SVP -- Small Village Plan

Project Managers: Richard and Linda Enarson

The main priorities of the Small Village Plan (SVP) and the communities they served were education, vocational training, and celebration of the family. Their goal was to bring development to villages at the grass roots level, progressing to sustainability.

In 1998, SVP members went to West Africa to bring aid to Sierra Leone refugees who had settled in The Gambia. In their time there they worked closely with teachers and students of the Kerr Serign School, to ensure the scholastic curriculum was upheld and to improve the physical conditions of the school itself. SVP worked with GAFNA to assist refugees in the Banjul area, providing educational opportunities and materials to students and their parents, education and vocation seminars, special event performances, and programs that supported and promoted family values.

SVP was also involved in a pilot project in the village of Sintet (also in The Gambia) where they helped the residents build a new school, a sports facility, and the furniture needed for both. Additional vocational training—in such areas such as brick making, bee keeping, baking, and banana planting—helped the new Sintet residents become a self-supporting community.

Real Life Story — Anna's Story — Anna’s infection was so bad that it seemed her leg would have to be amputated, not an encouraging prospect in Africa... (click here for full story)

Banjul, The Gambia

Richard and villagers planting banana plants.

Children from Sintet village, always smiling and friendly.

In the village.