International aid and development

Concern Universal

Enabling Gambian farmers to access the tourist trade

Concern Universal has set up a pro-poor, fresh produce marketing initiative in The Gambia, enabling the rural poor to benefit from the tourist trade.

The Gambia is Good (GIG) project was developed when Concern Universal’s research concluded that 78 per cent of hoteliers and restaurant owners wanted locally grown produce but community farmers had no means of selling their produce direct to this potentially lucrative tourist market. Technical support to producers, quality control, distribution, cold storage and effective marketing were the key requirements in creating a vibrant local market for Gambian produce.

In 2004, a partnership with the British horticultural company, Haygrove, was founded and a business plan was established projecting financial self-sustainability in five years. The implementation of business tools such as SAGE accounting, a customer database, production planning and delivery mechanisms means the business is on a strong footing and well on its way to achieving its five year target.

GIG is now supplying 40 per cent of the total tourist market in the country: 41 major customers, including Gambia’s only 5 star hotel and all three 4 star hotels. It purchases from 1,000 growers, 90 per cent of which are women. Women in the most rural communities, where they previously had virtually no cash income, are now making up to £150 per month.

To raise awareness amongst package tourists, Concern Universal has also developed a project in partnership with the Travel Foundation. It opens up one of the GIG demonstration farms to the tourist market, in which visitors eat the farm’s food and buy value-added GIG produce such as honey and pickles. It attracts up to 30 visits per week and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

The initiative has generated a new breed of dynamic young farmers in the country. One of GIG’s leading growers, Ebrima Jawara, from the North Bank in The Gambia said: “Last year I bought one pack of tomato seeds for 600 dalasis (£12). When I finished harvesting I had earned 22,000 dalasis (£450). I couldn’t believe it: I still have the receipts to prove it. I carved into the wall of my well the words: ‘to work hard it to achieve success’.

Dr Ian Williams
Executive director
21 King Street
Hereford
HR4 9BX
01432 355 111
www.concern-universal.org
Reg no. 272465

Beryl Thyer Memorial Africa Trust

Treating childhood cancer in Cameroon

The cure rate for childhood cancer Burkitt’s Lymphoma (BL) in tropical sub-Saharan Africa is below 20 per cent compared with the 80 per cent of childhood cancers cured in the developing world.

To improve these statistics, The Beryl Thyer Memorial Africa Trust investigates, treats and follows-up children in Cameroon who suffer from BL free of charge.

The work started in 2002, at the time the cure rate for BL in the country was less than 20 per cent and there was no Children’s Cancer Specialist or Children’s Cancer Registry.

In partnership with Professor Hesseling, a child cancer specialist, the Trust conducted clinical studies into BL in Cameroon and developed standard protocol for three hospitals. The protocol outlines the arrangement and timing of providing drugs for the disease. The Trust says the new protocol is expected to become the definitive regime for the treatment of BL in Africa for years to come.

The Trust now treats and provides drugs for about 150 children with BL each year and cure 50 per cent. This is a larger percentage compared with other workers in this field in Africa. Its Rescue Protocol – a more intense treatment designed for those children who relapse or prove resistant to treat – saves a further 40 per cent of them. Other innovations include the Ultrasound Study which enables hospitals to place patients in different risk groups.

The charity’s founder Dr. Peter McCormick said: “BL was being recognised and treated at our hospitals before the Trust was created. But the treatment was on an ad hoc/random basis. The necessary drugs were not always available; and if they were they were generally unaffordable by the parents of our BL children. With our help the survival rate is around 75 per cent which is close to level in the developed world.”

In the future, the Trust wants to start treatment other major childhood cancers, such as cancer of the kidney and Leukaemia. It also wants to set up Cameroon’s first Children’s Cancer Registry.

Trustee Michael Jeans said: “We have provided hope where there was none before to children suffering from the most common childhood cancer. The disease is fatal unless treated with the drugs our charity provides and the care our doctors give.”

It can be said that BL was being recognised and treated at our hospitals before the Trust was created. It is equally true to say that the treatment was on an ad hoc/random basis. The necessary drugs were not always available; and if they were they were generally unaffordable by the parents of our BL children. There was no database to confirm the outcome of those who were treated.

Michael Jeans
Secretary
The Orchard Cottage
16-17 Warkton Village
Kettering
NN16 9XL
01536 515 177
www.berylthyertrust.com
Reg no. 1112603

Railway Children

Helping runaway children rejoin their family

Railway Children provides runaway and abandoned children at stations in India with support. Since 2006, it has sought to reintegrate these children, where possible and when in the best interest of the child, into their families, rather than institutions.

Before 2006, Railway Children’s partners in India contacted children on the stations and provided night shelters or drop in centres. They then encouraged children to leave the street for residential homes with informal education and vocational training opportunities, funded children going to boarding schools or supported them with education while they remained on the street. Only a few children returned home.

This all changed, when the charity Sathi targeted new children on stations and tried to contact families within a few weeks. Through this an estimated 80 per cent of children would return home if supported with a month of taking to the street. Sathi then devised month long camps for street children who had been longer on the station and encouraged children to think of returning home as an option.

As a result of their success, Railway Children decided to replicate some of Sathi’s initiatives throughout its programmes with its other Indian partners. It trained Indian organisations jointly with Sathi staff and has run pilot projects with NGOs in Kenya and Tanzania.

Of the 16,000 children contacted and supported at stations last year, 3,689 were reintegrated with their families through Railway Children’s 21 NGO partners. This is an increase on the 300-400 returned by Sathi last year, and another 200-300 children who went home of their own accord or were lost and reclaimed by parents.

David Maidment, chairman of Railway Children said: “Children really belong at homes with families where practical and desirable and the work with our partners has enabled them to get back with the care and love of their families.”

David Maidment
Chairman
32 The Broadway
Nantwich
Cheshire
CW5 6JH
01270 627 170
www.railwaychildren.org.uk 
Reg no. 1058991

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