About Us and The Gambia
We’re an international team, working and serving together in The Gambia. Our desire is to share God's love in word and deed with the people of The Gambia.
Gambia welcomes short-term mission. It is best to stay at least six months, however, one to two years is more rewarding. So the longer you come, the better!
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The information on this website will provide you with a glimpse of the diverse range and wonderful work that the God has enabled us to develop over the last 53 years!
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WEC handed over the running of the Sibanor clinic to Evangelical Church of the Gambia in 2017. WEC continues to support the ECG church particularly in helping to recruit ex-patriate clinical staff (doctors, nurses, laboratory and pharmacy staff).
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This movie was shown at the celebrations for WEC's 50th anniversary of their work in Gambia.
The Gambia
The Gambia is a country in West Africa that is entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its coastline on the Atlantic Ocean at its western end. It is the smallest country on mainland Africa. The Gambia is a very small and narrow country whose borders mirror the meandering Gambia River. The Gambia is less than 50 km wide at its widest point. It is the smallest country on the African mainland. Banjul is the Gambian capital and the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama.
Gambia has a tropical climate. A hot and rainy season normally lasts from June until November, but from then until May, cooler temperatures predominate.The Gambia has a market-based economy characterised by traditional subsistence agriculture. There is also a significant tourism industry. A variety of ethnic groups live in the Gambia, each preserving its own language and traditions. The Mandinka ethnicity is the largest, followed by the Fula, Wolof, Jola, Karoninka, Serahule, Serers, Manjago, Bambara, Aku Marabou and others.
The cuisine of the Gambia includes peanuts, rice, fish, meat, onions, tomatoes, cassava, chili peppers and oysters from the River Gambia that are harvested by women.There are 30 people groups in the Gambia and 16 are unreached groups. The Gambia has a population of just over 2 million. 84% of the Gambian peoples have little or no access to the hope of the gospel. The largest religion is Islam at 84.4%. 4.8% profess to be Christian and of those 0.7% are evangelical.
SHED the Light Gambia:
who are we and what we do
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SHED the Light Gambia is a fundraising and volunteer resourcing charity supporting Health, Education and Christian outreach work being undertaken by the Evangelical Church of The Gambia (ECG) at Sibanor.
Historical Background
The work at Sibanor was initiated by German missionary midwifes in the 1960’s. They were part of the WEC mission organisation and for the subsequent 50 years they and their successors developed the Health Centre, staffed it with a mix of volunteer missionaries and local staff, and provided a considerable amount of financial support to meet the day-to-day costs of the Centre.
In 2017 WEC signalled their decision to close the Health Centre, since it was proving challenging to find medical volunteers and the financial strain of running the Centre was drawing funds away from other mission projects in The Gambia. The leadership of the Evangelica Church of The Gambia, believing that it was in God’s plan for the Health Centre to continue operation, took the courageous decision to ask that instead of it being closed, the Health Centre be transferred to them. At that stage the financial future for the Health Centre looked very precarious, since income from the modest fees that were affordable by the predominantly poor local population met less than half the day-to-day operating costs, and ECG did not have any significant funding available to fill the gap.
Since the transfer in 2018 the finances have indeed at times been precarious, but nevertheless the Health Centre has survived. Several individuals and organisations have contributed, wonderfully, to some major building projects and remedial work. WEC missionaries from across the globe who had links with Sibanor in the past have been generous in their regular support and a number of new supporters have emerged, particularly in the UK. The regular support base though centred on a fairly small number of people, many of them retired.
SHED the Light Gambia history
SHED the Light was established in 2024 to broaden the base of supporters and to open up the potential for grants from charitable organisations and Trusts.
In addition to providing financial support, SHED the Light also provides support to volunteers, particularly short termers, who wish to offer their services at Sibanor. This service (managed under the title Sibanortrek) has been running for several years and has been incorporated into SHED the Light to enable it to be overseen and reported in a more formal way.
As a UK regulated charity SHED the Light produces formal annual accounts and an annual report and these can be accessed on the UK Charities Commission Website.
For further information and queries the Trustees can be contacted by email: sibanortrek@gmail.com​