Joy Buchanan always had the travel bug. From working in Cologne to teaching English in Germany she became a translator based in Stuttgart then a book editor in Switzerland before volunteering in The Gambia.
Making the decision to study with the OU, Joy hoped to further her career and make more money but when it came to choosing a course she changed her mind “I did look at courses that would do that for me and then decided my soul needed more attention than my pocket” so she did an OU Diploma in music theory for fun because she loves to sing and enjoys music.
This gives you just a small insight into Joy’s personality and the reasons why she now lives and volunteers in The Gambia after toying with the idea of moving to Italy first of all.
Joy first ‘discovered’ The Gambia through Gambians she met living in Zurich and someone she edited a book for who encouraged her to visit Gambia. On visiting she was charmed by the country but realised there were areas in need of help which she saw as an opportunity for her and in particular the lack of school facilities for the children.
On returning to the UK Joy decided to get involved in volunteering and though not an easy choice decided to work in The Gambia. “I felt that I could live in The Gambia in terms of climate, culture, language and music and I wanted to do charity work so I looked around for organisations involved in Charity work there.”
Joy represents two charities in her work: Förderverein Humanitas (FVH) and Bedford College who have donated funds toward the buying of land and building of nursery schools. In particular she has been involved in supervising the building a new nursery school in the town of Brikama and the renovation and expansion of another in a Ghanaian settlement. When Joy first visited one site, she found “86 children, three teachers, and the headmaster all packed into two small rooms at the decrepit school. There were few seats or desks and no outside play area”. Now this has 3 classrooms, an office block and store. Now the classroom facilitate 70 children aged 3-7 years.
Joy now lives in The Gambia and has been involved in the projects for 18 months. She enjoys being in the area of education because it is so important. “I also feel that the only point of knowledge is to pass it on”.
Setting down to life if The Gambia has been a challenge but her OU studies helped culturally. She says “the OU course has made all music more accessible to me. The course included the study of African artists and the history of music and this helps me to understand the music and dancing performed here”. Joy hopes to bring trained musicians to The Gambia in the future who want to work and teach abroad.
