This is me with Abdoulie. We took him a T shirt in the Gambian colours and his name on it.
Eric and I first went to The Gambia in 1983, then in 1989 and subsequently every year from 2001. As you may realise we quite like the country and the people!
Education is not compulsory and although the Gambian Government will provide the teachers, parents and the village usually have to provide the building and other equipment. We have always been most impressed by the dedication of the teachers who work under very difficult conditions, so whenever we have been, we have taken plenty of pens and pencils to give to local schools.
When we were there in 2005 we asked Lamin, a friend of ours, to take us to his local school and he took us to a school in Serekunda - Kaala-Bantang Nursery School. This school was originally just a couple of classes held under a large mango tree. Then, a few years ago a Dutch woman named Nel Bus saw it and was so impressed by the way they were trying so hard to educate the children that she decided to try to do something about it. This was the start of the June Foundation and, by fund raising in The Netherlands, she managed to raise enough money to build a four-classroom single storey building for the children.
It was so lovely to go into the classrooms and see all the smiling (and often runny- nosed!) faces. They all sang welcoming songs to us. Afterwards we met the headmaster and gave him the ‘goodies’ that we had taken. He was very appreciative. He then told us about Nel and her work and invited us to sponsor a child at the school. We were a little apprehensive at first but when he explained that it would all be done through Nel in The Netherlands we asked for more details. The cost to sponsor a child for a year is the magnificent sum of 30 euros,(approximately £21.00). (I think this increases to 40 euros when they get to the Junior level.) This comprises of 5.95 for the uniform, 4.17 for shoes, 2.98 for a schoolbag and the school fees of 16.90 euros.
We contacted Nel as soon as we returned to the UK and are now sponsoring a six-year-old boy called Abdoulie Saidy.
When we returned in February 2006 we went to meet him. He was so shy that we didn’t get a word out of him but he did understand who we were and that we were paying for his schooling. I was also told he was very wary of our white skin!
We have already booked our holiday for January 2007 and hope that by then he might pluck up enough courage to speak to us!
Nel was also in The Gambia for the last part of our stay and we were lucky enough to meet her. She had many sponsors in The Netherlands but we are only the second English people to help her. She is a very feisty lady and has already gathered funds for a second, slightly larger, school that has been built up country. She first had to organise the rebuilding of a bridge over a river as many of the villagers were being drowned and hippos and crocodiles also inhabited the river!
However when the children are all together they vie with each other to hold your hand and touch you. I suppose they feel there is safety in numbers!
If anyone is interested in helping with this work why not visit the website at www.june-gambia.nl. Nel’s English is first class so there are no problems if you want to speak to her.
This is School Dinners Gambian Style. It consists of bread, a thick fish soup served in a plastic bag with a hole in the corner, so the children can suck and oranges.
