A couple of our team members made a private trip to The Gambia over Easter and they took the opportunity to catch up with the Gunjur Guides.
Much has happened since our group was there last year - Jo at the
Gunjur Project and Alagi have been working really hard to try to find leaders to run the guide unit. Various options have been tested and currently the group is being led by the amazing and inspiring Betty Sambou. She's an incredible young woman who has 7 children but is still finding the time & enthusiasm to take on this project.
The guide unit has over 35 girls with a list of more who want to join. They are meeting in a couple of different local schools, every Saturday. We have provided them with a variety of resources and activity ideas.
Sue & Rachel visited the guide unit to see how they were getting on and gave Betty some feedback and suggestions on how she could adapt the meetings to make them easier to manage. Then they spent a couple of hours training the 5 patrol leaders. They gave the girls a set of cards with lots of different activities, which the PLs had to put into piles of what they would and wouldn't like to do at Guides. Then they had to prioritise them. This will be useful for helping Betty to plan her programme.
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| PLs choosing their preferred activities |
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| PLs looking at how guides can help them |
They explained to the girls that it's too big a job for Betty to do everything on her own, so the PLs need to help out more and be like her assistant leaders. The girls seemed happy to get involved in this way - if it works out, this will be a huge help to Betty.
The Guides are spending this weekend doing a community project, litter picking in their local area.
It was very encouraging to see how this new guide unit is flourishing and we can't wait to see how things develop over the next year before we meet with them again.
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| Betty and the Patrol Leaders |
