Fintry to the Gambia

Making a difference

Can anyone make a difference in Africa?

For David Smith, headteacher of the 80-pupil rural school of Fintry Primary School in Stirling, the answer is yes. David says:

' "Life-changing experience" seems a glib and obvious phrase. Yet for our staff, our pupils, our parents and community it took only a year to see that our lives would never be the same. We wanted to help Africa in some way, but equally importantly we set ourselves the aim of changing the way we think about ourselves - perhaps for ever.

'We had seen a TV documentary on the problems of life in a 300-pupil rural school in the Gambia - Africa’s smallest country and one of the poorest. We asked the BBC to show some of the footage they didn’t broadcast - and that was it, our children wanted to do something for children, just like them, who had hardly anything in their school, or in their lives.

'In the next nine months we collected and shipped out eight cases of resources for the school and then sent two staff out to live in the village and find out how to help. We then brought back to Scotland the headteacher of Sambel Kunda and his 12-year-old-son, who helped to establish GIFTS (Gambian Institute for Teacher Training in Scotland). Our village turned out in force to welcome two people from mud huts who had never seen a hill, let alone a computer. Two months later two young teachers from Sambel Kunda arrived for three weeks' training in Fintry. One of our staff returned with them, to support them in their own classes. We made films in Fintry and Sambel and showed each community how the others lived.

'Our children have presented the story to others. Now they compare everything they do with their own daily lives. 'They have so little - yet they seem happier than us,' said one girl. Life will never be the same.'

Read about the joint project on the Sambel-Kunda website.