Kinkeling Community Garden – Sound Of The Gambia

Our mission

We aim to create a sustainable organic garden and arts centre, to help support livelihoods in the community and to work towards making a positive impact on social and environmental issues such as; health and well being, cross cultural dialogue, deforestation, and imbalance of wealth.

Who are we?

The Kinkeling Community Garden and Arts Centre is a cross - cultural initiative founded by Allan Kerr, a musician based in Devon in the UK, and Kabiro Marong, of Essau Village, The Gambia.

The name Kinkeling translates as ‘to cooperate’ and is from the local Mandinka language. This name sums up what is special about the project – People working together for each other.

At the heart of the project is the 3 acre garden in the Gambia, which is used communally by several local families, for growing vegetables and fruit trees. This supports the community and also provides a wonderful environment for music, drumming, dance, meeting people and experiencing the everyday joys and challenges of Gambian life.

Instead of focusing on the negatives of Gambian life, we are working with the positives of having a strong community, amazing musical traditions and in our case, a well established relationship and a willingness to work together to create a vibrant and meaningful experience.

Install a Borehole – This will allow us to have clean drinking water on site and to plumb in taps and an irrigation system. As well as the borehole we want to use solar power to pump into a tank and use gravity to feed our needs. £2500

Complete The Fence – Our successful fundraising so far in 2015 has meant that the fence is 80% complete, with just some small remaining sections of wire net needed and 3 gates. The fence will help to protect the growing plant nursery by keeping livestock from neighbourling areas out. £400

Guest accommodation: We are going to make the project sustainable as well as successful. We need to be able to welcome guests from abroad for volunteer and educational trips (traditional drumming, dance, mud brick building, sun catching etc). With just a few visitors staying each year and contributing towards food and accommodation, we could sustain and grow the project. We very much look forward to welcoming you from winter 2016/17. £3500

Caretakers Salary: £50 per month is a fair salary in the Gambia. In order for Kabiro and Fatou, who have 8 Children, to focus their attention on the project, we want to make sure we pay at least this amount for 1 year, until we are ready to open up to visitors. Cost: £600

What we have achieved so far

Allan has been travelling to The Gambia since 1996, and has known some of the people involved for nearly twenty years. In this time together with the local people he has planted coconut, mango, cashew, and other fruit and nitrogen fixing trees, dug and lined an open well, and almost completed a fence to keep livestock out. We have also established strong links with local musicians and crafts people, ran several camping trips for drumming students from abroad, and built a simple house for Kabiro and Family. Because of the strength and length of the relationships we feel confident in working together to grow the project.

Other Ways You Can Help

And whether you can afford to contribute financially or not, please share this campaign and our perks with friends and family, and generally spread the love! Thank you!!