A GROUP of eight Cornwall Young Farmers, including members from the Camelford club, recently made their way to Gatwick Airport to fly to west Africa to visit a remote rural village in the Gambia.

Members from Camelford, Wadebridge, St Buryan and Callington clubs took part in the trip that county chairman of Cornwall Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, Cat Ede, had initiated, having travelled to the Gambia herself before.

Cat wanted to bring something different into her year as county chairman, and wanted to give members the opportunity to experience what she had of a remote, rural African village, and allow them to see first hand a different culture and village life in one of the poorest countries in the world.

The group stayed in a village called Bissary Mardi, 80 miles inland from the capital of Banjul. There is no electricity in the village, and water is sourced from two hand-pumped wells that are bored over 35 metres into the ground.

Despite the presence of the Gambia River, which runs through the middle of the country, only one sixth of the land is arable and poor soil quality has led to the predominance of one crop — peanuts.

During the visit, ground nuts were being harvested with oxen pulling implements to help with the harvesting. The group thought it was great to see the donkey carts carrying away the forage to store, and feed to their sheep, goats, donkeys and cattle during the height of the dry season.

Members helped cook with the women of the village, grounded cous cous, saw the locals’ compounds and how they lived, as well as their feed stores and cook houses, and sat and talked to villagers at length about their way of life.

Bex Brewer, a trainee chef from Wadebridge, enjoyed seeing a different culture and how preparation of food differs in a third world country.

The group travelled under guidance by the Plymouth Bissary Aid Project, set up by David Compton. The project, since moving to the village in 2007, has made provision for clean water supplies, helped with building projects and educational facilities at the local school, and has set up a health centre which is manned twice a year by medics that travel over with the project.

Everyone got involved with all aspects of the Bissary Aid Projects. Everyone had a chance to help in the medical centre taking temperatures, registering patients and helping with wound dressings.

There is usually no formal medical provision in the area, so when the clinic is manner, sometimes over 250 men, women, children and babies attend each day from long distances, by donkey cart or on foot.

The clinic is better resourced than many Gambian health centres, even hospitals, as shortages are frequent elsewhere.

Becky Franklin from Delabole said: “So many patients presented at the medical centre with ‘general body pain’ or a ‘night time cough’, the sorts of things we would simply remedy by popping into a local pharmacy or supermarket. This is not possible in the Gambia, and the closest hospital was over 20 miles away, only accessible to those that could afford to travel there and pay for treatment.

“We are so lucky in this country to have the NHS where healthcare is accessible to everyone.”

Katie Blewett, from St Buryan, is a dental assistant who was on the trip. She said: “For me, it was eye opening to see the extent of dental decay in the village, due to a lack of access to dental care/prevention and the presence of sugar in their diet — they take sugar in tea to a whole new level when making their Attaya!

“Teeth are removed if they cause pain, no x-rays, no root canal treatments to save them or dentures or implants to replace them. We take for granted our simple access to a toothbrush and toothpaste, and even over the counter medicine such as paracetamol and cough syrups.”

Everyone visited the school and got the chance to sit in on classes, and even take part in a bit of teaching.

Becky Howard and Bex Brewer from Wadebridge, and Katie Gill from Camelford, all went into classes with toothbrushes to teach children how to use a toothbrush instead of the traditional stick.

The girls said: “We all taught the importance of cleaning teeth and were able to give new toothbrushes to all the nursery children from brushes that were donated.”

Beth Bosley, from Camelford Young Farmers, led a sports day for the local school, with around 250 students who took part in lots of different activities.

She said: “They did the traditional races like sac race and running races, as well as their own twist, including a race with water buckets on their heads. All the equipment we used was donated by local sports companies, which we took over and donated to the school.

“We all got to join in too, which was great fun and everyone had a good day and really enjoyed it.”

Before leaving for the Gambia, the group held a fundraiser to raise money to construct an animal shelter for the villagers’ sheep and goats.

During the wet season, up to 10% of the sheep and goats get sick and die, and this was something the group wanted to help prevent.

Emma Bennet from Wadebridge noted how minimum tools, lack of materials and resources makes these projects impossible for the village and with their help, a real difference has been made to the villagers in providing shelter for their livestock.

The village relies on being subsistence farmers for their next meal, therefore livestock and crops are their lifeline.

A quiz night and raffles raised enough money to built two shelters, which was well received by the villagers in Bissary Mardi.

Thanks have been extended to all who helped raise funds and supported the group.

Cat said: “It was a pleasure to take a great bunch of members of Cornwall Young Farmers on this adventure and a lifetime experience. We are now all missing the Gambian way of life, and the friendly faces that greeted you as you walked around the village.”

Katie added: “No matter what time of day it was, you were always greeted by a big smile and good morning!”