About The Project

This 4 week project is a new scheme developed by the Swansea-Gambia Link and Swansea University International Office and is part of the broader Wales for Africa Health Links Network. Ten post-graduate students from the Schools of Medicine, Human and Health Sciences and Arts and Humanities and Media Studies will travel to Gambia to carry out a research project looking at Health in the context of International development. The project aims to consider the inter-dependency between malnutrition and broader environmental and development issues. It will go towards helping the UN Millennium Development Goal paying particular attention to MDG 8 – A global Partnership for Development. The students will work together with students from Gambia University and Medical School to explore the immediate and broader factors that result in malnutrition. To do this they will utilise a case-study methodology, selecting one infant suffering from malnutrition and considering the social, cultural and environmental pathways that have led to the infant's illness.
Read the Blog in Welsh here
This is a student-led and student-maintained Blog. If you have any comments or questions, please contact Jimmy Hay at 341465@swansea.ac.uk

Sunday, 25 July 2010

Arrival


Team Gambia touched down on Gambian soil on Friday, and are now nicely settled in at our accommodation for the next four weeks, Dana Lodge. Cold showers have quickly become a luxury in the 32 degree heat, and the lodge’s two mango trees are providing us with fresh mangos for every breakfast!

Arriving on a Friday has been great as we’ve been able to find our feet and explore the surrounding areas this weekend, before getting started on the project on Monday. Yesterday we visited Bakau Market to pick up some fresh fruit, before heading to a local crocodile park. After a guided tour of the museum, we were led to the crocodile pen where we were assured all the crocodiles were so well fed they could happily be touched and stroked! Sure enough, after some initial trepidation, the team, one after another, approached a particularly lethargic looking croc who nonchalantly ignored them as they stroked his back, patted his sides and posed for photos.

The day then took a further eccentric turn as we had the rare pleasure of seeing the presidential procession on our way home. President Jammeh has been touring the country and our guide Bob informed us this was at best a once-yearly event, so not bad for our first full day in Gambia!

Today the team are relaxing a little in order to prepare our presentations for meeting the Gambian students tomorrow, who will make up the other half of the project. It’s exciting to finally be at this point, to be meeting the students that we’ve been liaising with so much but as yet haven’t met.

We have a guided tour of the hospital planned for the morning, and will finish by visiting the nutrition ward. It is here that the project will really begin to take form, and where the hard work can begin.


Read the Blog in Welsh here

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3 comments:

  1. indiatuel29 July 2010 at 01:22

    the beauty and the beast, hahaha, glad you will be able to taste the fruit produce of that wellcoming country, it sounds that you are all very busy and happy, lucky about the temperature, here it is cool at nights. Maria Rosa

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  2. indiatuel29 July 2010 at 01:24

    is that the entrance to your lodge???????, it look very welcoming that gigantic tree, seen a baobab yet? Maria Rosa

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  3. Unknown29 July 2010 at 23:48

    Rose, the words of 'Never Smile at a Crocodile' are running around my brain!. Glad all is going well. Sounds as if you have lots of very interesting work to do. Marie Xx

    http://bussongs.com/songs/never_smile_at_a_crocodile.php

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