The Gambia is situated off the West coast of Africa, surrounded to the north and south by Senegal and the Atlantic to the west. It is one of the smallest countries being equivalent to the size of Wales.
The majority of the Gambian people are extremely poor and live below the breadline. The average Gambian wage is between 750D and 1500D for a well paid worker. This equates to £16 to £30 per month. Many visitors visiting the Gambia will spend more on one family meal.
Malaria is a disease that kills more than any other in the world. Children under 5 are more vulnerable. It is caused by a parasite that is passed from one person to another through a bite of a mosquito. Mosquitoes usually breed in unpolluted still water. The rainy season (June-September) is a particularly dangerous time, especially between dusk and dawn and in areas of denset population. Many people, particularly children dies each year in The Gambia with Malaria. Over 1 million people in Africa die each year from the disease.
|Location:||Coast of West Africa|
|Language:||English + each ethnic group has its own language (Mandinka, Wololf, Fula, Jola, Serer, Serahula)|
|Religion:||Muslim(95%), Christian (5%), other (1%)|
|Economy:||Groudnuts and Tourism|
|Area:||11,300 sq km (smallest country in Africa) 320 km long and an average of 32 km wide|