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The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust
Fighting Poverty- Feeding Families
Registered Charity No. 1096814

Summer Newsletter 2009

Achieving Goals

The increasing number of supporters who visit us in Sambel Kunda know that 'Horse and Donkey' works very closely with several other initiatives which were set up by our co founder, Stella Brewer Marsden. Since Stella's untimely death last year, we have worked even more closely with them to ensure that Stella's vision continues.

The last two years have been seen great strides with the charity thanks to your help. Sometimes when one is in the midst of it and busy keeping the ball rolling it can be hard to truly appreciate just how much has been achieved. The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust were amongst the first organizations to join the Make Poverty History coalition which, through its campaigning led to the Millennium Development Goals which are international targets for the reduction of global poverty by 2015.

I recently came across them and compared our achievements in Sambel Kunda with what had been set out and I hope that you will agree that together we should all be justifiably proud of what has been achieved.

The Millennium Goals are:

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Our work in increasing the productivity of the animals and increasing the income of the farmers is helping to achieve this.

  2. Achieve universal primary education Through the work of the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Trust's school sponsorship scheme and Stella's networking, Sambel Kunda now has a newly rebuilt Primary School with solar power (thanks to Strathclyde University) and access to the internet. The school roll has increased from 90 to over 400 pupils. Horse and Donkey teaches animal welfare and management in this school and 9 others.

  3. Promote gender equality and empower women We have the newly built skills centre for women in the village which was a collaborative effort with Glasgow University students and Future in our Hands (a Swedish charity.) The village ladies have learnt to make soap, tie dye, beautiful bags out of recycled materials and lovely Fula bead necklaces. Horse and Donkey are selling these for the ladies on their stands at Hickstead and they will soon be available via our website.

  4. Reduce child mortality of under fives by 2/3 The Alexander Edwards Village Clinic which was another of Stella's initiatives, was built in Memory of Alex with funds raised by his parents. It not only holds ante and post natal clinics but is also able to monitor maternal health.

  5. Improve maternal health as above

  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Recently Horse and Donkey supporter Ros Harris and her family raised money to purchase 300 mosquito nets for the aged, the pregnant women and the children of the villages surrounding us. The clinic provides community health care and first aid provision to 8 villages.

  7. Ensure environmental sustainability What is more environmentally sustainable than a horse or a donkey?

  8. Develop a global partnership for development In the last year Horse and Donkey has played host to over 100 visitors. These have included nurses, teachers, engineers, veterinarians, trainers, students and Rotarians all working together for the good of our communities. They have come from all over the world: if that is not developing a global partnership for development, what is?

Lollipop and Welcome

The work we do is full of highs and lows and the last 6 months have been especially full. Each animal that comes in to us touches us in some way. Some, like Lazarus, make such a huge impression that a Charity is born but with each new patient, we learn more and some make a significant difference to what we do.

In August 2005 a tiny foal was born at Horse and Donkey. Sadly her mother, who was very weak, died, so this little foal was hand reared from birth. She was named Lollipop and with a great deal of love and effort, she grew into a magnificent young filly of whom we were so proud. She and the other orphan fillies, Welcome, Hope and Mo had a good life. They were well fed, had paddocks to play in and could get out of the sun and into their fly screened stables when they needed to.

Gambian horses tend to be very narrow chested and we had wondered how much of this was due to the breed or to poor nutrition. We had noticed that the young horses that we had in seemed to broaden if they stayed with us long enough, so we were anxious to see how 'the girls' would develop. They certainly didn't disappoint us!

When they were 3 years old we thought we would put them in foal and see how their offspring turned out in order to see how much difference it would make to the foal when the mother had been well nourished all through pregnancy. This is where things started to go badly wrong.

Lollipop, Mo and Welcome were put into foal by 3 different stallions. Initially all seemed well then Welcome appeared to come into season again. A short time later so did Lollipop. Apart from this both the fillies seemed well and Welcome made it her business to test the fencing on a daily basis and jump out if the mood took her.

Gambian horses are usually ridden and worked from 8 or 9 months old and as a result walk with a very stiff gait. Our girls were different, they walked and jumped freely and unlike many others we see, they took great joy out of being alive.

In December Welcome became ill. First she had some facial paralysis, then she started to lose the co-ordination in her hind quarters. The disease moved quickly and within 3 weeks, despite intensive nursing, Welcome was dead.

Lollipop seemed to miss her friend badly and became very depressed. After a day or two she seemed to have colic. Some hours later she aborted a beautiful foal. We were confused as she seemed to have been coming in season. A few days later she also became in co-ordinated and though we treated her, the decline continued until we had no choice but to put her to sleep.

Blood samples were sent to the UK and a venereal disease called Dourine was confirmed. Unbeknown to us at the time, ALL 3 stallions were carriers and passed the disease on to our fillies.

We now have researchers collecting blood samples to see how widespread this and other diseases are and once we have the results we will be better able to plan a strategy to deal with the diseases.

Our yard is a quieter and much sadder place without them. However, if through Lollipop and Welcome, we are able to help many other horses, perhaps their short lives will not have been in vain.

Cherno Amadou Jallow - 10 years old

My name is Cherno Amadou Jallow, and I live in a village called Missera in the Gambia. My family are farmers, and so it is very helpful for us that we have a donkey. My donkey is called Moses, and he was given to us by The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust, to help with our farming because my family are very poor.

We do not have tractors where I live, so horses and donkeys do most of the hard work on the farms. My family grow maize, pumpkins and watermelons. We have a small metal machine, called a weeding machine which we attach to Moses using ropes, and he pulls it through our fields to take away any weeds growing on the farm. The machine is heavy, but Moses is good at pulling it, and someone stands behind the machine to hold it and someone else stands at Moses' head to show him which way to go. It is normally my job to steer Moses because I am the main person who looks after him. Without Moses it would be very difficult to transport our crops to the local markets to sell them, but since we have had him we are able to load all our crops onto a cart, and he pulls them to the market for us. Sometimes the cart is very heavy, so we have to go very slowly, and when we get to the riverside Moses likes to have a big drink.

During the rainy season we go to the farm before breakfast, and will often work through the day but we try to let Moses have a rest at lunch time because it is very difficult to work when it is so hot. After a rest we start working again at about 5pm, and continue to work until it gets dark. In Gambia we do most of our farming between July and October, which is the rainy season, because for the rest of the year the ground is too dry to grow any crops.

In the dry season Moses life is a bit easier without all the farming to do. We use him to collect firewood for cooking with, and also to get fencing poles to fix our compound. We are not able to afford our own donkey cart, but some other people in the village let us use theirs when they don't need it.

We have used Moses a few times to take sick people to the nearest hospital, about 7km away, when they are sick with malaria because malaria is a very serious disease and there is no other transport. We try to help them to get there as quickly as possible even though Moses is not very fast!

I am lucky to live close to Gambia Horse and Donkey, which means I also get to do some fun things with Moses in the Donkey Club which they run some evenings. We trained in gymkhana races, and even raced in front of lots of people at the annual show. My favourite race is the sack race, and Moses is good at helping to pull me along faster when I am in the sack!

I was very proud last year because Moses won a 1st and a 2nd prize in the show for being well looked after and for looking very healthy. We won a big rosette which I have in my house now.

Moses has his own house in our compound, which is almost the same as my own house. It is made from mud blocks, and has mosquito nets over the windows to stop him from getting bitten too much in the rainy season.

If anything bad ever happens to Moses I will be very unhappy because without him my family would find life very hard, and would have to do much more hard work by hand which is very difficult. Every day I take him to the water pump in the middle of the village to have a drink, and I feed him groundnut hay and sometimes pumpkins. His favourite food is rice bran, but this is a special treat for him as we can't afford to feed it to him every day. I have had Moses for 3 years now, and I am so happy that he was given to us. I love my donkey Moses.

Sambel Kunda
What is day to day life really like when you are working for Horse and Donkey in rural Gambia?

Working as a Volunteer by Anna Saillet

Can you think on your feet, stand on your head and rub your belly all at the same time? I think that's what it should have said on the advert to volunteer for Gambia Horse and Donkey for a year! Living in a tiny remote village without electricity and hot water is the easy part and eating a meal which doesn't contain rice is a huge treat, with indescribable pleasures! Routine is out of the window.

Whilst we have a basic outline of a routine, going to local 'lumo's' (markets) every Saturday, Sunday, Monday and every other Tuesday, the days, weeks and months all merge into one. Time takes on a whole new dimension, somehow going fast and slow all at once!

This is not the place for the faint hearted or the indecisive. Every day is filled with decisions to be made, whether it be a call of life or death for a sick animal, a decision on which staff members should go trekking each day or simply what we can have for dinner with such a limited selection of ingredients!

With 14 trained Gambian staff working at GHDT the yard is always bustling and each day has its own challenges. There are several regular programmes which we undertake, one being the school education programme. This involves travelling around to 10 local schools to teach about caring for horses and donkeys correctly. Conscious of not wanting our classes to be 'just another boring lesson' we often find ourselves dressed as donkeys crawling around a classroom floor, doing puppet shows with soft toy horses and donkeys, and regularly clearing up donkey droppings from a classroom floor when our real life demonstration animals decide to deposit a present.

Our last lesson before Easter confirmed that our rather 'different' lessons had indeed been a great success. On doing a quiz I was more than a little overwhelmed to see almost every hand in the class go up to answer each question, stretching higher and higher in the hope that they would be given the opportunity to answer the question. Even when the correct answer was given hands still stayed stretching upwards for the chance to expand on the answer to prove that they remembered more than their friend.

The weekly treks to lumo's are hot, busy, difficult and rewarding. Treating sick animals on the basis of physical signs only is difficult at the best of times, let alone in the blistering heat! Thankfully some of our staff are trained in using a microscope, so are able to look at the blood to confirm whether or not an animal has Trypanosomiasis, which is a very common and dangerous disease here.

It is not uncommon to be presented with horses and donkeys with severely fractured legs asking us to fix them. The things that have been achieved here make me seriously question just how many horses are unnecessarily put to sleep in the UK, as we have living proof in our horses and donkeys at GHDT that they can recover from broken bones, horrendous wounds, horrific burns and even diseases which cause temporary paralysis.

For religious reasons many owners are against euthanasia, and this means that often an owner will not allow us to humanely kill a terminally sick animal, and instead we have to do everything we can to save the animal and limit its suffering. This at times can be heart wrenching, but when I see our stallion, Tallah, galloping around the paddock totally oblivious to the fact that he ever had a broken leg it gives me the strength to just keep on trying our best, with the little that we have.

The house at GHDT is a busy one. It's certainly not the place to be if you're the sort of person who likes to finish work and relax at 6pm! If there's not a member of staff around asking for one favour or another, then it may be someone from the village begging for a lift to the nearest hospital perhaps for a lady going through a difficult birth or with a sick or injured child. If you're lucky this call will come around 8 or 9pm; if you're not so lucky it is more likely to be around 3 or 4am! Of course, with a yard of often very sick horses and donkeys it's inevitable that from time to time there's the odd one that needs someone to stay up with it all night, to nurse it through to the daylight hours; that's without taking into consideration the night time feeds for any orphaned horses, donkeys, sheep or goats that happen to fall into our lives! Then you have the odd night in which there are no dramas. No knocks on the door, just a nice cold shower and an early night.

It takes a while of living at GHDT before you are able to get a good nights sleep however. The nights you most need a good sleep are undoubtedly those in which the animals create a cacophony of noise; donkeys braying, dogs howling long into the night, hyenas laughing, cows mooing, bush babies screaming and crickets chattering away to each other in their morse code language! Once you're habituated to it, it becomes quite normal and I rarely find myself being awoken.

We are very fortunate to have vets from the UK to come out regularly to teach some students from Gambia College about equine medicine. Our staff (including myself) are extremely lucky to have been taught how to do injections, stomach tubing, and stitching amongst other important procedures.

The house comes alive with people during these periods, and also at the time of the Annual Show. Last year we wondered where we were going to squeeze 16 visitors from the UK, but amazingly we managed it and had two of the most hilarious weeks of my time here.

Amongst all of this I have helped to put out a bush fire, managed to rescue a vehicle from being totally sunk in the mud of the rainy season, attended some wonderful local entertainment programmes, carried tree trunks on my head, taught some English lessons, organized the day to day running of the busy yard, and so the list goes on.

Life here can be quite tough and you have to be flexible yet rigid. For some of the very gory scenes I have witnessed or been part of I am thankful to be blessed with a strong stomach. Above all, this place gives you a great sense of adventure and achievement. On a good day it feels as though I've climbed a thousand mountains and taken in the beauty of the view at the top of each and every one. On a bad day it feels like you're sinking to the bottom of the river, but these are few and far between, and anyway... wouldn't life be boring without a challenge!!

"With her usual modesty, Anna 'forgot' to mention how she saved the lives of a boat full of people when the boat capsized on the river in a freak storm. After ensuring that everyone was safely holding onto the capsized boat, she swam through strong currents and ran barefoot for several miles through dense bush to seek help. No lives were lost and Anna is deservedly something of a local heroine - THANK YOU ANNA!"

Visiting university staff, vets and lots of other experts come out to Sambel Kunda to train the staff, volunteers and the college students. They inspire everyone to be professional and positive in their approach to the animals and their owners. The opportunities that this training brings to our team of staff, working in isolation out in the bush, is amazing and truly life changing for them, their families and the equine population. Not all our staff are literate and some have very limited English but they never fail to amaze everyone with what they do achieve.

Fund Raising

How many supporters does Horse and Donkey have? Ann Varley

Everyone reading this newsletter is committed to the work that our Charity does and admired the achievements that are there to be seen. Times are difficult for us all but if everyone who reads this newsletter could do one fundraising activity over the summer months, it will mean that Heather can look forward rather than having to continually worry about keeping all the different projects going. All are vital to the horses and donkeys in The Gambia and to the community. As you will have read, Horse and Donkey is really needed and the work we do is respected and valued by the community. We are all having a tough time but for life in Gambia with survival relying on a the wellbeing of a donkey or your horse, it takes so little to tip the balance. All our projects are now well established but we still need to be able to maintain the work we do and move out of the Sambel region. We have a team of students ready to qualify and they are the key to the broadening of our work. If we ALL pull together in a small way, it really will make a big impact and by using imagination you can make some money and have a lot of fun.

Every little bit helps and we need you now, more than ever before!

 
Some Ideas
  • Hold a party but ask people to make a donation in lieu of gifts.
  • Selling plants, coffee mornings, cake sales, sponsored events, proceeds from dog walks, car washing, horseshows, etc.
  • Run a Ceilidh, line dancing evening, square dancing, kids disco, karaoke or a BBQ.
  • Have a dinner party or a cheese and wine evening.
  • Open up your garden, have a village garden open weekend or get your community to make scarecrows and charge your visitors to vote for their favourites.
  • Have a round robin arrangement with a group of friends and have a social event together once a month chipping in a set amount.
  • Organize any community activity eg a children's sports day, produce show, Moonlight walk.
  • Encourage your children to run a fund raising activity - they are full of bright ideas. Sponsored silence, car washing, gardening, walk. Most of all let them organize it!
  • Selling on Ebay, carboot sales. Using the Giving Machine to make your online purchases.
  • Remember us in your will

Make Free Cash Donations To Our Charity

Did you know that you can make free cash donations to us whenever you shop online? Just click www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk every time.

TheGivingMachine™ You Shop - They Give. It does not cost you any more but we get a cash donation from you every time you buy.

There are many ways you can help us with our work. Every penny really does count! And please don't forget to Gift Aid your donation!

We have many stunning cards for sale for all occasions. Some are 'blank' and others with a greeting - including Christmas Cards. These can be viewed on our website and purchased from Heather. We also now have an online shop selling lovely goods.

 
Ros Harris is indulging in some Midsummer
Madness and holding A Charity Barn Dance

Saturday 20th June 2009

Mistletoe Cottage
Gotherington, Cheltenham,
Glos GL52 9QU,

Ceilidh band - Bar - Raffle - Hot food.

Tickets £10 from Ros at the above address
Phone 01242 675918
All proceeds to Stella's charities in The Gambia

150+ tickets already sold so ring now

Dena and Vicki have been busy. Vicki has been selling tack that we cannot use in The Gambia on Ebay for us. Dena has been in search of headcollars and bits. They arrived recently with huge quantities of headcollars all washed and neatly packed into boxes for us.

Sue Ashton, who must raise thousands of pounds for various charities, continues to give us her support, selling tack that we are unable to use (martingales, large bits and headcollars, saddles, stirrups etc.) from her home or at local auctions. She too sends boxes of beautifully cleaned and packed goods. We appreciate all your help so much.

Ann Varley celebrated her 60th birthday and instead of bringing gifts (to dust, eat or drink) her guests brought anonymous envelopes with donations to Horse and Donkey. £620 was raised. A friend, Maureen Middleton later followed suit and a further amount was raised. A big THANK YOU to Ann and the Scottish driving community.

Debbie Archer from Leahurst, Liverpool University ran the London Marathon for us - and was then on duty on the Monday morning. That has to be beyond the call of duty! We are all in awe Debbie. Thank you so much!
 
Support Heather on the H&D Trade
Stand Summer 2009

Sunday June 21st At Cheltenham Racecourse.
Pony Club Show Jumping Championships.

Sunday June 28th Gotherington Country Fair.

25th - 28th June Hickstead Derby.

22th - 26th July Royal International Horseshow
Hickstead

 

 

How would you like to win a fantastic holiday for two in The Gambia at a luxury hotel?

Grand Summer Raffle

Win a trip for two in 5* luxury hotel and visit Sambel Kunda and Horse and Donkey.
Other exciting prizes include:

A weeks holiday in Wales
Weekend on a narrow boat
£100 M&S vouchers
Tickets for Racing at Cheltenham and a case of wine
plus many more

Tickets £1 each or books of 5 - from Heather

 

THANKS! THANKS! THANKS! THANKS!

It is always hard to thank everyone who has helped us and I always go in fear of omitting someone's name:

I would like to express my thanks to The RCVS Trust and The Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust for the recent grants which they awarded to us. I would also like to thank Gambia Experience, the travel company, the beautiful 5* Ocean Bay Hotel, The National Stud, Cheltenham Race Course, The Canal Shop Whilton Locks, Saisons, Cwm Cherfru Country Cottages, Xavier Lam, Andrea Dawson, Ros Harris and June Garner for their help in providing a raffle prize.

Our thanks also go to David Marsden, Animals Worldwide, Worldwide Veterinary Services, Ann Varley, Sue Adams, Liz Serinken, Cynthia Haydon, The University of Liverpool Veterinary Faculty, Professor Clegg, Rob Christley, Gina Pinchbeck, Lucy Meehan, Rachel Conwell, Debbie Archer, Bruce Wadell, Adele Davies, Laura Peachy and Sam Wyn and Val Buick, Chris Tufnell, Alex Mitchell, Mick Ryan, Vicki Miller, Dena Schwartz and all the "Show Team". Anna Pugh, Wendy Richards, Sarah Cox, The Moorhead Trust, The Tarim Trust, The Clyde Veterinary Group, Lady Anne Herries, The Mathew Eyton Trust, Liz McIlwraith and the liveries at Bridge House Equestrian Centre, The Ruth Smart Foundation, The PF Charitable Trust, the estate of the late Miss Sylvia Swain, Ros Harris and family, SPANA, Laura Bowen, Sue Ashton, Engineers without Borders, Paul Phipps, the hardworking staff of GHDT and all the other wonderful people who have donated in cash or kind to ensure that we are able to continue helping the people and animals of The Gambia. A very big thank you to all of you.

A special thanks goes to Alex Coombes. Alex is a friend of Horse and Donkey through her work at Hickstead. She had been out to Gambia a couple of times and then offered to come out as a volunteer. Alex has returned home but worked incredibly hard for six months and will be badly missed. Thank you Alex for all you have done and we hope you will be back to see us again.

A Positive Twist of Fate … Baby Omah

On a recent trip to The Gambia, whilst waiting to cross the river, we struck up conversation with a lady who had a tiny baby strapped to her back. We thought he was new born, but on enquiring, we were told that he was 5 months old.

The lady had hit on particularly hard times with the recent death of her husband and was not producing enough milk to support the baby. By chance, one of the members of our party was a paediatric nurse and she advised that the baby should have immediate hospital treatment as it was very ill, underweight and had respiratory problems. We immediately diverted and took the baby to the nearest hospital in Kudang, where the very helpful officer in charge said that the baby should be referred to a bigger hospital for specialist treatment.

By a stroke of luck, Kudang clinic had been donated a beautiful shiny new ambulance just the previous day by "Riders for Health", so baby Omah and his mother rode in style with sirens blaring and lights flashing to seek further medical help.

Baby Omah weighed less at 5 months of age then he had done at birth and he was suffering from malnutrition and pneumonia when we first saw him. Two and a half weeks later his mother brought him to see us. She was a much happier lady and baby Omah was bright and alert and though he has a bit of catching up to do, he was obviously heading in the right direction.

His mother is now able to earn a little selling the crafts she learnt to make at The Skills centre. Incidents like this really make one realize how difficult it can be to overcome obstacles if, like Omah's mother, you live in remote and poor areas of the world, but how, when everyone pulls together little miracles can be achieved. One sometimes wonders what twist of fate occurs to bring people together at critical times like these.

We would like to extend our thanks to Riders for Health, The Officer in Charge at Kudang Clinic and the staff at Bansang Hospital for the part they played in Baby Omah's recovery.

We work with Horses and Donkeys but our mission is Fighting Poverty- Feeding Families

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