The Following Groups Helped the Video Griot Project in Video Creation
The Association of Farmers, Educators, and Traders (AFET) is an educational organization that provides training for farming communities. They were the experts in the Tomato Paste Video, Neem Seed Oil Video, and Neem Soap Video.
The Bakau Craft Market is a tourist market by the ocean. They sell clothing, jewelry, art, and wood carvings. This market allowed us to come video their wood carving skills.
Bajana Gamtel Women’s Kafoo
The Bajana Gamtel Women’s Kafoo organized a palm kernel oil processing display for us to record. They made a special batch just for us and showed us all the steps along the way. They were wonderful.
BEECause focuses on beekeeping for sustainable income generation. They were the experts in the soap-making, lotion-making, and honey and wax processing videos. Their trainers work with villagers and extension workers to improve local beekeeping skills.
Kembujeh Sabu Kunda Women’s Association
This organization shared their tie and dye making skills with us. They had originally learned their craft through A.F.E.T.
Hannah was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Gambia from 2000-2002. She could not be prouder to be a product of the Peace Corps, The Gambia and she treasures her connections there. The Peace Corps helped us with technical skills and video creation throughout the project. Peace Corps Agriculture Project Assistant, Momodou Bah, was the technical expert for most of our agriculture videos.
Sankalangba Women’s Group
This kafoo was composed of our neighbors and friends. They agreed to learn to make batik for the Video Griot project. They continued to use these newly acquired skills to make batik cloth and sell it to earn extra income for their families.
Wellingara Model Horticulture Center
This is the training center for the Gambian Department of Agriculture. They were very generous to share their gardens and nurseries with us to video in and their trainers to be experts in our videos. They even allowed us to use their conference rooms for a meeting of organizations before the end of the filming trip.
Women’s Initiative The Gambia is an organization that helps financially poor groups of women improve their incomes. This branch of the organization focuses on recycling and waste management. They were the technical experts in our purse making video and our mango jam video. They become our good friends and close partners. They did all the shopping, food prep, and cooking for our organizational meeting during our filming trip.
American Organizations That Have Helped
GambiaHELP
GambiaHELP is a 501(c)[3] non-profit NGO based in Seattle, Washington who has supported the Video Griot Project. It is run by volunteers, so 95% of all donations go directly to projects in Africa. Director Shelby Tarutis has been working personally with tribal chiefs, women’s groups and villagers in The Gambia for more than 30 years.
GambiaHELP provides educational funds, books and medical supplies, and supports practical, sustainable projects such as making soaps, mosquito nets, decorative fabrics and rice-milling machines. Such businesses are then managed and expanded by local women’s groups.
GambiaHELP’s projects arise from the needs and dreams of the Gambian people. Each community donates 25% of its project’s cost in the form of land, services or labor. Because of this personalized commitment, GambiaHELP’s projects have lasting results that benefit entire communities.
GambiaHELP is an all-volunteer nonprofit based in Seattle. The organization was founded in 1999 by Shelby Tarutis following her Peace Corps experiences in rural Gambia, West Africa, where she saw first-hand how much the local people can do with just a little help. She attended Evergreen State College earning a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. She later obtained a Masters of Public Health from the University of Washington specializing in health services.
Mission Statement
GambiaHELP exists to enable people in Gambia to protect, conserve and improve their own health, the health of their communities, and that of their natural environment. Providing books, educational opportunities, seed money and human resources, the group helps communities build sustainable economies and preserve their environments.
Shelby Tarutis, Director
206-660-5826