Bristol comedian Mark Watson from Mock the Week has just returned from Senegal in West Africa where he took the time to visit the local children and teach them a few of his Bristolian phrases! The comic helped launch the Action Aid UK ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign, which ban last month last month exclusively in the West Country. This is to help raise awareness of the 72 million children who cannot afford to go to school through poverty, and to try and find 1,000 people in the West Country to sponsor 1,000 children in Africa.
Whilst in Senegal, Mark learnt the local drumming and dancing, and also played football in a local league which is funded by Action Aid to help the football mad locals to take part in their favourite sport. Alongside all the fun stuff, Mark also joined in the daily chores of carrying firewood, fetching water and cooking. Mark has always been a regular donor to the Action Aid childrens charity, but after recently becoming a father, said that seeing the poverty hit him a lot harder as a new dad.
Mark said –
It’s been really exciting and inspiring to see the effect of ActionAid’s child sponsorship in Djilor. Now I’m back I am going to sponsor a child straight away and I’m hoping to get a lot of people in the West Country to do the same. This is a place that’s not all that unlike Bristol in some ways. The close sense of community and the importance of the kids are all the same really. This is a massive opportunity for people in the West Country to get involved in changing the lives of communities in a place that’s not all that far from home and where the people really, really do appreciate and need it.
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