Our team upcountry has been involved in the areas of health, education, and environment while living and praying for transformation in a village at the eastern end of the country for the past 20+ years. Currently they are focusing on vocational training and tree planting alongside passionate prayers to see ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done’ in the hearts and minds of this people group.
Fighting Erosion
With the rampant and devastating mass cutting of trees for foreign export across Gambia and Senegal over the last 8 years or so much of our beautiful ‘bush’ and countryside is being depleted and eroded. Added to that, the sharp increase in development and construction seemingly everywhere, our crops and rains are being affected.
But there is hope…
A small group of village men, originally led by our team but now largely in the hands of the men themselves, have raised from seed and planted well over 1,000 indigenous trees in the areas surrounding our village location. A large part of the work is protecting the trees- from animals, and fire, but also from people! Wood is in high demand here for firewood, fencing, furniture and for roofing construction, so part of what the group do is to deliberately plant a new tree in a white protector right next to an illegally felled tree, to help people think about the effects of their actions.
Fabrication Workshop
Apprentices are trained in welding and fabrication on site. Jobs vary widely and provide experience with local farming equipment, making precision equipment such as CSEB presses for more environmentally friendly building blocks, and increasingly working on roofs, which ties in with the environmental issues we are facing.
Roofing
A steel roofing structure can rival the cost of a wood structure, and far outlive it, protecting the few remaining timber trees in the bush, and at the same time providing more safe and durable housing. A unique, affordable sub structure using girders fabricated from re-bar is constructed and topped off with aluzinc roofing sheets.
Tree Protectors
It is here in the workshop that they produce the all- important tree protectors for the trees which are planted out by the tree group. They are available for sale to the public, and used by the tree group, financed by their business of importing and selling goods from Europe.
One Person, One Tree
This local initiative was established as a response to the mindset that there’s nothing that ordinary Gambians can do to improve their environment or fight erosion.
Everybody is encouraged to plant and protect one tree, placed in a public area. Rewards are given to those who successfully carry this out, as well as the feeling of pride and hope. The feeling of powerlessness is replaced by a feeling of accomplishment and influence, and hope for a better future for the next generation.
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