The Rotarian ethos of helping others across the world has been ably demonstrated as a husband and wife team from Middlesbrough have collected old school furniture and shipped it to schools in The Gambia.
Rotarians Phil and Sue Taylor have been collecting unwanted furniture from schools in Teesside and shipping them to the Brusubi area of The Gambia to ensure that young people in schools don’t have to share old benches and stand up to do their school work. The couple have been actively collecting furniture for more than a decade since holidaying in The Gambia when ex teacher Sue decided to visit schools in the region.
“I was immediately concerned at the lack of facilities that the children had and I saw the need for play equipment, books and crucially, furniture. From my time teaching, I recognised that many schools in the UK were disposing of tables and chairs and set myself the task of reusing them where they were most needed.”
Their latest collection has utilised old, redundant furniture from English Martyrs School in Hartlepool who are undergoing a new school building programme including a batch of new furniture. Altogether, more than 1000 chairs and 300 tables will make the long 4000-mile sea journey to west coast of Africa where they have been allocated to a very needy school. In November, High Tunstall School in Hartlepool will donate their old furniture too.
The furniture isn’t the end of the matter though as far as Phil and Sue are concerned.
“We’ve been doing a letter exchange with Year 5 and Year 6 children from Easterside Primary for several years now to a lovely school in the region run by a German foundation. It’s very rewarding and the children love getting the letters. We also do a follow-up assembly to all the schools that have donated as this opens up the children’s eyes to how their peers are schooled in the third world,” said Sue.
“This is typical of the charity work we do at The Rotary Club of Cleveland. Our members use their individual skills and their time to improve the lives of others while having great fun in the process. It’s very worthwhile and I’d encourage anyone who wants to know more about our project or Rotary in general to get in touch.”
