Debbie Williams: FUNDRAISING FORTNIGHT Call Debbie on 07596 249987 or 01752 670858

Friday 5 November 2010

FUNDRAISING FORTNIGHT Call Debbie on 07596 249987 or 01752 670858

Hi everyone, today we have launched a two-week fundraiser to raise
money for Gambian Projects with three particular aims in mind:

1) Sponsorship of individual children. This will help children attend
school and pay for their uniform, exercise books pencils and a school
bag. Just £2 per month or £24 a year will fund this and sponsors will
be kept up to date with their child's progress, receiving news and
photos throughout the year.

2) Having a school lunch is a luxury for some village children, so we
want to ensure as many as possible can have one. Just 50p will feed a
child for a week so please consider this option when you donate. It's
awful visiting local schools and seeing some children eating and some
going hungry.

3) Our third aim is to raise funds to be able to ship out to The Gambia
all the items people are kindly donating to us on a daily basis. We
currently have lots of children's clothes, shoes, books and toys ready
to go. It costs £130 per cubic metre (actually quite a lot of boxes,
works out to about £15 per large box and does not depend on weight) to
send them via an excellent company called Wynot in Exeter. If we could
raise enough money we could send out another container which works out
to approximately £50 per cubic metre which is much cheaper but costs
about £2500 in total.

Any donations, even a few coins will help us to achieve these three
current aims and really do something concrete, visible and measurable
to help these wonderful children. I will be heading back to the Gambia
on 21st November, please help us to achieve our aims by doing something
really worthwhile today. Pick up the phone and call Debbie on 07596
249987 today. MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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Plymouth-born teacher Debbie Williams has given up her comfortable lifestyle to live in an African mud hut with no water, electricity or sanitation.

Debbie was born at her family home in North Hill and taught modern languages at schools in and around the city, becoming Head of Languages at Notre Dame.

For six years, she also owned a dress-hire business called One Night Stand.

Debbie said: “I had a good lifestyle: a house, a car, travel, money to spend on hairdos, pedicures, shoes, handbags and eating out six nights a week.

“But I was not able to have children, and had a dream of being surrounded by children and having a massive family.”

The trip that changed her life came in 2005 when she helped lead a trip to The Gambia with 16 Plymouth College students.

She was struck by the friendliness of the people and the poverty in which they lived: no modern facilities, insect bites and malaria, a lack of variety of food. She saw women carrying heavy pots of water on their head, and setting off for a day’s toil in the rice-fields with a baby strapped to their back.

But most of all, she realised how the people were held back by illiteracy and lack of education, and resolved to do what she could to help.

On the same trip to Kerewan Samba Sira, she met a builder called Modou Fatty, who was also involved in local projects; they fell in love and were married two years ago.

She was welcomed into his family, despite the fact they are Moslems and she is a practising Christian, and now she is a vital part of the big extended family she has always longed for.

Debbie said: “I am trying to improve literacy and numeracy in the village, which is still living in the 17th century.

“I know it’s only a drop in the ocean, but through education they can have the freedom to make choices and hope for the future.”

Debbie is trying to help in practical ways by building a classroom, a nursery and a library in two villages.

She is also providing sewing machines so women can start businesses, donating gardening equipment such as a tiller and a chainsaw and encouraging local people to set up small gardens where they can grow and sell banana plants.

In the coastal village of Mediana, 250km away, she has built a round hut for accommodation and a school costing £2,500.

She hopes it will become a base where students can come during their gap year to share their knowledge and skills with local people.

Meanwhile, in her home village of Kerewan Samba Sira, she is enjoying becoming a valued and respected member of the community.

Debbie said: “We in the educated West don’t realise how much we know, and people ask me for everything from medical advice to checking their homework.

“There are very few books here and little to read.”

Debbie’s husband speaks fluent English and three local languages, two of which she is learning – and though life is hard, there are compensations.

The lights fail when frequent petrol shortages mean the generator cannot run – but there is no rent to pay, no utility bills, no work treadmill and no stress.