THE future of hundreds of young Gambians hangs in the balance because a Jersey charity has a temporary funding crisis.

Teachers training youngsters in The Gambia to learn essential skills have not been paid for two months and the charity is on a desperate search for enough cash to keep the work going until next September. A plea has been launched by the local couple who founded the Jersey Gambia Schools Trust for financial aid to keep a skills centre they founded four years ago running.

The skills centre where the children learn was built and funded by Islanders, including a Jersey Overseas Aid group who went to the remote village of Sohm in 2004 to construct buildings. The future of the charity – formed by St Peter couple Robin and Carol Mallet – will be secure from next September, as it has been promised funding from the Gambian government.

The Mallets, who worked as vergers at St Peter’s Church before retiring last year, set up the charity after going on holiday to the west African nation on a sunshine holiday in 1996. They saw the poverty of the area and decided that they could do something to help.

• Anyone who wants to assist can contact Robin and Carol Mallet on 481845 or e-mail carol@jerseygambiaschools.org.

• Picture: Carol and Robin Mallett, who formed the charity. Picture by Peter Mourant (00608144)