Calum’s Road encourages community in Gambia to follow DIY example
Scots crofter’s achievement prompts plan to carry out project in africa
Published:
THE heroics and dedication of a Skye crofter who single-handedly built a two-mile road to his croft has inspired a project in one of the poorest countries in Africa.
A community in Gambia has resolved to build its own four-mile road so its people can reach the nearest town in the rainy season.
And the African route will be called Calum’s Road, in honour of Calum MacLeod who spent 20 years building a road on the island of Raasay off Skye.
His story was told in a book, Calum’s Road, by Raasay writer Roger Hutchinson.
The tale captured the imagination of Max Murray, emeritus professor of veterinary medicine at Glasgow University, who is involved with the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust, established by the late Stella Marsden to reduce poverty by increasing the productivity of working animals through better welfare management.
Professor Murray said he wanted the road to be named Calum’s Road to celebrate the close links between Scotland and Gambia, and the similarity between Skye’s crofting community and Gambian subsistence farming. He said: “When I read Calum’s Road I was completely inspired by it and saw a lot of parallels. The aim of the trust is to teach self-sufficiency and practical skills, so I thought that, as it is too expensive to build the road commercially, the local people could build the road themselves.”
Heather Armstrong, who runs the Gambia trust on behalf of her late sister said: “Stella did so much in her short life to improve the lot of people there, and it was her dying wish that I should carry on her work and get the road built. I thought it was more than I could handle, but Professor Murray told me to read Calum’s Road and said ‘You can do it’. ”
Mrs Armstrong said the road had been a lifeline to the Gambian town of Kuntaur, but was washed away over the years during the rainy season. She said: “People have to strip off, carry their clothes on their heads and wade through water to get to the clinic, school or market, or to work in the rice fields.
“Sick people have to do it, and women have to carry babies above their heads. It’s horrendous and it’s like that for six months of the year.”
Mrs Armstrong said she is looking for funding to supply the materials for the road, and to find out how high it needs to be to be above the water level all year round. She said: “We think 200 to 300 local people will participate in the building of the road.”
Professor Murray added: “The first president of Gambia was a Glasgow vet student. There are many close ties between our countries.
“The work of the trust has resulted in school attendance going up from 100 to 400 in three years, because family incomes have gone up eightfold since the 600 local horses and donkeys became more productive.”
