A dozen Sixth Form girls took part in a fourth mission to build educational opportunities for children in a poor and remote district of The Gambia, West Africa.

After a 24-hour flight delay, the girls left on December 15th to spend a week in Illiasa, 100 kilometres up country from the capital Banjul. They painted and decorated the walls of a new classroom at Mama Tamba Nursery School, which WGS funded this year. The group also taught literacy and numeracy lessons, which they had planned in advance, at an adult literacy centre built this year with funds raised at WGS.

Miss Browning, who led the mission, said: “Women are the main focus of our projects because they are the main educators. As the saying goes – if you educate the women, you educate the nation.”

She added: “This year we focused on existing projects, trying to make them self-funding.” The expedition was 12 months in the planning and the girls raised more than £6,000 through handbag and Christmas card sales, auctions and supermarket bag packs.