LION |
NOTICES AND UPCOMING EVENTS
CLICK HERE FOR A DIARY OF UPCOMING EVENTS
It is with great sadness that we have to announce that "Lion", who was for three years the supreme champion at our show and who was a real credit to the family who owned him, died on Wednesday, February 1st, 21012, as a result of the dreadful neurological disease that we are trying to get to grips with. Lion worked hard, but was well cared for and well fed and his family genuinely cared for him, so much so that he is being buried within the family compound as a mark of respect. We have made a start on investigating this dreadful disease, with the help of the Universities of Liverpool and Glasgow, but if anyone knows of anyway we can find funding to take this research forward, we would love to hear from them. Our sympathies go to Lion's very special family. |
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If any of our supporters would like to visit us in The Gambia, it is now quite easy to do so. One of our past volunteers, Alex Coombes, has built a delightful little guest house a couple of kilometres from our centre. We are quite far off the beaten track and in the past it has been difficult for supporters to reach us and find accommodation. If you visit Alex's website you will see that she has good basic and clean accommodation at very reasonable prices and in an idyllic spot. During the tourist season (November -March) it is possible to get very reasonably priced flights through Gambia Experience and Thomas Cook. We look forward to seeing you!
Visit Alex's website, *Horicon Estate, or email her at Alex Coombes.
We are back from The Gambia and I would like to give my thanks to all the volunteers for their very hard work. Pat and Laura delivered the beautiful vehicle safely and poor Pat managed to get himself malaria for his efforts.
The Harris family ably assisted by Lynn, Toby, Pete and Mama Gambia transformed the clinic and Anna, Jen, Laura, Jo, Immie and Ellie, helped prepare for and run the show and unpack shipments. Thanks to nurses Keri and Jeanette for their skills with people and Sally, Nina, Stephany and Becky for their veterinary skills. The show ran like clockwork thanks to the help that we received. Special thanks must go to the men from the cavalry, Staff Sgt Jammeh and Chorr and Esso, who not only were a huge help, but also came to the rescue in our hour of need and bought much laughter.
Lastly thanks to the GHDT team who were fantastic! Thank you all very much indeed!
Best wishes to all for a very happy and peaceful Christmas.
Greetings!
Many of you will know that each December we hold our annual Gambia Horse and Donkey Show in The Gambia. The thinking behind the show is that we should reward the people who have taken the advice that we give and to encourage those who need a little more help with their working animals.
The show itself is used as an educational tool with the judges explaining why they have chosen their winners, the vets on duty providing help, advice and treatment to any animals that need it. Equine dentists and farriers are also on duty to help and our loyal volunteers are on hand to fit headcollars and bits and bridles which are all given free of charge on show day. Helpful hints such as advice to wear reflective clothing when driving the animals at night being given at regular intervals over the loud speakers.
The show is a time for everyone to learn through fun and enjoyment. It is televised and radio journalists are there so that the messages we send out reach the owners of working animals all over the country.
We give out big prizes in Gambian terms, the proud winners receive large rosettes and cash prizes as well as trophies. We want them to know how much we appreciate their efforts.
We are seeking help with raising the funds to cover the costs of the show and wondered if you know of any company or organisation who might consider sponsoring a class, or if through holding a small fundraising event you might be able to sponsor it yourself?
The cost of sponsoring a class is £70 but any donation to help with the prizes would be gratefully accepted.
I appreciate that we are living in hard times, but if everyone who receives this message were to give just £1, we would be able to cover this years show.
Thank you for your time.
Best wishes
Heather
UK TO THE GAMBIA - YOU TUBE BLOGS
We are extremely grateful to vets Patrick Sells and Laura Heaps, who came up with the idea to drive a vehicle to The Gambia for us. For more information please read the write up below.
Pat has been keeping a blog of their progress. To access all the blogs please type 'patthevet' into the search field on You Tube.
For the latest blog click *here.
 Click on image to view larger version |
We now have a lovely little ‘read and colour’ donkey book which will go out to as many of the school children in our area as possible and hopefully in the future, if funding permits, every child will receive one when they go to school. Big thanks must go to Mary May and her son in law Greg, who put the book together and to David and Sue Hewittson-Brown who also helped with the logistics. I know a lot of people gave their help and advice with the book, and to everyone involved, we would like to give our thanks. The book is also available to buy online from the GHDT website shop page and would make a delightful Christmas gift for a child. |
Many thanks to those individuals and businesses who sponsored a class. For a list click **here.
For anyone wanting to go on an extra special riding holiday in Africa, we can highly recommend *Mozambique Horse Safari. Mandy and Pat go above and beyond the call of duty for their horses. To read a Guardian article about Mozambique Horse Safari, click *here.
Many thanks to the people who have sent us reflective jackets, they have been a great help.
We recently launched a campaign to encourage all horse and donkey drivers to wear reflective jackets at night and to put reflectors on their carts to try and reduce the alarming accident rate for night time drivers. The uptake has been incredible and we are fast running out of reflective jackets. If you know of any companies, councils, airports, police forces, fire brigades, Rotarians who use them and who may be getting rid of their old ones, please could you tell them that we can give them a very good and useful home. Alternatively you may be able to put a notice in your local parish or community magazine for us. Such a simple thing, but it really does save lives.
This is a plea for help. The economic recession is causing difficulties for everyone, which makes it all the harder for me to contact you regarding fundraising. Small charities are feeling the pinch and we are no exception.
We have not been around long enough to build up huge reserves or to benefit from legacies so we don’t have much to fall back on in troubled times. I would like to ask anyone who may be able to afford it to consider taking out a standing order with us for whatever amount is affordable to them, however small. Knowing how much money is coming in helps us to budget. Forms can be downloaded from the website or by contacting me (Heather Armstrong) directly. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who do have a standing order with us, they have been a great help and their support is much appreciated.
If you like what we do but are not in a position to be able to help us financially, I wonder if you might consider going to *Simply Fundraising and taking one of their Top up cards which would enable you to help us at NO COST to yourself. You simply put your monthly budget into the card and spend it, the merchants with whom you spend it will then give us 3% of all you spend. If enough people were to do this there is a possibility of raising a fair amount of money each month.
Other ways of helping may be to hold fundraising events. These can be great fun, for example we are organising a series of sponsored dog walks at Halloween all over the country. If you felt that you may be able to hold one in your area, we would gladly send you posters and suggestions for a successful walk.
Annual Show - We are beginning to make preparations for our annual horse and donkey show, this will be the fourth that we have held and the improvements year on year have been good to see. If anyone or any company would like to sponsor a class we would be very grateful. It costs £70 to sponsor a class, which enable the winners to have cash prizes up to 6th place. If you prefer you may like to provide a trophy or sponsor the cost of the rosettes.
As a charity we manage to get a lot done with comparatively little money. Only our Gambian staff receive salaries, all other work is carried out by volunteers. I can honestly say that the work we do changes lives for the better, both for the animals and the humans, so if you would consider helping us, it may mean the difference between continued progress in The Gambia for the animals and their owners or the closure of the charity.
Thank you for your time, we would be very grateful for any help you could give us.
THE PLAYGROUND
December 2009 - Our valiant volunteers built the most beautiful playground at the school in memory of our late Imaam and Stella Marsden. Alphajio and Stella were both anxious to develop our village school into one of the best in The Gambia and between us all we shall make sure that their hopes and plans for the school are fulfilled.
The adventure playground is one that any school anywhere in the world would be proud of and the children loved it.
Thanks to everyone who took part, whether it was in the planning, preparation or the building of it.
APPEAL FOR EQUINE FIRST AID SUPPLIES
We will be arranging a shipment out to the Gambia soon, and will also be organising a trip out there with various equine experts in December. There are some really bad cases of disease and injury at the moment and treatment of such cases is expensive for us, so we are hoping to ship donated first aid supplies and also take as much as we can in December too. So with this in mind, I was wondering if anyone can help with donating any equine first aid supplies. In particular, we are in desperate need of:
Vet wrap
Bandages
Dressings
Wormers (paste)
Hibiscrub
Iodine/pevideneIf you have any supplies that you can spare, we would be very grateful, even if its just one bandage, or a couple of dressings, it all helps!
Please send any items to:
The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust
Brewery Arms Cottage
Stane Street
Ockley
Surrey
RH5 5TH
Telephone: 01306 627568
Email: Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust
ANIMAL CARE GAMBIA
For those animal lovers amongst you who visit The Gambia, I am pleased to tell you that there is now an additional charity which compliments the sterling work carried out by GambiCats - Animal Care Gambia was recently started by a group of resident ladies and it is already doing a good job with the many stray dogs in The Gambia.
For further details, please visit their *website.
SUPPLIES NEEDED
One of the vets who returned from a recent visit to The Gambia has highlighted the following things that we desperately need. If you could please bring it to the attention of any vets/equine dentists/supply companies that you may know, who may be able to help, we would be extremely grateful. Obviously POM drugs would have to be given via our veterinary surgeons in UK
Syringes
Scalpels
Bandage materials
Blades for rasps
Examination gloves
Sterile saline (Hartmanns) and giving sets
Iodine and hibiscrub
Duphacycline spray
Eye meds
Finadyne
Antibiotic
Cotton Wool
Gamgee
Vetwrap bandages
Crepe bandages
STELLA MARSDEN
To read Tributes to Stella, from around the world, please click HERE.
JUSTGIVING.COM
We’ve teamed up with Justgiving.com, the UK’s leading online fundraising website, so you can donate and raise funds for the GHDT online.
Using Justgiving saves us costs and reduces our admin burden, so going online is by far the most efficient way of supporting us. It’s easy to make a single or monthly donation with a credit or debit card online:
All you need to do is click here.
Justgiving reclaims Gift Aid automatically and pays your donation directly to us at the end of every week, and the site is secure.
Justgiving also makes it easy to raise money: you can create an online fundraising page in minutes to collect donations for any sponsored event or appeal.
You can create your own for any event here.
Fundraising pages are just like paper sponsorship forms, except they’re online. Simply personalise your page with a photo and message and email the web address to all your contacts. Friends, family, work colleagues and anyone else, from anywhere in the world, can then make a donation using your page.
You can create a fundraising page for absolutely anything. You could get sponsored to run, swim, cycle, get fit, grow a moustache or have your head shaved. The only limit is your imagination.
If you have any questions, or need any help, you can contact the Justgiving helpdesk on 0845 021 2110 or email Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm.
SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS
If anyone has a particularly good relationship with their vet, we were wondering if you could ask them if they have any surgical instruments that they no longer use please? With our expanding training scheme for veterinary assistants, we are looking for instruments to enable us to teach them simple surgical procedures
JOIN OUR EMAIL MAILING LIST
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If you would like to apply to join the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust email list for immediate news news and merchandise updates, please submit your name and email address to Liz Serinken. |
There is no fee to join the email list and the details you provide will not be passed on to a third party.
If you are unable to access the Gambia Trust Yahoo Group, please contact Liz for instructions.
eBAY FOR CHARITY
The GHDT is now fundraising with eBay for Charity - visit our 'About My Charity' Page. Details are also available on our 'How You Can Help' page.
** PDF FORMS
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To view the PDF files, you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader, free of charge from Adobe's website, if you haven't already done so. You can print the files from the Acrobat reader. |
*The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust is not responsible for the content and reliability of external websites
This page was updated on Saturday, February 04, 2012
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