The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust is aiming to open a new centre, close to the Gambian capital of Banjul.

Great improvements

The current centre, which was opened 10 years ago, is in rural Gambia where it has brought great improvements to the welfare and productivity of working equines. This in turn has increased the owners’ income – some by up to 500%.

“The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust works in a holistic and sustainable way through a variety of community development and educational programmes,” explained charity director Heather Armstrong. “These programmes include training of equine professionals as well as school and farmer education programmes and a twice weekly ‘Donkey Club’ that local children can attend with their donkeys."

The new centre will be in a more urban area, which means a whole new catchment area will be able to benefit from the charity’s work. However, this hard work comes at a price and the trust needs to raise £100,000 to get it up and running.

Accept the challenge

To help with fundraising Heather has come up with a new initiative called the 333 Club.

“We thinks that £333 is a feasible amount of money for anyone to raise with one or two small scale fundraising events or challenges, so we just need to find 300 people – or clubs, groups, organisations ­– who are willing to accept the challenge,” said Heather.

All club members will have their names engraved on a plaque, which will be displayed at the new centre. The trust is also working on offering investors other benefits and bonuses, particularly if they visit Gambia.

If you are interested in finding out more about the 333 Club, you can email Anna Saillet at anna_ghdt@hotmail.co.uk.