“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for the day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Chinese proverb
After visiting the girl I sponsor in The Gambia, we set off to visit Lamin’s family who live just up the road, in a village on the outskirts of the large town of Brikama.
Lamin, was the headmaster of the school my sponsored child was going to the first time I visited The Gambia back in 2005. Even after she left to go to a school for older children, I carried on visiting this school and with some friends organised fund-raising events for the school and its pupils. This was done through a community group we formed called Nyodema. It was actually Lamin’s idea to call it this and it means ‘Helping each other’ in Mandinka the predominant tribe in Jeddah.
Sad news
Lamin’s dedication to the school, which he founded, has always impressed me, as did all the teachers. Recently the government took over the school and replaced both Lamin and all the existing teachers with new teachers who are better qualified. While I knew this might be better for the community in the long run, I felt terrible for Lamin and the teachers that had lost their jobs. They were all dedicated, hard-working people. Lamin was devastated.
Rather than give money to Lamin, that would soon be spent and gone, we wanted to think of a way that would really help him and his family in the long-term but we really weren’t sure how to go about this.
Binta, Lamin’s wife with two of their three children
Lamin was away when I recently visited The Gambia but I still went to see his wife, Binta, and their three young children, to see how they were managing. When we arrived it was wonderful to be greeted by numerous female relatives and their children. In particular, I was delighted when I realised that the twins (Lamin’s nieces) that I had first seen on a previous visit when they were just a month old, were the two little girls that were now grinning for my camera! So many young children in Africa never see their fifth birthday.
Lamin had been out of work for a few months now. Although he had members of his family nearby and the support and respect of the community, I knew that this is a very poor neighbourhood and it can’t have been easy. Binta looked so thin. I was worried about her and I asked her how they had been coping (bearing in mind that there’s no social service to fall back on in times of need). She explained how they collected firewood or made a local type of soap to sell, both jobs being long and laborious for little return.
The Gambian Community Stoves Initiative
When I visited Lamin’s family I took with me a gift of a new stove from the Community Stove Initiative. This is a project developed by Dick Sisman on behalf of The Gambia Experience. Dick is one of the travel industries main advisors on sustainable tourism. A new design of stove has been developed the benefits of which include:
- They use half the amount of charcoal that a standard stove uses
- Better still they can be run using alternative fuel such as briquettes made from peanut shells, a readily available waste product from the Gambian peanut industry. These are much cleaner and cheaper than traditional fuels
- They can be used indoors (especially useful) in the rainy season and produce less smoke thereby reducing respiratory and bronchial problems
- Through the use of alternative fuels such as the briquettes, deforestation, which is a big problem in The Gambia, is also reduced
Read more about Dick’s development of the project here.
Fanna, from the Community Stove Initiative demonstrates the best way to light the stove
As with my sponsored child’s family, when I arrived at Lamin’s compound I had a large sack of rice and one of these new stoves to give Binta. These have all been donated by Nyodema.
Three generations checking out the new stove design
Fanna, the Community Stove Initiative’s representative that had come with us, explained to Binta how to use the stove. We both noticed that all the ladies and even some of the children, were really interested and eagerly listened to all the advantages of this new design.
Like a jigsaw the pieces of the puzzle slot together
Currently as there are only these two stoves in the village no one will visit selling the briquettes that really make the stoves the most economical and eco-friendly, however, if there were more people wanting to buy the briquettes then someone from the village could become the agent to sell the briquettes, making themselves a small income.
Fanna explained that if we raise enough money for just 10 more stoves to donate to families in Jeddah, Lamin’s family, can become the agents for selling the briquettes. The stoves, with an initial supply of briquettes, cost just £20 each. This was exactly the kind of thing my friends and I had been trying to think of.
While I knew that giving Lamin’s family one of these new stoves would help his family save a little bit of money it had never crossed my mind that this would lead to a way to help the family in a much more long-term and sustainable manner.
Since my return to England Lamin has emailed me to let me know that his wife is really pleased with the new stove. Not only does it save the family money, it also saves Binta time and her baby is not bothered by the smoke that used to make him cry and cough until Lamin or one of the other children took him away. Lisa’s mum, also called Binta, has told Lamin that she is equally delighted with her new stove.
Nyodema is now raising funds to buy more stoves to help other families in Jeddah. This will also enable Lamin’s family to become the agents selling the briquettes there. We already have enough money to buy 4 more stoves. I can’t tell you how delighted I am about this. I’m grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat just thinking about it!
Find out how many more stoves we were able to buy when I returned to The Gambia a couple of months later in my post The Community Stove Initiative.
The drummers are really pleased to have been part of the fundraising for this & are hoping to raise more cash during the summer.
Really excited about this project & looking forward to going to Gambia with Kathryn later this month to give out the 20 more we’ve fund-raised for. I’m also getting one for our compound in Sanyang to spread a bit more interest & have earmarked one for Adja Daffy who cooks for our drum/dance workshops. Hoping we’ll be able to do a lot more fund-raising for this & also to apply the same kind of project to Guinea.
Hi Chris, Last night’s concert by The Nyodema Singers went really and we raised £280.66 (although I was so nervous in my solos that I could hardly breath let alone sing). That’s enough for another 14 stoves!!So that’s 19 plus the money you’ve raised. Fantastic!
Doles are neither sustainable nor appreciated in the longer term. It is always good to teach people how to earn their living rather than give them something that will be spent in a few days if not hours and then one is back to square one.
In that respect what you have done for Lamin is really great.
And there is another aspect to this that governments need to take note of. The government here took the easy way of disposing off Lamin and appointing new teachers who are probably in it for money only. If only the government had spent some time to train Lamin, they might have ended up with dedicated teachers who in my opinion are any day more useful for the society than more qualified teachers.
Hi Sanjeev, I think you might be right there and it did look like that might happen at one point but sadly it didn’t.
By the way we’ve now collected enough for 11 stoves and my goal is now 20! 🙂
Hi Kathryn, I like initiatives that help people help themselves instead of just doling out cash for short-term use. I very much like to donate for the stove initiative. I went to Nyodema website but can’t seem to find a link to donate for this cause. Can you please lead me to a link? Thank you.
Hi Marisol,
That would be very kind of you and I’d really appreciate it. You can donate to Nyodema via Paypal using our email nyodema07@yahoo.co.uk.
I’ve added this to our ‘contact us’ page.
Thank you so much for your support, Kathryn
So good to see help going directly to where it’s needed most. Well done Kathryn
Thank you Suzanne. I really do believe that every little helps and what may just be a drop in the ocean in the big scheme of things, is very real and important to the few you actually help.
You have done a good thing Kat. It is inspiring the way you have connected and are making a difference.
Thanks Anita. It is not uncommon for visitors to The Gambia to fall in love with the country and return time and time again. I’m very lucky to be able to do this through my work.
Hi Kat,
I have followed your articles on The Gambia with great interest! I think it is wonderful that you were able to take such a personal interest in this village and that it has continued over all these years. Providing the stoves is a terrific solution! So much money donated to large charities never seems to get where it is needed most – but this is a needed and useful item, not just money. Great story!
Thank you Deirdre. I am very lucky that I am in a position to visit The Gambia so easily (either on holiday or through work for The Gambia Experience). Plus it means I can show people first hand where their money is going which gives the people who have helped us raise the money a closer link with the community they are helping.
And thank you for reading about it. Lovely to hear from you.