| Notes From the Front-line of Development - Some Experiences from VSO's Small Project Fund |
| Ben and I are part of a VSO/British High Commission funded Small Project Fund (SPF). SPF gives out small grants (maximum 10,000 dalasi, US$500, or 20,000 dalasi, US$1,000, in the case of a school building) for community-based self-improvement projects. All communities are expected to contribute 10% of the cost. VSO volunteers assess the applications, visit the communities, make funding decisions and then monitor the progress of the project. While my parents were visiting (in April) we evaluated four proposals, two in Brikama and two in Tanji. Brikama is the largest city outside of the Greater Banjul area and a "major" trading center, and Tanji is the largest fishing village in the country, south of the Greater Banjul area on the Atlantic coast. In Brikama, we met the Western Division Scout Association. The Scouts have been given a piece of land in Sanyang by the government, but they do not have the money to build anything yet. There is a bit of a land grab going on right now in The Gambia, so everyone who has land is trying to build on it so others will know it is occupied. The Scouts have put up a few tents, but are hoping to build something more permanent. They are working on fundraising and have already established a chair rental business that generates income for the group. With their own funds they bought 25 chairs and have been renting them to community members for events such as weddings and naming ceremonies (every baby is named at a formal ceremony where relatives come from all over to celebrate and a ram is sacrificed). The Scouts pulled out all of the stops to entertain us during our visit. They band played and they all danced. (see photos) The second proposed project we visited in Brikama was to a CBO (Community Based Organization) called Women Advancement and Child Care (WACC). WACC is run by a rather slick man, Lamin Saidybah, who has applied for NGO status for this women�s group he founded (Non-governmental Organization status is similar to non-profit status in the US or charity status in the UK) and seems to know how to �work� the donor world. Mr. Saidybah was applying to SFP for funding for the raw materials needed for a workshop where the women would learn food preservation and soap making. We asked to speak directly with the women who would be participating in the workshop� most of them said they already knew how to make soap and few seemed interested in food preservation. During our sight visit we also discovered that Mr. Saidybah had applied for and received two other grants from SPF in the past year. SPF funded a building for the Makka-Sutu Nursery School, of which Mr Saidybah is the Director and later furnished the school building. We discovered one more unfortunate thing� the land underneath the building had recently been sold. (For more on that story... [coming soon]) In Tanji we met with the Tanji Women�s Fiberglass Association whose members who were interested in starting a tie and dye business. They wanted an SFP grant to buy the material and the dye. Their normal occupation is to carry the fish from the fisherman�s boats to the shore. They do this with large plastic tubs of 150-200 fish that they carry on their heads. (more on that story to come) The Men�s group of the Tanji Fiberglass Association also submitted an application. Their application was for a grant to buy fish so that they could smoke it and generate income for their group. We asked them what their normal occupations were. They all said fishermen. I wondered why they could not donate their own catches to the group�s project. What either of these groups has to do with fiberglass, we never discovered. Ben and I presented our findings at the next SPF committee meeting. As SFP does not give grants for consumable items, only the Scout project was approved. We were handed a check and made plans to deliver it to the Scouts. The check handing over ceremony was held at the national Scout meeting on June 1st in front of all the newly elected national Scout leaders. After giving an impromptu speech before 100 or so Scout delegates, we got the paperwork signed and handed over the check. They were naturally delighted to recieve the check and promised to buy the chairs by the end of next week. Ben and I plan to go out to visit them again in about 6 weeks to see how the business is going. We'll keep you posted on how they're getting on. |