Charity helps change lives for most poverty-stricken

Project Gambia: People Feeding People received its charitable status in November 2014 after being set up by pals Frank Devine and Paul Lafferty a few years before.

Their aim was to transform the lives of almost 300 children in one of the most poverty-stricken regions of West Africa.

The charity, whose target each year is to raise enough money to feed the entire school community of St John’s School for the Deaf in the city of Serrekunda for 12 months, fundraise all year to reach their goal.

They do so by a variety of methods including organising and promoting Modern Soul events where they have been able to attract some of the biggest soul stars in the world.

Frank said:“Project Gambia was established with the express purpose of creating a School Feeding Programme at St John’s, as all the available statistical evidence – including from the United Nations – have indicated that children are far more likely to attend school if they are being fed at their place of learning.

“Attendance rates go up, absenteeism decreases, the attention span of children improves, as does behaviour if children have been fed.”

Paul added:“The poverty we witness among the children at St John’s School for the Deaf really does shock you.

“There are no other words for some of the heartrending scenes of squalor in the area and it’s difficult not to be emotionally affected by it all.

“It makes us want to do as much as we possibly can to help these children who face incredible obstacles to getting on, being doubly discriminated against on account not only of their poverty but also in relation to their hearing disabilities.”