Beacon Academy trip to The Gambia

Hey!

I’m Izzy and I attend Beacon Academy Sixth Form. Since 1990, our school has been making trips to The Gambia where we have made groundbreaking progress in the local communities. We have provided money for anti-malarial drugs, paid for the building of schools, healthcare centres and water systems, built milling machines to prevent long-term injuries and provide food, among many other projects. Every single year students individually fundraise around £500, meaning we take a minimum of £10,000 to The Gambia every year. And this December it’s my turn!*

This trip is especially important as it is the first one since 2019 due to COVID-19. I am determined to raise as much money as I can to make up for these past 4 years, as is every other student attending. Our school is teaming up with the charity United Purpose to provide the money to these projects.

I understand this trip can come across as a bit out of touch or privileged - kind of white-saviour-ish. But for over 30 years our school has built a genuine connection with the local communities we visit. We have many preparatory lessons before we go to make sure we are educated about and respectful of their culture. We are encouraged to dive headfirst into the projects they want us to donate to and learn every crevice of it - become passionate about it like we are a part of the community ourselves. And I won’t say this lightly: we have a genuine chance to change and save lives that we wouldn’t have without this trip.

I am putting a lot of effort into fundraising events so please watch out for those in the next few months! Please donate anything you can to this incredible cause - I appreciate times are rough.

Thank you for reading.

* Any money we make in donations go directly to the local communities. Travel and accommodation expenses, etc, have already been covered personally.