 Calendar - Our first calendar is no longer available.

2 October 2012 - Guardian Launches Africa Network The UK's Guardian newspaper has just launched its Guardian Africa Network. This is a blog featuring news and comment from and about Africa, in collaboration with many independent websites and solo bloggers. There will also be contributions from the Guardian's own correspondents and regional experts.

1 October 2012 - Photos of Gavin's Half Marathon - We now have some photos of the New Forest Half Marathon, including Gavin Sandison after finishing it. See Gavin's web page

News Archive July - September 2012

 27 September 2012 - Update on 1/2 marathon & triathlon - Gavin Sandison completed the New Forest Half Marathon in a time of 91mins 33secs, and has so far raised a total of £625 for Pageant. See more details on Gavin's web page. Tim & Laurence Dobie completed the London Triathlon in times of 2hrs 52mins and 2hrs 43mins respectively. To date, Team Dobie has raised £929.38 for Pageant. See more details on the Team Dobie web page.

On the day of the races, Pippa wrote on the Pageant Blog: "I felt that I must say a personal heartfelt thank-you to all three young men - Gavin, Tim and Laurence - who did so much today in support of Pageant. Your efforts will be enormously appreciated by our students and schools in The Gambia - we find that these Gambian people are always amazed that people such as you, who have never met them, nor even been to their country, should spend so much time and effort to raise money on their behalf. So, as they would say, 'A baraka bak' and 'Jere jef' to you all."

6 September 2012 - Update from Gunjur - Sue & Phil Taylor send a consignment of furniture to Gunjur Lower Basic School. Read more on Sue & Phil's Page.

4 September 2012 - Sponsor Tim and Laurence in the London Triathlon - The London Triathlon takes place on Sunday 23 September at the Excel arena in East London, with a 1.5km swim in the docks, 40km cycle and a 10km run. Brothers Tim & Laurence Dobie will be undertaking this grueling event, trying to raise £700 for Pageant. They now have their own Team Dobie Page on the Pageant website, or you can go straight to their Virgin Money Giving page to make a donation to help them reach their target.

30 August 2012 - Harvest Festivals - Gambia Food Crisis - Seed Collection - During 2011-2012, a prolonged drought throughout West Africa has caused serious crop failures. Our friends in The Gambia are now suffering a food crisis, with severe shortages and high prices. Crop failures also mean there is a lack of seeds for planting in the coming season. We are asking anyone who is associated with a Harvest Festival to collect packets of seeds, which Pageant will take to The Gambia this autumn.
See this page for more details.

6 August 2012 - Pageant's Sports Day in Gunjur See our Facebook page for a video of Pageant's first ever sports day in The Gambia. [link to video]

4 August 2012 - Gavin Sandison is running the New Forest Half Marathon on 23rd September 2012, raising money for Pageant. Please help Pageant by sponsoring Gavin. See this page for more details.

News Archive April - June 2012

16 June 2012 - New Appeal for Solar Powered Water Pump - Following on from our incredibly successful appeal to replace the collapsed water tower at SHM Nursery, we are launching a new appeal to install and environmentally friendly solar powered pump to fill the tank from the schools borehole. Our target is £1025, the appeal has been kick-started with £315 left over from the water tower appeal.
[more info]

13 June 2012 - Member's Get-together & Big Summer Raffle - Pageant's summer get-together for members will be on 1 July. As usual we will be having a raffle with some magnificent prizes, but this year we are inviting members who cannot attend to participate in the raffle. [more info]

10 June 2012 - Water Tower Appeal Exceeds Target - We raised over £720 for the SHM water tower appeal, more than our revised target of £655. The tank has been installed, the water supply is back and 160 three to six year old children can now get back to their lessons. Surplus donations will be carried forward to our next appeal, which will be to help Ahmed install a solar powered pump to fill the tank from the schools borehole. Watch this space for news of the solar pump appeal. [read the full story]

6 June 2012 -  Whipton Barton Junior School raise £410 for water tower - [more info]

4 June 2012 - New water tank installed - [more info]

31 May 2012 - Water Tower Update - Ahmed  Manjang tells us that the tank and its new support frame have been delivered, and he hopes to have the water supply restored by the end of this week, so that the school can re-open.  [more info]

26 May 2012 - Water Tower Appeal Update - Children at Sandcross Primary School in Reigate raised £192.60 by baking and selling cakes. Year six pupils at at Whipton Barton Junior School in Exeter will be running stalls at the school's Diamond Jubilee picnic on 1 June to raise money for the appeal. [more info]

12 May 2012 - Urgent Appeal for New Water Tower - The water tower at SHM Nursery in Gunjur has collapsed, and the school has had to close until it can be replaced and the water supply restored. Please help us with a donation to replace the tank. [Further information here]

29 April 2012 - Gambia Food Crisis - A drought covering much of west Africa during the 2011-12 growing season has resulted in a 70% reduction in Gambian crop yields, and an emergency has been declared.
[ more info ]

19 April 2012 - World Malaria Day - 25 April is World Malaria Day, when we should all focus on the fight to eliminate malaria. Read about the latest developments.

18 April 2012 - Distribution of mosquito nets - 64 sets of mosquito nets were distributed by Pageant in upriver villages of Jarreng and Kanikunda. See our news page

15 April 2012 - Blog posts from The Gambia - The Pageant team have returned from two weeks in The Gambia, where they visited schools and villages, and giving some 'fun' lessons to nursery children. Frances kept us up to date with daily posts on The Pageant News Blog. For your convenience, we have collected all these posts on this web page.

News Archive January - March 2012

29 March 2012 - It's Official! - Sarah Hayes finally gets certificate from Guinness World Records for the "Fastest marathon dressed as a bottle (female)". [more info]

29 March 2012 - Pound a Day - nearly £600 has been raised by Frances and Rachel. They are now off to The Gambia with lots of goodies for their 'fun' classes for nursery kids. [more info]

14 March 2012 - New Ethical Gift - Productivity of village vegetable gardens can be greatly increased by the appropriate use of fertilizer. We have a new ethical gift of a 50kg bag of fertilizer, which can be shared between many gardeners. (see our list of gifts)

12 March 2012 - Pound a Day - This is the week! - Frances and Rachel will be attempting to live on £1 a day from today until Friday 16, to raise funds for their teaching trip to The Gambia.
(more information and sponsorship link)

11 March 2012 - Microscopy & Science Workshops Update - Chris Robertson's report on the Waves topic is now published. (see report)

9 March 2012 - Wordsmiths Wanted - Your Chance To Write A Short Story - Pageant is now working with Julie Laslett and Caroline Webster, who recently ran one-day workshops in the Gambia on ‘Creative Writing’. Via this website, we hope to build up a story bank of short, fictional stories, which can be used by teachers in The Gambia. To find out more and learn how you can get involved, please click here.

8 March 2012 - Newspaper report on Pageant Workshops - Horsham newspaper 'The Resident' has a report in its current edition about Collyer's part in the Pageant workshops. This can be read in their online edition by following this link.

7 March 2012 - A Pound a Day - A Pageant team are off to The Gambia in April, and will visit three nursery schools to take some fun lessons in art, English and sports. Frances and Rachel are raising funds to buy materials for their fun classes. As a challenge, they will try to eat and drink for less than £1 a day during the working week. (more information and sponsorship link)

2 March 2012 - Microscopy & Science Workshops Update - Our Workshops 2012 Page now has subsidiary pages with reports about Microscopy, Electricity and Chemistry.

9 February 2012 - Microscopy & Science Workshops - Chris Robertson is one of the Pageant team running these workshops in The Gambia, and he is posting regular updates on our  Pageant News Blog. For your convenience we are collecting his posts on this page as soon as they appear on the blog.

7 February 2012 - Brighton Teachers in The Gambia Tom Kimber a teacher at Westdene Primary School in Brighton has organised a group of teachers on a week-long visit to Albion Lower Basic School in Banjul in the February half-term break. This will allow the two schools to further strengthen their relationship, and lead to significant learning opportunities for both Westdene and Albion pupils. (see news page)

2 February 2012 - Science and Microscopy Workshops Pageant's Science and Microscopy Workshops will be starting in The Gambia in a few days time (see details). Pippa is already there, and the other members of the team are flying out soon. Chris Robertson will be keeping us up to date with news by posting to the Pageant News Blog. See his first post now: Day -4.

24 January 2012 - Artemisia Ambassador Pageant has appointed Lamin Njie as 'Artemisia Ambassador'. Following training at Gambia's National Agricultural Research Institute, he will tour The Gambia providing training and support to help village communities grow and use their own crops of Artemisia annua - a plant with proven anti-malarial activity.  (more about the Artemisia Project)

4 January 2012 - News from Sheik Hatab Memorial Nursery School - Ahmed's feeding program and a new classroom.

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