Empower Samba Tako: Water for Work and Life

Ruaridh Sheppard is organizing this fundraiser.

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Empower Samba Tako: Water for Work and Life

Creating sustainable jobs for the Mother’s Club and safe ways of gathering water for children.

Ruaridh and Louise Sheppard are currently in The Gambia living with their Uncle Solomon, who is managing a project that they are fundraising for. Solomon made them aware about a village more inland in Gambia (where his cousin lives) which has been struggling due to having a limited water supply: Samba Tako. Samba Tako has two boreholes for water which are out of commission. The cropland borehole needs a new connecting lead, tower, and tank. The school borehole needs a sustainable pump machine. And the Mothers’ Club needs a new fence to protect their crops.

Repairing the cropland water system and fence would provide every woman in the Mothers' Club with work. Fixing the water system in the school would ensure that every child who attends the village school would have access to clean drinking water every day, which would be drawn from the ground in a non-life-threatening way. To be frank, this means that in a country where a steady income is hard to come by: women can access work by growing and selling produce, leading them to bringing home food to eat and money for their kids to go to a school in which their children can drink safe water.

And what happens if these appliances break again? We would propose seeding a maintenance fund, or pot, with any excess funds raised. Solomon (the project manager) had a great idea (as usual) to make sure that the fund is topped up and viable, so that the community can support themselves going forward. Each person who utilises the cropland’s borehole will have to pay a minimum of 50GMD (that’s 60p) fee per harvest. This money will be paid to the mothers’ club, which will have had a bank account set up for them, to be then paid into the ‘maintenance’ pot. Therefore, if any further repairs are required for the boreholes, the community will have access to the necessary funds.

We have worked out a target amount of £8520 (that’s 719,544.07 GMD) which will cover all materials, manpower, transport and exchange rate costs. Please see below for a full breakdown of costs.

Girls smiling from the broken water tower.

Ok, so that’s all the basic info you may need. Read ahead to find out a bit about us, our connection to The Gambia, the people we will be working with and most importantly: information about the people and community that your money could be strengthening.

A morning at Samba Tako

Not far off from the bumpy drive to Bansang, you’ll find an ‘off road and off grid’ village called Samba Tako: in the Central River Region of The Gambia. Solomon had told us about it, as he’d heard that their water supply wasn’t working in the way that it should. Six of us (that’s Lou, her cousin Harry and his girlfriend Amelia, Solomon, myself, and our driver Keba) squeezed out of the 40°C heat and into Keba’s five seater and 45°C car before hurtling up to the village. We thought that we’d be unexpected, however a group of women and some of their children were waiting for us, each of them grabbing and shaking each of our hands as we clambered out of the car. They were the Mothers’ Club, and their elder (Nenneh) led us up a path to a large tower, surrounded by leaked water and a dry, barren patch of land.

The Mothers' Club.

Walking across the barren garden.

Solomon translated for us as she explained that this used to be a working borehole and water tower. Currently, the connecting lead for the system is damaged, meaning only a very small amount of water can be drawn from the supply per use. The Mothers’ Club ran the cropland that once covered the area, and they would sell the produce that grew. Since the tank broke (with holes and leaks), and the connecting lead would only draw up a tiny amount of water, the garden dried up, and the women cannot grow any produce: they are now jobless. As well as this, the fence around the cropland has been destroyed: meaning that animals could easily access the cropland, leaving it bare. We walked through to the school, where there was a second borehole. It all seemed to be fine, however Nenneh told us that the school can’t draw any water from this tank at all, as the pump machine has broken.

Nenneh took us over to a well, and explained that this was where the village would currently get most of their water. The walls surrounding the well were extremely low, and we were told that children had fallen down the well whilst trying to get water for their families.

A note from the headteacher at the school: Mr Sanneh

“The school still needs a machine for the borehole and its metre to lift the water from the ground to fill the tank for easy access to clean and safe drinking water for the children. Still looking for support from you- thank!”

The well currently used for water supply.

We personally paid for a borehole specialist (previously used and always trusted by the family’s charity- scroll down to read their story) to travel down to Samba Tako: to check out what needed to be done and draw a quote up for us. He travelled there with Solomon, and came back to us straight away with the following breakdown of costs:

Cropland Borehole Materials 45000 GMD (£531.46)

Cropland Transport of Materials 3000 GMD (£35.43)

Cropland Fence Materials 361300 GMD (£4300.13)

School Borehole Materials 18000 GMD (£212.60)

Total Workmanship 219000 GMD (£2606.4)

We have taken into account inflation & exchange rate whilst calculating our crowdfunding target, so have added 10% onto our final figure. If we are fortunate enough to raise over the amount needed, the excess will be donated to the mothers’ club. Every penny (or dalasi) will be going to the people directly working on this project in The Gambia: neither my wife nor I will see a penny of it. Any expenses for running this project - from plane tickets to face paint bought to fundraise with - will be from our own pockets. We will not financially benefit in any way due to this crowdfunding.

The Mothers' Club, Uncle Solomon, Lou & Ruaridh standing in front of the cropland's broken water tower.

The cropland's broken fence.

The Gambia, Our Family, and Us.

I remember Lou telling me all about The Gambia, about the people there: how it was known as the “smiling coast”. She’d told me about the bread (tapalapa) and beans that I’d one day eat every morning for breakfast, surrounded by the steady buzz of birdsong. She’d also told me about her family, and how her Uncle Bubacar had met her Aunty Kate whilst she was on holiday one year. They first brought Lou out here when she was 9 with her siblings and mum and dad -Val and John- where she met Solomon (her uncle’s best friend, and a man who would become incredibly close to the family: helping them run many projects, managing a holiday home for them, even naming his son “Bubacar John”).

Uncle Bubacar and Aunty Kate founded a small charity in 2001: The Gambian Pencil Project

(Charity No. 1088420). Although a small charity, they had a huge impact in ways such as opening schools, funding children to get an education, and providing boreholes, water towers and a generator. The charity, after finding ways for these projects to be self-sustaining and permanent, is in the process of handing the projects over to be run by the communities that they support. After which the organisation will be closing, but the family behind it will still be there to guide and advise us throughout this process (one at which they have succeeded many times before).

A boy in Bansang showing the water before and after the charity built a borehole.

Lou and I are now in our 5th month of living in this beautiful country, as well as in our 6th month of marriage. We’re living with Solomon on a compound in Brufut. It’s, of course, amazing, and the area has been enriched in much of it’s education, healthcare and access to clean water due to many reasons- one of the main ones being tourism. According to The International Trade Administration, “Tourism is a crucial driver of growth. The Gambia Tourism Board stated … the industry contributes to 20 percent of GDP.” Solomon told us about Bansang, and Samba Tako, a place nearly 200 miles inland from Brufut. “Tourist’s don’t go there, so people struggle more” he said, after informing us about the surrounding villages. “People there don’t have water. If you don’t have water, you don’t live. Simple.”