West Kiang, The Gambia
Our project partner in The Gambia is the MRC Unit Gambia @ LSHTM and especially their remote fieldsite MRCG Keneba based in the rural West Kiang region. There has been a long-standing partnership between MRCG and the local communities spanning over 7 decades of health research with a particular emphasis on nutrition and how this affects reproduction and child survival, growth and welfare. The population of ~16,000 people in 36 villages is overwhelmingly Islamic. Traditional attitudes are rapidly evolving as more children (including girls) attend school and stay in school for longer. Regular short and longer-term migration to urban areas and overseas is also changing attitudes at a rapid pace. See here for more information on the West Kiang cohort.