In May 2018 Tracy bought a traditional Gambian compound in the community of Kachikally, Bakau, Gambia and was very warmly welcomed by the local community.

She then came up with the mad idea purchasing a van and filling it with unwanted, donated items that family, friends and neighbours no longer wanted and rather than take them to the local charity shop brought them to Tracy’s garage instead!!!!  The generosity of everyone was incredible and very soon the van was full and was then shipped to Gambia and with the help of Alhagie all the items were distributed amongst the local community in Kachikally, Bakau and a rural village, Jalakota.

The van was then converted into a local bus and now provides someone with a job and a way to work and earn a living.

Being inspired by the generosity and how keen people were to support the project and also how much the items received in Gambia were appreciated we decided to try and support the community further.

After speaking to the local communities, it became apparent that the help and support that they would benefit from the most was through the donated clothing, school resources, bikes, sponsorships and money to improve facilities in the schools.  The bikes are needed more in Jalakota as for some of the children can walk for up to an hour to reach school every day and then an hour home so to have a bike to make this journey is a real luxury for them.

Our first project was in 2021 and through our fundraising we were able to support 2 schools.  Bakau Community School which was in great need of repair work and we were delighted to be able to replace 18 new windows for their classrooms with new frames and mosquito netting, buy new taps to enable the children to have access to clean running water and to replace the doors for their toilets.

Somita school in the rural area chose to spend their money we raised on much needed school resources, exercise books, text books, chalk, pens, pencils, etc.