The story so far

Over the past twenty two years, with your support, we have raised a considerable sum of money for local charities, as well as Bulock Village in the Gambia.

In 2001, The Childrens Diabetic Unit at Bedford Hospital received £700 and the following year, The Child Development Centre in Kempston, which looks after the educational and medical needs of children with special needs, received £750.

In The Gambia we have contributed over £2,500 to supply a solar panel and borehole pump for the medical centre, put a roof on the medical centre and contributed money to a major water supply scheme, which along with the money raised by the villagers themselves released a further £35,000 of EU money for a bank of solar panels and stand pipes all around the village. In 2004, the money raised extended this scheme by a further ten stand pipes.

The Keech Cottage Hospice, Luton was the chosen local charity in 2003, and received a donation of £780.

2004 was a great year, with a total of £2,850 raised. 50% of the money went to Happy Days Childrens Charity, who provide daytrips and holidays for children with special needs. Although this is a national charity, we requested that the money go towards benefitng children in Bedfordshire. The remaining money went to The Gambia to provide a solar powered electricity scheme for the Imam's (Village Chief) house, medical centre and one of the housing compounds. This is the first time that the village of Bulock has had any form of electric lighting.

2005 saw support for the MacIntyre home and in 2006, the Pasque Charity was selected as a benefactor.

2007 saw the purchase of a grain milling machine for Bulock village and also provided funds for a building in which it is housed. The people of the village now have a substainable and profitable business which allows them to use the additonal funds for their own requirements.

2008 has been by far our best year to date. We were able to purchase two page turners for the residents of Lenord Cheshire homes. For Bulock we have continued to provide an additional sustainable business in the form of sewing machines and we intend to provide a building for these as well.

2009 was fantastic with £7,300 raised. From a local perspective, we were able to provide new facilities for a local gentleman suffering from motor neurone disease and this has greatly increased his quality of life. The work on the sewing machine building in the Gambia is almost complete and we contimue to support the village in a number of other projects.