Feature: Two charities supported by FMS
Gambia Village Project
Festival Medical Services supports a Gambia village project that is currently undertaking four major initiatives:
New classrooms
Pupil numbers were restricted to 140 due to a lack of classroom space, but the impending construction of two new classrooms will help increase the amount of pupils the school can accommodate.
Playground
The construction of a solid perimeter fence allowed the school to make positive strides towards turning a barren, muddy playground into a much more agreeable area with trees, flowers and other plants.
Previously any saplings or vegetation was promptly eaten by animals that could wander into the playground as they pleased.
An anticipated link to the Eden Project 'Gardens for Life' scheme is also expected to improve the appearance and ambience of the playground.
Women's garden
A large communal women's garden in which cash crops are grown providing the main source of income for the village, has also suffered from the curse of hungry, unrestricted animals. It is currently surrounded by a fragile wooden fence that has to be replaced annually and provides little protection from the unwanted grazers. The Gambia village project is hoping to improve crop growing education, including sustainable practices, as well as providing sturdier perimeter fencing.
Community Bus
The Gambia village project provided a community bus three years ago that isnow in need of replacement. It's purpose is to:
- Take emergencies to hospital
- Take women to ante- and post-natal clinics
- Take women to market in the early morning, enabling them to take more produce to sell
- Service the needs of the school
- Serve the community
However, many of the villagers simply cannot afford to pay to use the bus, so even though the original plan was for it to be self-financing, it is obvious that there needs to be a re-think and now the project is helping to raise funds for a replacement.
Tulsi Trust
British charitable organisation Festival Medical Services recently agreed to the three-year funding of a desperately needed full-time doctor in the Indian Jungle.
FMS were approached for help by the Tulsi Trust which supports an Indian jungle health and education project based deep in jungle territory, seven hours from the nearest big city of Raipur.
The Tulsi Trust has helped Bengali resettled refugees and the indigenous Adivaashi aboriginals of the interior area of Madhya Pradesh, India and the donation from FMS has made a huge difference to the project.
Now that funding for the doctor position is in place, the project's volunteers are putting all their energy into finishing the hospital, which will boast fully equipped wards.
Read more about the marvellous work done by the Tulsi Trust:
For further information, see the list of charities that have been supported by FMS since 1998.