http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php en pingcharity@yahoo.com Copyright 2013 2013-05-14T13:24:27+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf We are delighted that Ping Charity’s activities are continuing to show good results. Bafaluto has consumed 26 million litres of drinking water since the water system was completed in Nov.2007. The village is looking better and the population has increased by 30 % .The gardens are flourishing and the women needed some help to replace buckets & ropes which they use to haul water from the irrigation wells. After 6 years the tank requires repainting and the men are attending to that. We have asked Gambian Experience and The West African Tour company to take tourists to the village, to show what a small NGO such as PING can successfully achieve. Njongon and M’Bollet Ba, on the North Bank have consumed 30 million litres of drinking water. The Water Committees have organised bank accounts and each village operates their own way of collection, one collects so much per 20lt container and the other charges so much monthly. The Brick making, bread baking and bee keeping are providing local employment & making a small contribution to the village development funds; all organised by and under the watchful eye of our long term partner Momodou Joof. We decided on the basis of these successes to go ahead with the next project; three villages which are located close to each other, Kerr Wali, Chessay and Ndofan (combined pop.1,800) which currently only have polluted water wells. On our visit we negotiated discounts and extended payment terms with the local suppliers. This and the fact that the villagers are happy to clear the borehole site & dig the 3,300 mts of distribution trenches means that we can complete this project for £54,000, which breaks down to only £30 per head. Great value for money! The villagers have seen the improved prosperity and health of their neighbours in Njongon and they are very excited and grateful that they’ll have clean drinking water themselves before the end of 2013. The pressure is on us now to find the final £20,000 to ensure no interruption to the work which commenced this week. £30 only for a person to have clean drinking water for the next 25+years; so you know exactly what your contribution will achieve 2013-05-14T13:24:27+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf Raising money for The Gambia becomes ever more difficult but we have started our Jewellery Workshops in the run up to Christmas. We invite people to design their own jewellery and teach them how to finish it,or do that for them. Some brought their broken jewellery to us and in most cases we were able to repair it for them. Anybody requiring jewellery for Christmas presents please contact us on 00447802351316. We raised 1250.00 on the morning. Thank you to everyone who attended and a special thank you to Siobhan,Gill,Maria,Michelle and Margaret who were a great help on the day. 2012-11-04T09:46:25+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf UPDATES ON PROJECTS AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 2012 by Momadou Joof NJONGON, MBOLLET BA, and BAFULOTO PROJECTS. The water system in Njongon and Mbollet Ba are working well, despite the heavy rains. No major problems reported as yet up to the time of writing this report. The pictures would give you a good view of both water systems. This system has greatly improved the Health of both communities. The water committees are working well to collect the water usage funds and save them to their Bank accounts. Saving is a fundamental idea for PING projects. These funds are for repairs and maintenance of the water systems .It is also plan for sustainability of the projects. There is great understanding between the communities and PING and this has led to ownership of the system by the people. The structures are in good conditions. No leakage on the water tank and the pipe net work is also normal. This shows how PING is committed in using DONOR FUNDING prudently to get quality work. Up till now we never had a major break down due to poor quality of work. The Support projects to the water system in these areas are also doing well. In Njongon the vegetable garden is doing very well. The whole area is cultivated with hot small pepper, egg plants, okra,  tomatoes and sorrel. These are ideal crops for the rainy season. They are doing very well. We are a little worried because of heavy down fall of rains these days. The pictures show how well the plans are doing.  This is 100% on the garden usage since it was established.  This shows how people react to change. Change is not easily accepted by people, and should not be a barrier to development, but an incentive to move forward. The garden is at this time of the year helping the women to earn income and improve their nutritional value of their families. This period used to be a hunger period for the rural poor. The soap, tie and dye and the bead making are to be activated by end of September when we have less rains. The local poultry is doing very well. This is a Future Farmers of the Gambia working with PING which is now ready to be implemented in the villages. What we learnt in this idea is that with only ten hens and a cock a family in the rural area can earn a better living. How? A local hen can lay ten eggs even if five of the eggs survive that gives the family fifty birds per month for the first hatch. Each local hen cost at least GMD 100 that gives at least GMD 5,000 per month. We have proved this at the   FFG training CENTRE. We have not started selling the birds as yet. We invited women to see the idea they were amazed to see the idea. We will keep up dating on new developments. With the Brick production and construction the boys are on vacation due to the rains but will resume by the end of September.  They are building a local Bakery with the bricks in Njongon. As I am writing this report they have completed the construction. The timber for the roof is ready. Soon we will get local bread in Njongon instead of travelling 10km to get bread every day.  This bakery will help the children in the school to get bread every day during break. The money generated will help FFG/PING raise funds locally. FFG/PING is cognizant of the fact that sustainability is the key to development. In partnership with the National Beekeepers three more villages are included. They are Mbollet Ba, Jamagen and Jinack villages in LOWER Niumi North Bank Region. Each of the villages mentioned and Njongon got and received 20 hives with tools required for beekeeping. Thanks to Mayer Mystry our first sponsor of beekeeping for PING. BAFULOTO PROJECT In Bafuloto the water system is functioning very well. No major problem discovered during recent visit. No leakage in the tank or distribution net work. The pipe stands are good except for two.  The water committee promised to repair them .The water usage funds are collected regularly. The attached pictures show the real view of what is on the ground. The tank is kept clean by growing beans.  This saves labour in cleaning the weeds with no economical value over the years. No animals comes to dirty the area because of the value crops. This is another lesson learnt. Just as in Njongon because of the safe drinking water, our survey has proved that there is no water related disease reported by the health teams in the villages (primary health care teams). The Garden this year also registered great success. Intercropping was done that is vegetables and cassava. As you see in the attached pictures the cassava plants are doing very well and some have started harvesting and replanting vegetables. This indicates that people value what is given and are making good use of it. 2012-09-10T09:14:19+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf Our most recent visit to The Gambia was for 12 days in late February. At this point we had not sufficient funds to start providing clean to the 4th village. The "4th village" is in fact a close group of 3 small villages (total pop. about 1,200) Chrissey, Ndofan and Kerwali, situated on the North Bank on the right hand side of the main road north from Banjul to Senegal. However in the expectation that we will eventually have funds, we had the Borehole Company that we have worked with before to survey a suitable area for the Borehole and give us an estimate of costs.We spent a fair amount of our time reviewing the water projects that we'd already established in Bafaluto, M'Bollet Ba and Njongon. Overall the systems in all 3 are working well and the villagers are contributing to a fund to ensure maintenance and any future repair costs. Without being able to put exact numbers on it the ladies in all there villages were adamant that the level of illness among children generally was significantly reduced and deaths of under 5 year olds were also reduced.These improvements were not only from having clean water but also from an improved diet due to the success of the irrigated market gardens.Brick making, beekeeping and animal husbandry projects were also progressing well. Our brick making, well to be precise, Compressed Earth Block capabilities are now at a level in both output and quality that for the rest of 2012 we will be concentrating on finding sales outlets. This will enable us to employ between 16 & 20 young men and profits will go to helping future PingCharity projects.Prior to our visit we had done significant research on improving the ways in which families cook. The traditional 3-stone stove has a variety of problems; it burns a lot of wood quite inefficiently, produces lots of smoke and health harming pollutants and can be dangerous to kids wandering around the compound. In fact the nephew of our colleague Momodou died as a result of such an accident shortly before our visit.To enable us to introduce a new stove idea we built a 2 pot rocket stove in our garden and satisfied ourselves that it worked (there was never any doubt) and to have the knowledge to teach folks in The Gambia to build their own. The benefits: cooks faster, uses much less wood and produces virtually no smoke. Since we make our own bricks we can introduce this "technology" very efficiently. We have reason to believe that the reduction in the amount of wood being burnt and the resultant reduction in the village's carbon footprint may make us eligible for some assistance. We'll report on progress later. 2012-03-29T10:40:46+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf It is a difficult time to raise money for worthwhile African projects when Europe is struggling and everyone understandably looks to their own concerns thus we have found it very hard to raise enough for the next Clean Water project.Pamela started to make and sell jewellery last year and in this time has raised approximately 15,000.Euro, that with other donations has all gone to the Gambia to help the existing three villages with Clean Water to become more self-sustaining villages. They are doing well; getting their vegetables to market, selling honey from hives they have made themselves, improving their brick making & building skills enabling them to repair their own homes which always suffer in the wet season and they’ve even put toilets in the Training Centre !If anyone is interested in selling some jewellery or designing & making some, please contact us. We still aim at some point, hopefully late 2012, to install Clean Water in the 4th village but at the moment with our limited funds we are commencing a smaller venture which will provide employment & contribute some funds for future projects. We have purchased a piece of land (only 270 Euro) with frontage to the main Highway (well, it’s a sealed road) from Banjul to Senegal. Here the boys from the Training Centre will build a display area to show the range of bricks and the building skills they’ve developed. With our own tractor and trailer we can deliver bricks far & wide.In this same area we will sell other products from the local villages, honey & vegetables and tie-dyed material & jewellery! which Pamela introduced to the girls.Bread (and rice of course) is a staple part of the local diet; we have plans to build a very fuel-efficient commercial oven which will give long term employment to ladies from nearby Njongon village (the 2nd village which got Clean Water).Our research on the fuel-efficient commercial oven has shown us that there are much more efficient & healthier ways to cook rather than on the traditional 3-stone stove that burns lots of wood and gives off lots of smoke & soot particles which are well known to cause respiratory problems. Our plans in this area will need a little “selling” to the ladies! More on this after our visit this month. 2012-01-31T15:15:49+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf Have a look at the recent work carrried out in Njongon. It's fantastic, now we can rear sheep! 2011-06-10T16:54:59+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf May 2011. Some statistics on our progressWater usage in the 3 villages.Njongon 3,883,000 litres (Nov 09)M’bullet Ba 3,864,000litres (Nov 09)Bafaluto 16,938,000litres (April 07)The variations reflect the size of the villages, but overall works out at around 18 litres per person per day. The systems are designed to provide 30 lts per person per day which is the World Health Organisation’s recommended figure for developing countries. Our systems are clearly not being over loaded and will cope with future growth.The maintenance company is being paid directly from each village’s Water Committee’s Fund. contributed to by all village households. All the electrical & pumping systems are working well and all taps and pipe work are routinely checked.M,Bullet Ba the largest village currently has Dalasis 34000 deposited in their water maintenance fund and Njongon has D18652 deposited. Bafaluto recently sold a small plot of land to cover exceptional maintenance after the electrical storm caused damage.In the vegetable gardens there are 116 families with plots in Njongon and 56 families with plots in Bafaluto and they are producing harvests of a variety of vegetables and the women pay D325 to join and then D25 per harvest.About 50% of the vegetables are eaten in the village and the balance sold at the local market and the proceeds divided between the village development fund and the individual growers.The beekeepers now have over 50 hives to look after and again the proceeds are divided between the individuals who are responsible for them and the village development fund. They produce honey for consumption and the beeswax is used among other things to “waterproof” the exterior of our bricks.Last year we introduced the making of beaded jewellery to the women and they are now selling it in the local market as well as at birth and marriage ceremonies.Pens for goats, ducks & hens, have been erected and an Animal House for the breeding & raising of rams is now completed.The brick machines are in commercial use and the young men making the bricks now earn a fair wage related to their output. They have the potential to turn out over 1000 bricks a day. We now need a good salesman !We are so proud of the giant steps all three villages are making in becoming self sufficient. This was only made possible by the support you gave us & the trust you put in PING Charity that we would get the job done. When given the opportunity the villagers have shown the commitment to bring the various projects to fruition. Well done everyone. But we cannot live on past glories. There are at least another 7 villages we know of who are equally deserving of having Clean Drinking Water & some economic activity to enable people to rise above a life of poverty & pure subsistence. To replicate the success we have had with the first 3 villages we need approximately Euro60.000 per village. 2011-05-16T16:01:03+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf During the first months of 2011 our projects in The Gambia have blossomed with the water systems all fully operational ,and even better the villagers have gathered a fund of 25000 dl (about 600 STG) to support the water system into the future.These funds are being generated by themselves with the brickmaking machines ,beekeeping,and the vegetable gardens. You can see from the photos below that the gardens are producing great crops which ar helping the diet and being sold in the market.We have had several donors visit the sites and reported back how delighted they are with the progress and what temendous work Momadou and his team are completing.The original 20 beehives have now grown to 53 in Njongon.The women are making and selling local beads .A new chicken and duck house is being completed which will also accomodate the goats ,as you can see in the photos.We are delighted that the projects are developing their own impetus now and hope you can see how our model has benifitted so many.Unfortunately there are several villages all waiting for help as well,please consider sending a donation or visit our jewellery pages and buy a lovely birthday present as all the funds from that go to our project. 2011-04-14T14:36:56+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf The Gambia has had terrible electric storms which damaged our invertors which convert the energy to draw up the water,so they have now been fixed and work carried out on the Bafaluto tank completed.So all sytems are go again. Jewellery Sales.You never know when an idea comes along that really works. We are now making and selling jewellery to raise more money for PING. A new section in the web site will show what is available and we can make pieces to suit specific dresses and occasions. It has already raised 7000stg in the last 5 months , and all that money has gone to Gambia. Pamela taught the girls in Mbullet Bah how to make the bracelets and necklaces and they have made some as well and posted them to us and we are selling them . .Some of the stones we bought in The Gambia have made up beautifully with semi precious stones. Most of our semi precious stones are from Thailand. Thanks to Andrea and Siobhan for their work in making and selling along with ourselves.If you would like to see the jewellery just e mail us and we can send you photos on flickrThe water is flowing in all three villages and we are delighted with the progress of the market gardens, and crops are being produced in both wet and dry seasons.The major work in the last three months is a new animal house and a new brick making area, these have been constructed beside the bore hole and solar panel areas, and it will be permanently manned for security.Money is being accumulated in the villages to pay for the water maintenance and we are consolidating at present to ensure everything is moving along correctly in all three locations and we have very little funds with all economies so toughbut if anyone out there can help us we would love to hear from you as there are many more villages who need our help. 2010-11-16T11:37:24+00:00 http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/ http://www.pingcharity.co.uk/index.php/news/article/sdfsdf That is what we saw on the faces of the villagers last week in Njongon and MBullet Ba. Thanks to all the people who have helped us raise the funds,and especially to all the people from Cyprus who contributed 60,000 euro to the project.in 2009.The total project was delivered on time and in budget working out at a cost of 30 euros per head of population. The Borehole is 300 ft(90 mts) deep.  There are 48 solar panels with a heavy duty invertor providing energy to the submersible pump drawing the water up to the storage tank ,capacity 25,000 litres of water. The village youths had dug 4.5 km of trenches to run the pipe distribution to the standpipes. Incredibly hard work in such high temperatures. M’Bullet Ba has its standpipes in the centre of the village at the end of the long 3km pipeline and Njongon has its standpipes spread around the village. The two villages worked together and share the responsibility for the central area where the borehole and solar panels and tank are located. This area is securely fenced off but will have a full time security guard at night. Using our own bricks & trained construction team we will build a proper Production Facility adjacent to this area which will house our 2 brick making machines. We have a tractor & trailer which will bring raw materials to the machines & gives us the ability to deliver finished bricks to future customers. This building activity provides good employment for a number of men & contributes to the Village Development Fund The population of the two villages is well over 3,000 people who now have clean drinking water for the first time,and they have economic activities to pay the for future maintenance. There is a maintenance contract in place and arrangements in place already for collecting a levy from each family. The market gardens are looking good with three harvests a year being achieved by some .The tractor is being used to till larger areas of land adjacent to the villages. The training school is still teaching the local youths about agriculture,bee keeping,animal husbandry and tie and dying. Their education has increased to include plumbing, carpentry and general construction . The villagers gratitude was immense but we had all worked as a team and their trench digging was substantial , indeed critical in achieving the end result. The women were also essential in the organisation of this work and really appreciate that their kids will have clean drinking water. No more gathering sticks to boil water ,they just turn on the tap !  We are however very aware that all the families still have the back-breaking task of carrying water from the Stand pipes to their homes. This is done in 18/20 litre yellow containers, that’s 18/20 KGs each. Alot of this is done by the kids. We have identified a product which contains 90 lts of water & can be easily “rolled” home, it’s a Hippo Roller (www.hipporoller.org) . They are manufactured in S Africa and to date the company has made in excess of 300,000, distributed mainly in Southern African countries. Our target in 2010 is to bring in a 20ft container of these at a cost of $21,000 (Euro 16,000) On our website we will be offering people the opportunity to buy a single (or more ) Hippo Roller, cost $125 (Euro 90) We also spent time in Bafaluto our first village where after 3 years the tank is being maintained and water flows around 11 standpipes. Their market garden is doing really well and has brought significant economic development to the village. There is even a Beauty Salon & a Business Centre primarily selling cement & building blocks to the folk who are attracted to come & settle in Bafaluto. No sooner were the celebrations over but we were taken to an even poorer group of villages a few kms down the road who are desperate for clean water!  So please act now and help us because we have proven that we have a successful, “good value for money”, model that really works in providing a long term sustainable source o Sheer Joy 2010-04-10T12:00:19+00:00