Friends

MISSION STATEMENT:

Bridging The Gap is dedicated to constructing pedestrian footbridges over dangerous rivers for marginalised groups in Sub Saharan Africa.  The primary goal is to save lives from drowning.

Director: Harmon Parker

www.bridgingthegapafrica.org

MISSION STATEMENT:

Exchanging information, ideas and resources across cultures to promote mutual understanding and respect, resulting in works of Christian compassion among the poor and marginalized in sub-Saharan Africa.

Director: Sam Harrell

www.africaexchange.org

MISSION STATEMENT:

To help bring light to those in the shadows and to enable education to come out of the dark.

Director: Roger Mugridge
Registered charity number 1103647

www.lightsforlearning.org

The charity began its work in the urban slums of Nairobi in 2001 with the construction and refurbishment of kitchens, schools, orphanages and even the installation of a dental surgery. Progressively over the years and through informed, professional advice the charity began to undertake work in the more rural areas of the Massai Mara and Pokot. These areas are home to some of the most marginalised people on our planet. The year 2004, saw Project Albert realise a pledge made some years earlier to construct suspension footbridges over some notorious rivers in Kenya. It was a great success in many ways, but most importantly it solidified a partnership between Project Albert, Bridging the Gap and the Africa Exchange. This partnership offers sustainable longevity to the Project Albert, and 2006 saw more joint activities forge that special bond still further.

This year’s adventure saw an extension of the bridge building programme with Bridging the Gap and a huge leap forward in assisting the Africa Exchange produce a string of Integrated Child Development Centres (ICDCs) throughout the region. These ICDCs are essentially school buildings, but they are also so much more. Both the Africa Exchange and Bridging the Gap organisations are headed by individuals who have devoted their lives to helping Kenya’s less fortunate. Sam Harrell is a Baptist Minister in his mid 40s, a family man and fulltime Missionary. With American roots, he has lived in Kenya virtually all his life and there is little that this warm hearted man doesn’t know about Africa’s wildlife, flora, culture, language and importantly its political, environmental and infrastructural problems. Bridging the Gap’s Director Harmon Parker on the other hand is very old indeed! In fact a very sprightly 50 and in much better shape than many his age, he too is a Christian Baptist, but a builder by trade. He has lived and worked in Kenya for many years and is also a family man with American roots in the midwest. Harmon designed, fabricated and erected his first bridge almost a decade ago and Project Albert has been lucky enough to assist him on a number of them.

Both Harmon Parker and Sam Harrell are huge characters with a great bond between them and their families. The collective work Project Albert has undertaken with their respective organisations has paved the way for many more Project Albert visits, each of which is proving to be more challenging than the previous. These two formidable, driven, yet very friendly characters have given Project Albert a direct, tangible, valuable and sustained focus for future work, all of which is guaranteed to have been extensively researched and will have a sustained impact upon the recipient communities. Add the prospect of sometimes perilous adventure, hard physical work and warm beer, then what pioneering RAF spirit would not want to become involved?

Throughout 2005 a great deal of effort was put in to generating money to fund this year’s Project Albert. The financial target was eventually met and so in February 2006 a team of four RAF personnel set off to further the charity’s objectives by building a bridge and constructing two buildings with the Africa Exchange and Bridging the Gap, but as one unified team.