“The children had great fun with the Frisbees, it was lovely to watch them.”

Amy Lamond describes how playing with a group of children was among the highlights of a trip to a West African country where she helped at an educational charity the Gambian Schools Trust.

Amy, who lives in Thackley, became involved with the Saltaire-based trust through a neighbour, Christine Brown, who has volunteered with the trust twice a year for the past 12 years and is one of its trustees.

“I had heard about it and wanted to go out and see what life was like for myself,” says Amy.

On the trip she visited four schools, including Hart House, a special school for children with learning difficulties and a nursery school.

“Often, in this culture, a child with a learning disability will be kept indoors all the time, hidden from others.”

Like children in the UK, Gambian youngsters attend school from Monday to Friday.

“We got involved in counting and singing - we did a lot of singing - and then we had fun blowing bubbles,” she said.

“We took some bubble sets over with us – the children loved them. Sometimes it was left to us to decide what to do and at other times their teachers chose."

Making peanut brittle was among the activities they shared with the local community, as well as making a fish supper where we went to the beach and collected the fish from local fisherman, then went to Serekunda Market - which is huge - for other ingredients. Then we cooked curried fish which was then served up for ten local men.

Prior to flying out to The Gambia, Amy and Christine collected donations from generous members of the public to take to the school for learning and play, including pens, pencils, rulers, notebooks, dot-to-dot books, footballs and frisbees.

“We were given a charity allowance of ten kg to take things over,” said Amy, who works for West Yorkshire Joint Services.

“They have blackboards and basic necessities but they don’t have computers.”

The schools were all in villages well away from areas visited by tourist. “Some of them had never seen a white person and were mesmerised by us,” says Amy. “They were so happy to have us there. Some of the children had not seen nail varnish before and were coming up to touch my fingers.”

Some of the children could speak English.

The Gambian Schools Trust is a small educational charity run by six unpaid trustees who donate their time, energy and administration costs freely. All trips to the country made are funded by individuals, meaning that every penny donated goes directly to the school or project for which it was intended.

Through the generosity of its supporters the trust – which works in partnership with the Gambian Ministry of Education - has been able to build, equip and maintain five nursery schools - three with school gardens - provide six libraries and provide space for donated materials and furniture.

The charity has also built two village wells and converted four open wells into sealed hand pump wells and helped to facilitate projects involving British businesses and universities.

Links have been established between many schools in the UK and the Gambia.

Amy enjoyed every minute of her trip and would like to return at some point in the future.

One of the founders of the trust Christine Schofield set up the charity in 2001 with the aim of supporting education in The Gambia.

“I had gone out with another charity and saw how great the need was,” she said.

“I came back, set up the trust and began fundraising.

“It has surprised me how much the charity has grown.”

The charity was later approached by Bradford couple Hilary and Steve Lawther who have a home in The Gambia and had been supporting children there.

In 2003 they became trustees and have played a major role in it ever since.

“Having a house in The Gambia means they can spend a lot of time out there which has made a big difference,” said Christine.

“They oversee all the projects, go and buy things and organise wages.

There are six hard working people on the charity’s committee – Christine, Hilary and Steve, Christine Brown, Linda Gunn and David Oldfield.

“We are all unpaid volunteers who fund our own travel to and from Gambia and all expenses,” said Steve.

“We spend a lot of time there.

“All money raised goes directly to help people in The Gambia, whether it be school dinners, teachers wages or building projects.

"The charity does not employ middle men or contractors we oversee all projects ourselves and ensure that the money is spent on the project it is intended for. We are very lucky to have such loyal supporters and helpers.”