The charity was set up by Fiona and Bill Nelson who are brother and sister, born in Nigeria of British parents. Their love for Africa has never diminished and one day whilst reading the news from Africa Fiona stumbled upon a story from The Gambia about the plight of the country’s primary health care and how a small cut or graze can easily lead to the loss of a limb or an extended hospital stay if a bed can be found in one the country’s three hospitals. Fiona visited The Gambia in 2009 to see just how bad things were for herself. It was everything she feared and more. She visited schools and nurseries, spoke with teachers, helpers and other NGO care workers and quickly came to the decision that her First Aid Training skills were desperately needed in The Gambia to save lives.
On her return to the UK following discussions with her brother and his partner First Aid 4 Gambia was formed. They set about raising money, support, and the huge amounts of first aid supplies needed. The mission to return to the Gambia with an outreach team that will train the Gambian School and Nursery teachers in basic lifesaving first aid and provide them with first aid kits.
The first outreach team arrived in The Gambia in November 2009 when they started training 11 schools.
In 2013 Fiona decided to leave the charity to focus on other projects with which she is involved in.
There are many people from all walks of life involved in the running and fund raising of First Aid 4 Gambia. There is always so much to do and never enough help or resource. Please see our volunteer and donation pages and help us, train the people of The Gambia to help themselves.
