Gambia : Going to the Gambia
With no electricity, one water tap, 1500 children and only 34 teachers, Soma Lower School is rundown and overcrowded. However, it is about to experience a change for the better with a visit from thirty-two members of the Southampton University Training Corps (SUOTC), who are off to this remote region of the Gambia on a humanitarian mission to rebuild a derelict classroom building at the school which was destroyed by severe storms.
The project is part of the Lord Lieutenant’s Millennium Project and the students will have just eight days to complete the task, which will be physically challenging and carried out in high temperatures. The lucky cadets were chosen from nearly 50 hopefuls and once selected they were set the task of filling a 20ft container with essential items for the community of Soma, where they will be based. The students rose to the challenge, and over the last few months they have worked hard to collect donations from businesses and organisations all over the South of England, including chairs and desks to furnish the finished school block.
Senior Under Officer Laurence Whittingham, a third-year economics student, said: "I think the biggest thing we will get out of it is the sense of achievement from doing something so worthwhile. The construction project is going to be very hard work, but at the end of the day it’s going to make a big difference for the children at the school. It’s going to be worth every ounce of effort."
‘Exercise Gambian Sapper’, as it is known, will not only change the lives of the Soma villagers, and open the eyes of Southampton students to a completely different culture and way of life, but also hopes to enhance the reputation of the British army as a force for good in the international arena. Captain Nigel Hill, Officer in Command of the exercise, described it as: "A fantastic opportunity for the students to develop leadership skills, work as a team and be self-reliant in a challenging and alien environment. It will give us all an enormous sense of well-being and there is no doubt we will be changing these people’s lives forever."
The students will also get the chance to link the trip to their degree; medical students will have the opportunity to see how Gambian clinics are run, and those studying teaching will be able to get involved in lessons at the school.
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