Ten sport students from South Nottingham College travelled to the Gambia as a reward for their volunteering efforts in Nottingham. The students have all been involved in a range of sport volunteer activities during the year and have excelled in volunteering whilst studying on their course. Each student fundraised £550 to cover their flight and accommodation costs.

The BTEC Sport Development and Fitness students also undertook additional volunteering in the Gambia visiting five schools and putting on sport and physical activity sessions for nearly 400 primary and secondary schoolchildren with one of the schools being for deaf and blind children. The pupils really engaged with SNC students as PE is very limited with the Gambian curriculum. The students also distributed donated sport kits from Forest, Notts FA and tennis balls from the LTA.

Diane Garfield, Community and Performance Sport Manager said: “This was an amazing opportunity for College students to learn more about other countries and cultures whilst delivering sport and physical activity to local people. The students had an immeasurable, life- changing experience seeing such extreme poverty, poor school conditions and how the children learn.”

South Nottingham College already has strong links with the Gambia. In 2008 the College was instrumental in setting up a tourism school running courses to help the country promote its own tourism industry.

For further information about the trip please contact Diane Garfield 0115 9146405 diane.garfield@snc.ac.uk