I know, I know I said I would do these blogs regularly and here I am almost a year on! However, I will definitely be trying to do a lot more! Firstly, I just want to say a massive massive thank you to every individual, business or family that has and continues to support me on this incredible but busy journey! I honestly never knew the scale this charity would grow to and continue to grow. The saying goes "don't run before you can walk"...I don't think the charity was aware of the saying as I'm constantly running and trying to catch up! As most of you might already know my name is Rebecca and I have some lovely trustees who back the work I do, but it is far from easy running a charity single handedly! It's long overdue now to take on some volunteers, both here in the UK and in The Gambia! If you've been wondering what's been happening recently here is a quick..and I mean quick overview. The community building centre is 95% complete (I still can't get my head around that!!), we have given out thousands of reusable nappies, baby and children's clothes, and hundreds of pairs of shoes! It isn't all about giving out clothes and cloth nappies though, I've held lots of talks to groups of women and girls about self-care, hygiene and giving out hampers to them, these hampers contain two reusable sanitary towels, soap, knickers, nail polish, toothbrush, toothpaste and a bra. I think its important I learn the local language but it's also super important they are learning the official language of their country which is English, so teaching this and seeing the massive development in this has been truly wonderful. Visiting the maternity hospital and giving out hampers as well as supporting them where needed, linking up with a school called 'Notre dame' has been incredible as we now support them with any needs that might arise as well as having 13 sponsored children at the school. The sponsors cover the children's school fees so they are able to attend the school...and wow...what a difference this has made! (let me know if you are interested in sponsoring a child!) We also want to get sewing materials in so the women and girls can make their own reusable sanitary towels, and people can come and mend any torn clothes. Our classroom is almost complete and now the big news...we want to build a nursery school!!! This will on the land we own and we have estimated this based on materials, how we want it, and labour etc to be £10,000!! We would love it if you got involved either coming out and helping to build/paint/teach or through financial donations! The donations you have all sent meant that 50 large laundry bags went out again in December! we have been sending off roughly 37-40 large bags every few months...however my flat looks like tx max so we've now invested into a storage unit which a business covers the cost for...this has now given me back my home! I wish I could put so much more here as so much has happened and what we're getting involved in that I think I need lots of shorter blogs! More coming..I promise!! For now..enjoy a sweet picture of some of my favourite people! Much love, Rebecca xx
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