Good News from The Gambia
January 24, 2014
I just returned from my annual visit to The Gambia, to meet with our wonderful team of Gambian educators and coordinators, and to meet as many students as I could.
Although is so much news to tell, I will keep these general updates short and then follow up to those sponsoring students with specific updates on the student(s) they are supporting as I have them.
The first news is that, in an effort to increase enrollment in Gambian schools, the World Bank has begun paying school fees for all Gambian students in grades 1 to 6. This does not ensure full enrollment, since books, required uniforms, and other necessities are not included But it does cut the cost of going to school at least in half.
Since the Gambian dalasi is also weaker against the dollar, this now means that everyone who is sponsoring a student in grades 1 through 6 is now donating enough to pay the full cost of two or three children, often with something left over to go into our college fund for the most promising older students. (As before, everyone working on our program does so without pay, and several donors are covering all the administrative costs of operating GambiaRising, so that 100% of all other donations go directly to paying for student support.)
In addition, when we got the news about the costs going down in September, we told Principal Kebba Sanyang at St Therese's in Fula Bantang that we would pay the costs of any student who could not afford the costs of going to school there, and would also contribute to the lunch fund for those students, with the goal of approaching 100% enrollment. And so the School Management Commiittee has been going compound to compound, asking parents to send their kids to school - with a full scholarship.
As a result, we are supporting 26 new children in grades K to 6 at St. Therese's alone, and a total of 78 old and new nationwide.
At St. Therese's, you can see the results. Students who did not start school when they turned five or six, are now in school. And so there are a number of 9- and 10-year olds in the school's first grade. Here are two of them, interviewed by Kebba Sanyang (click on their name to see the short video):
Fatoumata Fatty
Jainaba Gissey
Another wonderful story came when we heard from a student now in the last year of his advanced accounting studies through GambiaRising, who contacted us to say there were three young children in his neighborhood who were not in school; since he was not yet working (and his parents were deceased), could we pay the costs of books and cloth, if his brother, an apprentice tailor, made their uniforms. How could we say no?
I wish you could have been there to meet some of the children who are in school because of the generosity of the GambiaRising's donors. I am especially grateful to the 61 donors who are donating enough to fully sponsor one or more students (it costs as little as $12.50 per month). We have 17 new sponsors this year, and all but 2 of last year's sponsors have already renewed their support; so we're still hoping for 100%. This kind of commitment allows us to allocate funds as they come in, and help as many kids as we can, right away.
The Patcharr Miracle
And then there is Pachaar Lower Basic School, sitting proudly near the South Bank Road several miles east of Fula Bantang, with nearly 150 kids in grades K-3 in their brand new community-built school (GambiaRising paid for the roofing materials). Founded three years ago by St. Therese's Principal Kebba Sanyang and several community leaders, this is a new feeder school to St. Therese's for kids too young to walk the several miles to Fula Bantang until they are older. While in the area, we dropped by the compound of two students who have been supported by GambiaRising at St Therese's for more than three years, but who, we knew, had younger siblings at home who had not been in school. Sure enough, there were a number of smaller children in the compound. "Are these children in school?" I asked. "Yes," the answer came; "at Patcharr." That's a different answer than they would have given two years ago, and it would be true in family afer family.
When we got back to St. Therese's there was a three-page letter waiting for Kebba, from the Alkalo (chief) of Sinchu Dumbulla vliiage. It was simple and elegant; "Here are the names of children of Sinchu Dumbulla who should go to school." And then the names of nearly 100 children.
And so the work, with your support, is not quite finished.
I'll have an update on our students in higher grades in a later note. Thanks for the incredible difference you are making in these kids lives.
I just returned from my annual visit to The Gambia, to meet with our wonderful team of Gambian educators and coordinators, and to meet as many students as I could.
Although is so much news to tell, I will keep these general updates short and then follow up to those sponsoring students with specific updates on the student(s) they are supporting as I have them.
The first news is that, in an effort to increase enrollment in Gambian schools, the World Bank has begun paying school fees for all Gambian students in grades 1 to 6. This does not ensure full enrollment, since books, required uniforms, and other necessities are not included But it does cut the cost of going to school at least in half.
Since the Gambian dalasi is also weaker against the dollar, this now means that everyone who is sponsoring a student in grades 1 through 6 is now donating enough to pay the full cost of two or three children, often with something left over to go into our college fund for the most promising older students. (As before, everyone working on our program does so without pay, and several donors are covering all the administrative costs of operating GambiaRising, so that 100% of all other donations go directly to paying for student support.)
In addition, when we got the news about the costs going down in September, we told Principal Kebba Sanyang at St Therese's in Fula Bantang that we would pay the costs of any student who could not afford the costs of going to school there, and would also contribute to the lunch fund for those students, with the goal of approaching 100% enrollment. And so the School Management Commiittee has been going compound to compound, asking parents to send their kids to school - with a full scholarship.
As a result, we are supporting 26 new children in grades K to 6 at St. Therese's alone, and a total of 78 old and new nationwide.
At St. Therese's, you can see the results. Students who did not start school when they turned five or six, are now in school. And so there are a number of 9- and 10-year olds in the school's first grade. Here are two of them, interviewed by Kebba Sanyang (click on their name to see the short video):
Fatoumata Fatty
Jainaba Gissey
Another wonderful story came when we heard from a student now in the last year of his advanced accounting studies through GambiaRising, who contacted us to say there were three young children in his neighborhood who were not in school; since he was not yet working (and his parents were deceased), could we pay the costs of books and cloth, if his brother, an apprentice tailor, made their uniforms. How could we say no?
I wish you could have been there to meet some of the children who are in school because of the generosity of the GambiaRising's donors. I am especially grateful to the 61 donors who are donating enough to fully sponsor one or more students (it costs as little as $12.50 per month). We have 17 new sponsors this year, and all but 2 of last year's sponsors have already renewed their support; so we're still hoping for 100%. This kind of commitment allows us to allocate funds as they come in, and help as many kids as we can, right away.
The Patcharr Miracle
And then there is Pachaar Lower Basic School, sitting proudly near the South Bank Road several miles east of Fula Bantang, with nearly 150 kids in grades K-3 in their brand new community-built school (GambiaRising paid for the roofing materials). Founded three years ago by St. Therese's Principal Kebba Sanyang and several community leaders, this is a new feeder school to St. Therese's for kids too young to walk the several miles to Fula Bantang until they are older. While in the area, we dropped by the compound of two students who have been supported by GambiaRising at St Therese's for more than three years, but who, we knew, had younger siblings at home who had not been in school. Sure enough, there were a number of smaller children in the compound. "Are these children in school?" I asked. "Yes," the answer came; "at Patcharr." That's a different answer than they would have given two years ago, and it would be true in family afer family.
When we got back to St. Therese's there was a three-page letter waiting for Kebba, from the Alkalo (chief) of Sinchu Dumbulla vliiage. It was simple and elegant; "Here are the names of children of Sinchu Dumbulla who should go to school." And then the names of nearly 100 children.
And so the work, with your support, is not quite finished.
I'll have an update on our students in higher grades in a later note. Thanks for the incredible difference you are making in these kids lives.