PING Charity Annual Report for 2024.
The saddest news of the year was that 8 young men from Bafaluto village, which we know very well, lost their lives in the Atlantic while trying to reach the Canary Islands. RIP.
We visited Gambia in late December 2024 and could see the benefits of the volunteer who had joined us in 2023. Miss Neneh Sowe is a 2nd year at Gambia University studying Agricultural Science. We pay her University fees and cover her monthly travel expenses.
Even though we have a direct WhatsApp contact in each of the villages in which we work, Neneh visits each project each month and reports back to us both positive and negative issues. We have seen evidence that these regularly monthly visits from a PING volunteer have motivated and encouraged the communities to look after their water and garden projects.
Not surprisingly word spread that Neneh was PING's representative and she regularly received requests from other villages for assistance and was able to visit the locations and recommend to us those villages with the greatest need.
Jamagen now has a satisfactory water system after extended difficulties in finding a successful borehole location. Progress on fencing and clearing of their new garden site ran into difficulties when the Wildlife Parks Dept took legal action over the removal of some significant trees. This has now been resolved.
Samba Yassin, on the Senegal border, had a damaged solar panel repaired but in the rainy season find that they need more storage capacity in addition to their 5,000 lt tank. We will sort this out before the 2025 rainy season starts.
The three villages of Kerr Wally, Chessy and Ndofan which were being fed from a single borehole have been having capacity problems as their population grew. We installed a higher capacity pump but Ndofan which was at the end of the distribution network was still in trouble with very low pressure. Being the smallest of the three villages we gave it its own borehole and 3,000lt tank, problem solved.
M'Bollet Ba had an old useable borehole which needed a serious upgrade. We totally replaced their very old solar panels and provided a stronger pump. At their own expense the community have extended the distribution network. This is a large village of over 3,000 people.
Neneh recommended 4 new villages on the south bank but much further inland. She showed us that the level of poverty in these more rural villages was worse than the villages in which we had been already been working.
In Janjanbrueh, 4 hours from Brikama, we provided a water supply to a busy maternity hospital. Adjoining the village itself the vegetable garden needed to be partly re-fenced and an irrigation borehole added.
Nyafiending village had a longstanding need for a borehole which we provided plus a 5,000lt storage tank. There was much celebration on its completion.
Neneh identified another village near Janjanbureh called Bantanto and in November we finished a water system providing a further 2000 villagers with clean water.
In addition we have helped Faraba Sutu, Sankuli Kunda and a health clinic in the busy city of Brikama.
The ultimate village for 2024 is Samah Essau a village of 1500 near Barra ,the work has started and we hope they will have a fully working clean water system in the next 2 weeks.
We have raised the funds by picture framing and donations and thank all those who have helped us have a very successful year.
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