My Gambian Experience
Whilst at a trade show early in 2009, I got chatting to a lovely lady called Vicki who was manning a stand on behalf of the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust (GHDT). It had always been an ambition of mine to complete some sort of charity work abroad and after explaining that, along with my business partner, I run a small business teaching children how to see the world from a pony’s point of view, Vicki mentioned that my work could come in handy and to get in touch with the charity director. An hour long phone conversation a few days later and I was signed up to go for two weeks in December 2009. My journey was so amazing it’s taken me a few weeks to process it all in my own mind and it’s been even harder still to condense it down in to a short article, but here it is…
After a six hour flight, an overnight stay in the capital, a three hour wait for a ferry, a six hour car journey, two 45 minute boat journeys and several wee stops in a prickly bush, the journey to the small village of Sambel Kunda in West Africa can only be described as epic. We arrived in the pitch black and could hear the commotion before we could see anything. It was over whelming, the whole village were out with drums and whistles; they were dancing, clapping and singing. The children were chanting ‘welcome, welcome, welcome’ and I heard one man say repeatedly ‘Heather is here and she has brought her friends’…wow… we had arrived!
In the early morning sun the following day, it was the first opportunity to get a good look at where we were. The charity have a large two storey house that caters for the large groups of volunteers that visit throughout the year. Overlooking the balcony are two large paddocks where the donkeys and horses have a good run around and leg stretch before the sun gets too hot (30 degrees would be considered a cool day!) and a short walk away is another yard for all the stallions.
22 of us have left the cold behind to come to Sambel Kunda to offer help in any way it’s needed including a vet, veterinary nurse and a small team whose sole purpose is to build a playground next door to the local school. I’ve come as prepared as I can be with lots of teaching notes, visual aids and lots of laminated pictures to show the children.
The first week of our stay is dedicated to the Horse & Donkey show, which is an annual event. We spend the first few days sorting out all the tack that has been kindly donated by people in the UK. We put up marquees, bunting and notice boards and on the night before the show, we already have competitors arriving. There are no luxury horse boxes here; some people have to get their horses and donkeys across the river and some have walked for two days to get to us.
Show day gets off to a flying start with the secretary’s tent inundated with competitors. Some horses and donkeys have just a thin piece of rope round the neck or through their mouths, so this is swiftly removed and they are sent off to their show ring sporting a new soft head collar. With such a large group for this year, there’s plenty of help for judging classes, stewarding, running the tack stall, first aid stall and manning the veterinary tent. The vet is busy all day treating various injuries, giving wormers and advising people to visit the dentist and/or farrier who are also on hand all day. The day is a resounding success, we see lots of horses and donkeys in beautiful condition, we have a fabulous write up in the main Gambian newspaper and the Donkey Club boys get to show off their new game of ‘Donkey Ball’ to a huge and excited crowd.
It takes another day to put everything away and once the volunteers for the first week are safely on their way home, it’s on with the general running of GHDT. Not only is there plenty to do at the GHDT site with daily wound checks on various animals, but they also travel round 10 local schools teaching children about the care of horses and donkeys and travel out to lots of markets each week to treat any sick or injured animals.
Going out to the local Lumo’s (markets) is where the harsh reality of the Gambia hits you; the days are long, hot and extremely dusty. People queue to see the vets and staff and we see everything from a horse with a septic tendon sheath, a horse with a badly swollen and broken penis, maggot infested wounds, burns, sores from poor harness, rubs and sores from tethering, abscesses, lots of horses with heavy worm burdens and levels of emaciation I have never seen. It sounds horrendous, but once you are there in the thick of things, you quickly get past the shock and have to just accept the reality of the place and get on with the job of patching them up as best you can and sending them on their way.
The charity is very well known in the area so sometimes on the way back from Lumo’s people would call and ask us to stop in to their compound on their way through, which we willingly do. There is currently a neurological disease affecting many horses and donkeys. It is not yet known what causes this but it’s very often fatal. I saw one such case with a little bay horse that had been down on the ground for three days before the owners called the GHDT staff. Generally speaking Gambians don’t believe in putting things to sleep on religious grounds, but when they could see how much this little horse was suffering, they agreed. It was a distressing experience and I fought every ounce of my being not to cry for him. But I was blown away by how professional and swift the GHDT staff were in dealing with the situation. They have received superb training from UK vets and they come in to their own in situations such as these. In order to learn more about this disease they had to take samples from various parts of his body, which is a job no one enjoys, but without these samples, they don’t have a hope of finding the cause.
Each evening everyone came back to the house and we filled each other in on how the day went. It’s not the easiest thing for such a big group of strangers to suddenly live together, but we came together brilliantly. From making each other laugh over dinner to looking after each other when a tummy bug worked it’s way round us, taking it in turns making the tea and keeping the gas powered fridge stocked with beer (what a luxury that was!).
During this trip, I quickly realised that all the things I had prepared to teach and show children were just not suitable. Even things that are so basic for us here in the UK, like providing ‘Fibre, Friends & Freedom’ are not appropriate. Gambians can’t offer an environment where their horse or donkeys have friends as they have a working animal, not a pet and they often struggle to support the one they have They can’t offer the animal freedom; when they are not working they are usually tethered to a pole within the family compound. In terms of fibre, they offer them what there is available, which is a hay so coarse that you snap each piece like a twig.
It also quickly becomes clear that you can’t come to the Gambia and tell people what to do. It’s far better to do things, let people see the benefits it brings and they’ll soon follow suit. As an example, I stood talking to a young boy about his donkey at the show. I stood gently stroking the donkey’s ears and neck and the donkey promptly leaned against me and fell asleep. Within a few minutes I had a group of children with me all eager to have a go and even starting to argue over who got to do it. Two weeks suddenly seemed like two minutes; I’d just about got used to the heat and dust, understood what is needed from an education point of view and begun to appreciate the sheer scale of it all, before I found myself boarding the plane to come home.
My experience in the Gambia has left me questioning so many things that go on in the UK. For example, if injuries like the ones we saw were sustained in the UK, the horse would be put to sleep without hesitation. As mentioned above animals are rarely put to sleep in the Gambia. But not only do they recover from their injuries; they recover extremely well and go back in to work, even from broken legs. It makes you think that perhaps we are too disposable with our horses here. Amazingly, they also recover from these injuries with little medical intervention, including pain relief. The charity relies on vets volunteering from the UK and often has to manage for several weeks without one present. They also rely on drugs donated from the UK, so once they run out there’s nothing else to offer.
I found the behaviour of the animals very interesting. You will see a lame horse, trotting down the road, pulling a fully laden cart, with rubs and sores all over him from the harness, but he doesn’t spook, nap or attempt to flee. They stand calm and still whilst you treat what must be painful injuries. They are resigned and accepting of their life where there’s never a mutual groom, a good roll or frolic in the sunshine with a herd of friends, but can they miss or crave something they’ve never had?
Another interesting thing is that the children ride on the rump of the donkeys and we all told them to sit forward. As soon as they did this, the donkey would dip his head to the floor, drop his shoulder and deposit the child on the floor! To be fair, the donkey doesn’t seem to mind the child sitting so far back and will walk, trot and canter on command. So, were we right to tell them to move? From the look we got from the child on the floor, I think perhaps he was OK as he was!
There are two people I met who cannot go unmentioned. The first is Heather Armstrong who runs the charity, a woman for whom there is no commendation high enough for what she does. She oozes a calm and radiant energy and yet works so incredibly hard. She’s constantly organising the next set of volunteers, ensures they have a safe (albeit long) journey and are well prepared for the task and environment ahead of them. She has to negotiate with officials, village elders, local dignitaries and the Gambian Government to continue her work or bring in something new. She organises training for the staff and teachers to keep them motivated and up to date so that they can offer the best possible care. She spends her year travelling to and from the UK (which as described above is no mean feat), she keeps everything running smoothly and is always so thankful of any small gesture offered to her charity. Along with other members of her family Heather has dedicated her life to improving the lives of the horses and donkeys of the Gambia and of the Gambian people by sponsoring their education and aiding their health care. As I tried to take stock of everything around me I found it hard to imagine what their lives would be like without Heather and her charity.
The second person is Anna, an Angel on earth if ever there was one. Anna is from the UK and is in her second year of volunteering there. She has to be so many things all at the same time. She has to be a nurse to sick and injured animals, a nurse to sick and injured people, she has to be a diplomat, book keeper, teacher, mother and mentor – she is a shining star; not only to the GHDT but to so many people and animals of the Gambia who have been taken under her wing. Nothing seemed to phase Anna and she never ran out of patience even when she must have heard her name called 100 times from people, all wanting something from her.
I have been humbled to tears during this trip; by the people I met and worked with, by the spirit and will of the horses and donkeys and I’m so very proud to have been part of this project if only for a very short time.
For more information on the Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust and to see photo’s of the amazing playground everyone worked so hard to build, please check out GHDT are also on Facebook.
For more information on the school sponsorship programmes, please check out
Joni Caswell