Projectgambia2009′s Blog

The Journey begins blog

January 2008…pamela

January started with a trip to The Gambia to check the feasibility of undertaking an elective placement at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital. A trip to Banjul where the hospital is and I managed to talk one of the midwives into giving me a tour of the unit. If I had not lived in The Gambia previously it would have been a real eye opener, with overcrowded wards and very little in the way of hi-tech equipment. But there was evidence that gloves and sharps bins were used, which was a prerequisite of the university. Later the same day I also paid an impromptu visit to a small maternity clinic in Serrekunda. This really was an eye opener, the clinic had three delivery rooms, each with two beds, no doors, so no privacy. The midwife in charge cheerfully told me that they often have to deliver women on the floor of the main room when the beds are full. At the outside waiting area I spotted two children trying to hook something off the top of a wall I looked up to see the object of their interest, it was a sharps bin! needless to say they were told to leave it alone. The day served to prove I definitely want to take my elective placement here and I still want to fulfill my dream to one day return here and open a maternity clinic.

The next days were spent trying to organize some of the more practical aspects of the trip. Francis Glynn founder of GTS & GETSuk and friend took us to his compound which houses accommodation for GTS members, this consists of a couple of apartments and a lovely 2-bed house with a roof terrace, that I have said to Francis I would like to rent when I come out. David & I then went to visit a friend from our time living there. His name is Heiner, a German guy who runs a charity teaching young Gambian men to be mechanics. Heiner offered me the use of a Toyota Jeep for the duration of my visit, the jeep is in the yard waiting to be repaired I’m very grateful but skeptical that it will ever be road worthy!!!

Later that same January…Pamela

On returning to a cold grey Liverpool, Ashley who had said prior to my going that she might be interested in coming with me for her elective, saw the photo’s and was hooked. Now all we need is permission & the money to do it!!!!

August 2008…Pamela

David & I met up with Francis from GTS/GETSuk and his lovely wife Filley, who are on their annual visit to the UK, Francis suggested some ideas for fundraising and said he will look at the cost of our accommodation.  A week or so later Francis e-mailed to say he will only charge us enough to cover the staffing costs and he will cover the cost  of the power & gas, effectively helping us to the tune of 100′s of pounds, we are both bowled over by his generosity . Ashley & I had already discussed raising money to take out as donations for Operation Save a Baby, but it was the gesture by Francis that made us vow to raise money for GETSuk as well.

September 2008…Pamela

Our third year begins, we are both incredibly excited about our elective trip, but daunted by the amount of work we have to do academically before we go!

October 2008…Pamela

Our official request to go to The Gambia has been sent in to the university this month, we also heard from Heiner who assures us not only will the jeep will be ready, but that he will cover the insurance for us. People’s generosity continues to amaze us.

January 2009…Ashley

hello! new year and we’re busy busy busy with uni work and plans for our elective placement! It all now seems in reach, a relief after all the hard work we’ve all put in over the last 2 1/2 years. The latest progression is to apply for funding support from the wellbeing of women foundation who offer elective burseries to medical and midwifery students embarking on elective placements. This would be an enormous help for us, to help cover the cost of flights and maintenence, though we are well aware that there are many many others applying for these burseries! The closing date isn’t untill march, so we dont expect to hear for a while- but fingers crossed!

February 2009… Pamela

After a few quiet months concentrating on our academic work & waiting to hear from the RVTH & Uni for permission, I eventually call the RVTH and hit a problem. The contact I had has become unavailable and Uni is concerned at the lack of contact. So a few frantic calls later and some well placed advice from Francis (the man is our saviour!) and I have found another clinic willing to take us. Uni are more than happy with this change, e-mails have gone back & forth and on the 12.2.09 we finally have the green light, so now it’s all systems go go go!

One of the main fund-raising ideas we had was to do a fire-walk as a fire-walk company offered Francis free places, but on making contact it turns out the fire-walk will take place in Fife, which is just too far so we have had to drop this idea.

March 2009…Ashley

A few weeks ago I sent a cheeky email to huntleigh diagnostics asking if they would be interested in donating any equipment for us to take with us…and they are! Today I have been sent a desktop doppler, a wonderful gift that is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

March 2009… Pamela

I am planning to do a few boot sales to make up the shortfall in my savings to cover the trip. Now the fire-walk has fallen through & time is getting short, what with dissertations & essays to write, we have decided to have further boot sales once I’ve raised my money just to raise cash for the charities (we’re not happy to do both at the same time as we want people to know exactly what the money is for) and this means people who give us items to sell know its for the charities.

Our next project is putting this web-site together as we are hoping that those of you who can’t come and spend your money at the boot sales & want to help can donate via pay pal or by sending either of us cash or cheques, any donations we will acknowledge on our Thanks To… page, please, please help if you can both charities deserve help xx We plan on keeping this blog going not only till we go but right through our trip.

March 7th 2009…Pamela

Exciting email today from Heiner the jeep is ready and looks fantastic, check out the pics below…

March 19th…Pamela

The site has been ‘live’ for two days now and we have had an amazing amount of hits. Feedback has also been really positive. Donations have started to come in as well which is so exciting. The only downside is that  my attempts at studying today have been poor as I keep coming on here to see how many hits we’ve had. Really must try harder tomorrow!!

March 24th…Pamela

We have been up & running for a week now and the response has been great, lots of visitors to the site and our Facebook group has over 170 members. Donations are starting to trickle in, which is great and lots more people have pledged to donate, so all in all things are going great. We are hoping to book our tickets in the next week or so and Ashley has seen the Dr about injections & anti-malarials.

March 27th…Ashley

Back in January I applied to the wellbeing of woman foundation for a grant; they give out 10 bursaries of £1000 each out to students embarking on elective placements every year. I’ve just found out that 230 applications have been made for these 10 bursaries so it’s not looking good!! fingers crossed thou-what better cause to support than the education of midwives? The very people present at the birth of every new family! We do have a huge scope for influence, it’s quite awe inspiring when you think of it like that.

If anyone has any ideas/links to/knowledge of foundations like the wellbeing of woman who are designed to help students like us please let us know-we are very grateful for any help!!

March 28th…Ashley

My wonderful brother Jak has organised a gig to help us raise some funds for our cause! His band, ‘Self Conscious’ are performing at Abberley Village Hall, Worcestershire on Saturday 4th April so if any of you are from the Worcestershire area please join us between 8-10 pm. Jak is the Drummer, Josh is on Guitar and Vocals, Jono is on Guitar and Chaz is on Bass. This is a fantastic gesture and I’m am very grateful to all the lads! I will be posting a video of them playing so keep checking out site…

April 1st…pamela

We’ve had a really good few days. Sunday I got a visit from an old friend with a £20 donation which was totally unexpected. We continue to get lots of hits on the site, which is great news as hopefully more hits means more donations. This morning the postman arrived with a package of journals from The Practising Midwife for us to pass out to midwives in The Gambia. An hour later and another delivery, this time a pop-up mosquito net that we can use both indoors & out. But the really exciting part of the day was booking the tickets with the Gambia Experience. Both Carole & Katie have been great in sorting our flights out, they not only gave us a discount on the flights, but have also organised  extra baggage allowance for us, which means we now have room to take all our donated goodies with us. Now all we have to do is get on with our academic work!!

April 2nd… Another day another donation! this time £5 from one of our classmates Shanaz, thanks to her & also a big thanks to MIDIRS who have sent us pinards, pens & journals, so along with the other midwifery goodies means we can now put together gift sets for midwives in The Gambia. We have also organised a class fund-raiser for next monday, which will be fun & a little sad as it is one of the last times we will be together as a whole group. It’s been an amazing three years with these ladies and I will be sad to see it come to an end.

April 4th…Tonight I have been back in worcestershire, and my brother jak and his band self concsious performed at our local village hall in aid of our charities! Thanks to Jak, Jono, Josh Chaz, and especially to Rosie (Josh’s mum) and my mum Sandra we managed to raise £60! woop! The lads were fantastic and I expect great things from them all Thanks!!

April 6th… Today was our last official lecture today in Uni, we had a film show after and a cake sale ( The lovely Lisa Goulbourn was totally responsible for the cakes, she truly is a master baker xx) and between the class we raised £50.50, an amazing amount, I am truly humbled by how generous everyone was, thank you all so much ladies xxx

May 26th…IT was all lies! The well being of women have just emailed me to say that Pamela and Myself have recieved thier bursary of £1000! This shall help us greatly with costs of our electives something that has been worrying us slightly, as opportunity to earn money are non existant as students doing this course!  In return we have been asked to write a report on our journey, something I plan on doing anyway as a personal diary! Cannot wait for Gambia now, just need to get this work in! xx

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