{"id":225,"date":"2024-07-26T11:07:08","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T11:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/church.gc4.io\/?page_id=225"},"modified":"2024-10-21T16:47:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T16:47:11","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Marakissa Christians Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20220103_160028-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20220103_160028-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20220103_160028-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20220103_160028-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20220103_160028-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20220103_160028-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-584483ceea5eaea216fbf13ce5f79640 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\">At the heart of this charity initiative is a community in the rural village of Marakissa Gambia, however the story began in 2019 in Rossendale England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-b66addfc296409014c1cc03cec9e7985 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\">Carol and David Acton simply started collecting donated clothes, shoes and books from local primary schools to send to Gambia. Very quickly the scope of the project grew and they were receiving donations from Boots 2 Africa, Falcon and Whittakers Schoolwear. They shipped the items to Gambia and they were made available free of charge to adults, children, schools and even a football academy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-e98709bad4fbcebbbd3bfe3af8a78334 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-1431fbb1f138f4eb3960142ba4e7c2e2 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\">Their personal connection to this welcoming place has strengthened over time. They wanted to make a positive impact on the community, helping where they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-957f0028406cec65a48f709e845ba1b8 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\">They bought a piece of farmland and built a compound where a Gambian family now live. This also means that they have a place to stay within the Marakissa Village to continue building relationships within the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-e98709bad4fbcebbbd3bfe3af8a78334 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-d3c81277fcbb2ab53f9c4623a86a6cdc wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\">They originally had a Facebook page called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rossendale.to.gambia\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rossendale.to.gambia\/\">Rossendale.to.Gambia <\/a>where they uploaded pictures to demonstrate the impact of donations received. David is continuing with this and hopes to raise money for projects within the wider Marakissa communty, where as in 2023 Carol started collaborating with the Marakissa Methodist Church providing help to raise funds for various projects. Reverend James Bass, the Minister at the Methodist Church is the point of contact and Anne Johnstone from Rossendale has joined this new team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-9eb8bab1b6e2c315a1c262f0a28fd59c wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\"> This website is now the next step to help grow the level of support required and take the opportunity to highlight the importance of the current and future projects that are planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-heading-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-barlow-font-family has-medium-font-size wp-elements-38c80505d40c335059985530d4021820 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#ffde2100;line-height:1.3\">As the rules for registering as a charity are that you need proof of an annual income of \u00a35000, the un-registered charity, Marakissa Christians Together, has been born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6fd458da9e2befe3f628948b6a124187 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"color:#f35e5e;line-height:1.6\"> Please join us in enriching the lives of the people of Gambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-468add76 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-heading-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20)\">Back<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the heart of this charity initiative is a community in the rural village of Marakissa Gambia, however the story began in 2019 in Rossendale England. Carol and David Acton simply started collecting donated clothes, shoes and books from local primary schools to send to Gambia. Very quickly the scope of the project grew and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"wp-custom-template-story","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-225","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1061,"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225\/revisions\/1061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mctgambia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}