Portsmouth Gambian Association (PGA) provides support, companionship, encouragement and celebration of its culture for more than 150 people in and around Portsmouth and Gosport.
A grant from HIWCF’s Portsmouth City Community fund helped it organise family events to bring its community together and hold a series of workshops to address issues such as internet safety, mental health and County Lines.
It began as a conversation at a family naming celebration 16 years ago when guests began discussing how to help a couple desperately trying to raise funds to repatriate a child who had died.
From that tragedy was born the realisation that the growing community of Gambians making their home in and around Portsmouth needed not just an organised means of providing for themselves but also a voice.
Lesa Camara Touray, whose son was being named that day, became Chair and alongside Secretary Saidou Jemmeh, she has seen Portsmouth Gambian Association grow into a thriving representative group that is respected in the wider community and cherished by its own.
“The aim was for all Gambians to come together so that we can help each other out in good or bad times,” she says. “We actually didn’t realise how many Gambians were living in Portsmouth and we thought it would be nice to form an association, so that if anything happened, if anyone needed help, we could be there for them. So the association was formed on that day – we all came together.”
Lesa’s son is grown up now and so is the association. What started as a mechanism to react to crises has become a proactive body that exists to improve the lives of its members.
Many of the Gambians living in the area have come to the UK for study or work and ended up meeting partners, marrying and staying. Lesa was one of them. “I left Gambia to come over to the UK to further my studies and then I met my husband, so I stayed and ended up having my family here,” she says. “There are many like me.”
Bringing up a family and trying to navigate a new culture far from familiar sights and sounds can be isolating, while children growing up with influences that may be alien to their parents can lead to division and misunderstanding. The family events funded in part by HIWCF’s grant have played an important part in bringing families into contact with others who are in similar situations and facing the same issues.
“These events have fostered friendships, strengthened cultural identity, and offered uplifting moments that have made a lasting impact on the emotional wellbeing of many families,” says Lesa. “They also helped build stronger neighbourhoods and fostered cohesive coexistence and mutual understanding.”
The group’s coach trip to Legoland saw more than 40 families having the kind of day out many take for granted. “It was a really good day because it was something they would never have been able to afford to do on their own,” says Lesa. “It was so good to see them all having fun together.
Saidou adds: “The whole aim of the funding is to help and support the less fortunate in the community to be able to enjoy or do things that ordinarily they wouldn’t be able to do, and the Legoland trip did just that.
“It’s about making memories for those children and in their mind the little ones may be thinking ‘our parents took us to Legoland’, that’s all they’ll remember. So it gives our community that opportunity.”
One parent told the organisers: “My son still talks about the bus ride with his new friends – it was such a special day for us.” Another added: “It was the first time my children met other kids from similar backgrounds in such a fun way, we all felt seen and valued.”
An Eid celebration barbecue had even more impact, with 150 people, including invited guests from Portsmouth City Council and other community groups, celebrating the Muslim festival which is so important to Gambians.
“We had the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress there and just to be able to afford to come together and for all of us to celebrate the Eid together, to spend the day together as well, was something really good and memorable for the children as well,” says Lesa.
“We had a bouncy castle, soft plays and candy floss, just to make it enjoyable for everyone. It’s one of the events that all our kids look forward to, they’re all asking ‘when is the next one?’.”
One parent told her: “It was the happiest day our family has had in months.”
For Saidou the event had a wider impact. “It encourages religious tolerance because it helps people in the community understand what we mean by Eid,” he says. “The main purpose of it is for the religious tolerance and understanding within our community, so that we can all live cohesively together as one.”
He says the funding meant families who may have otherwise been excluded because of the cost could take part. “It helps the low-income families within our community because we collect a subscription payment for the Eid event to help cover the cost and we were able to subsidise theirs,” he said.
“We realised that some members exclude themselves because they cannot afford it and in that sense, they are at risk of being marginalised and they would have been sitting there in loneliness. The funding helps everybody to come together, I cannot overemphasise its importance.”
Other dates on the calendar have been aimed at women to help them escape the daily routine of work and domestic chores. “We go out to have a meal, go bowling or something, it’s really important since we don’t normally get that chance,” says Lesa. “It just frees our minds and we can sit together to discuss lots of things. It could be anything to help each other out.
“Everyone is busy working, looking after the kids, looking after the house, looking after everyone. So it’s nice once in a while to go out together because sometimes you just don’t even have the time to dress up really nice and wear what you want to wear. If you’re cleaning you’re not going to be doing your nails and all that stuff, so you’ve got that chance at least.”
Over its 16 year life PGA has becoming increasingly visible in the wider community thanks to invitations to events like the Eid barbecue and also by going out to take part in other organisations’ gatherings.
It has meant that it is now seen as a voice for not just Gambians but all African people in the area and its intervention in immigration, housing and legal disputes is welcomed by the authorities. “If someone is going through a process or dealing with a certain organisation and there’s a language barrier, we’ll get a member to go and interpret for them, just to make sure that they get everything right,” says Lesa. “Sometimes they might not understand what’s being asked of them.”
A growing WhatsApp group, which has more than 100 members, provides news information and a forum for discussion.
PGA’s openness also means organisations have been happy to give talks at its regular workshops for parents. Internet safety and County Lines have been among the subjects discussed with parents buy visiting experts, while recently The Parenting Network hosted a talk on mental health at The Forge in Fratton.
“Mental health has a very big stigma within our community,” says Saidou. “People don’t feel comfortable about talking about it or even accepting that it exists in the first place.
“So having our community being talked to about mental health, it makes them aware and understand some of the issues. For that reason, some of our members have even volunteered to meet the NHS Talking Therapist again to discuss their mental issues. That’s all thanks to the funding we received from HIWCF. That funding has brought us to the light because it helps us do what we were unable to do before.”
Such is the PGA’s reputation its membership is now swelled by members from other parts of Africa, says Lesa. “When people come to join us for parties or workshops they are impressed with what they see and ask to join and we tell them they are welcome because we are all Africans,” she says. “So now we have Senegalese, Ivorians and others.
“We now also work with the University of Portsmouth for students who come in from Gambia. They signpost them to us and tell them the Gambian community is here. We will make them feel at home and – just like everyone else – if they have any issues, we will be there to support them.”
