Dembo Jatta is not the only aspiring conservationist we are supporting in The Gambia. Naffie Sarr is another resident of Kartong in The Gambia and, like Dembo, was a pupil at St Martin’s school in the village. During her time there Naffie was an active member of the Osprey club and this sparked her interest in the environment. She too has recently been assisting at Kartong Bird Observatory and in January she joined us for the whole of the OLF trip. This provided an excellent opportunity to develop her bird ID skills. Like Dembo we can see real potential in Naffie, and we will be supporting her in her ambition to work in the conservation/environmental sector through the Stars of the Future scheme. With this in mind we have fully-funded a place on an Information Technology Diploma at the Gambia Telecommunications and Multimedia Institution for Naffie. This will provide her with vital transferrable skills that are essential in today’s modern world. Naffie also recently joined our Gambia coordinator, Junkung Jadama, on a two-week bird guiding trip to Senegal where she was able to develop her birding skills further.