MEMBERS of Marlborough Brandt Group have been visiting Gunjur in Africa for celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of links between the two communities.

Over the last two decades, about 700 people from Marlborough have visited The Gambia in west Africa through the link, with regular reciprocal visits.

The party from Marlborough who attended the celebrations in the African village included the founder of the Marlborough Brandt Group, now its president, Dr Nick Maurice, and its chairman Geoffrey Findlay.

The 20th anniversary of the link was celebrated this month with a big banquet in Gunjur.

Dr Maurice, who now runs a global twinning group, the UW One World Organisation, said: "The celebrations included dancing and drumming by all the different tribes in the village followed by a magnificent meal including two bulls that had been donated by the village leader or Alkalo - a great local tribute to the success of the link."

In his speech to a crowd of several hundred people, Mr Findlay spoke of the contribution that linking was making to international understanding.

Mr Findlay said the link between the two communities and the two nations demonstrated the need to learn the lessons of history and he praised the work that so many people in both Gunjur and Marlborough had put into the unofficial twinning.

Lamin Jabang, the chair of the MBG's sister group in The Gambia, the Trust Agency for Rural Development, and acting director Ibraima Sanyang, listed the many benefits they said Gunjur and surrounding villages had gained from the link.

Over the last two decades, with help from the MBG, Gunjur has gained a five-classroom block for the primary school, a new pre-school building, a mango orchard and vegetable garden run by the women, a carpentry workshop and offices for TARUD.

Through the MBG, and TARUD's development programme over the past 12 years, people were better off thanks to a credit scheme and business education programme.

As a result of an ongoing health education programme that uses puppet shows to get the message across to families, malaria and gastroenteritis have diminished markedly.

More Gambians are now literate and more of their children now attend school.

Thanks to heavy lobbying over the past four years and a £30,000 study, paid for by the MBG using a UK engineering firm, the Gambian government has secured a $1.4 million loan from the Islamic Development Bank.

As a result, clean piped water will replace contaminated wells in Gunjur within the next 18 months.

Dr Maurice told the celebration gathering that the link between the people of Marlborough and Gunjur was an example of what can happen when people of different cultures and religions came together in a spirit of friendship, fun and collaboration.

He said: "It is not about the one way traffic of wealth from Marlborough being shared by the less wealthy in The Gambia."

Dr Maurice said the link had helped people understand their different cultures and religions.

The Brandt Group members presented Gunjur leaders with a framed letter of congratulations to mark 20 years of the link, written by Mayor Margaret Boulton, together with a Marlborough coat of arms that has been proudly displayed in the TARUD offices.

Mr Findlay said on their return MBG members had been made increasingly aware of a financial crisis facing the Gambians as the value of their dalasi currency plummets.

The dalasi is now worth only half of what it was a year ago, said Mr Findlay, giving the example that one dalasi that would have bought three oranges a year ago and now pays for only one.

Dr Maurice said there was growing concern about the Gambians' dependence on food imports, leaving them in a Catch 22 situation; to pay for imported food, they are having to export some of their own produce, which they should be eating themselves.

nkerton@newswilts.co.uk