Running 300 miles to build a Children's School in Kerr Layen

Kerr Layen is a village in The Gambia (West Africa). It's a remote village, 5 hours drive from Banjul Airport. Over the past 4 years, my friend Lee Glasgow and Bryan Osborne supported this Village of 1300 people, firstly with a supply of rice, then purchasing various trees including groundnuts, so in the future they would have a better chance to be self sufficient with growing their own crop, then having their own water supply...and the list expands...Lee has been talking about this project with me on our runs recently...I got passionate in wanting to help!

That brings us to our current project, to help build a School for the beautiful children of Kerr Layen and raise funds to support their education.

Lee and I are now commiting to be running The Gambia river distance which is about 300 miles (rain or shine) to encourage our lovely donors to follow our journey, mainly for selfish reasons. We are essentially saving our own lives from developing bad health due to over indulgence...Meanwhile, perhaps save some children's future by helping educate them on how to become self sufficient and give them a chance of a better life. Sounds like a sweet deal to us!

We couldn't have started any of this without the support of Mr Samba our Kerr Layen headteacher of this future school, who is now project managing the build and making arrangements on that end of the world while we are raising the funds and the support from our Facebook community which we are eternally grateful for.

Many thanks to the Hinckley Running Club of which I am a proud member (T-shirts featuring in this video and photo below) and all of you! We will be keeping you updated on the developments of this little project. Seeing these children in their classrooms by the end of the year will bring tears of joy in our eyes. And for them, this is a life changing goal!

Please enjoy the video Lee and his 80 year old mum filmed when they visited in November 2023. They shall be going out again before the end of 2024. They have proven that a few people can make a huge difference in the lives of others. Their journey which I am now also wholeheartedly involved in gives me such joy and purpose, which is why I am setting this GoFundMe page.

We would be honoured if you could join us. The children of Kerr Layen will talk about this for years to come.

Please follow the Journey on instagram, #africanvillagedream