Gambian womens' Batik workshop is a huge success
Written by Learning Links Europe   
Friday, 06 February 2009 14:58
The first students of the Learning Links Europe funded Tie and Dye Batik Workshop in The Gambia have graduated this month. Through the charity Gardens for The Gambia, a UK-based charity which provides funds directly to a team in The Gambia for the provision of wells and irrigation systems, the year-long programme helped local Gambian women perfect the intricate art of Batik.

Gambian headmaster, Ismaila Sisay, comments: “The women have mastered the Batik technique and are now ready to become self-sufficient. They are each hoping to use their new talents to start their own small projects, helping them become independent and attract an income.

“We are very grateful for the support offered by Learning Links Europe, it is a delight to see that the team's commitment to training and up-skilling people stretches across the globe as far as The Gambia. Its help has made a huge difference to many lives.”

The charity's classroom and the development of its wells provide children in The Gambia the opportunity to learn to skills of sustainable agriculture. The vegetables they grow provide school dinner for the poorest children in school who would otherwise have nothing to eat all day, the surplus produce is sold and stationary and educational equipment is bought with the profit.

Learning Links Europe chief executive Anthony Mason explains more: “This is an exceptional charity, it combines education with on-the-ground support and is focussed on self-sufficiency and sustainability. It's an honour to be supporting such a worthwhile project.”

Ismaila Sisay explains more about the charity: “The gardens are planted rather like an English allotment. They grow all sorts of vegetables and salad vegetables. Usually the school also plants an orchard of citrus trees and walnut trees. Often pupils from the senior class of these primary schools will be made responsible for the health of their particular tree. They fence it to protect it from straying animals and they water it every day from the well.

“The wells are deliberately low technology, low budget. Basically they are circular holes dug down to the water table by hired well diggers. Usually we have to go down to about 16m. When the soil is very dry then the well has to be lined with concrete pipes. To keep the children safe a small wall is built around the well, and a rope and bucket is provided. Once the well is on stream then the headmaster of the school and the school committee are responsible for its maintenance.

“Each well costs an average of only £300 to dig. For this small sum a very poor school in one of the most impoverished countries in Africa is given a chance to feed the children and grow a cash crop. For some schools the experience has been transformational.”