Books for Gambia 2020

In recent years, Darwen has had a number of connections with The Gambia in Africa, stemming from a link with a sporting charity and resulting in an official twinning with the town of Lamin, in Banjul, the country’s capital. Last year Darwen Rotary was able to send over 2300 books to help the country’s education sector, with over a quarter going to Tendaba School in the Central District that has a ten year connection with a Darwen resident. 

The Gambia is an English speaking country and many schools, especially those in remote areas, have benefitted from the books we have sent directly or through the country’s mobile library but still some schools have no books at all, or very few. So, this year we have tried harder and have more than doubled   the number of books we were able to send as a result of asking children in Darwen primary schools to donate a second hand book, they had already read, on World Book Day on Thursday March 5th.  Sadly, the coronavirus has delayed everything but I am now pleased to say that 6397 books were donated and collected and are now on their way to Banjul, the capital of Gambia. This is a magnificent achievement by the children of Ashleigh, Avondale, Belmont, Belthorn, St Barnabas, St Cuthberts, St Edwards and Sudell Schools and one that proves that the children of these schools do really care about other children in other parts of the world who are not as fortunate as they are in Darwen. So, a big thank you to all of you with special thanks to the Rotakids who made everything happen in their schools.

The total load was 1¼ tons packed into 46 individual boxes. These needed a two person lift owing to their weight.  This meant that it was impossible to keep two metres apart and so masks were worn by all Rotarians.

A special thank you also to the Northern Box and Packaging Company of Darwen who supplied all the boxes free of charge on both occasions.