Life in The Gambia with the Friends of The Gambia Association

Parent Teachers Association Annual Meeting 2012

fotgablog — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:32:50 +0000

On Sunday January 29th the annual PTA meeting was held at the office in The Gambia
Around 300 Teachers, Parents, Students, Staff and Visitors were present to hear about the Charity’s work in The Gambia during the past year.
The meeting was once more led by MC Mamadou Max Jallow and Yaya Camara (country representative), Teachers and staff spoke about the past year and thanked FoTGA for their generous efforts during the year.

There was entertainment from a Gambian group and Banjo and Guitar tunes from visiting Sponsors.
16 promising students were presented with prizes for their work during the year.

A very enjoyable day

Jeff

Brikama Nursery School Project Finished.

fotgablog — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:15:38 +0000

Hungry Gambian children at the new nursery school in Brikama

Friends of The Gambia Association are pleased to announce that the project to build a three-classroom block plus store and toilets at the Brikama Progress Nursery School is completed.

The project was made possible through a very generous funding gift by one of our members. We are all very grateful for the wonderful donation. The quality of the build is excellent with an all steel roof that will be able to withstand rainy season winds. Our builder has excelled himself and has created a building that we can all be proud of. The excellent quality of the finishing and the artistry are a sight to behold.

Brikama's new nursery school built by FOTGA

The school consists three modern classrooms accommodating up to 60 children in each class. The local population are so impressed that already there is a long waiting list of children. I must say this is the best nursery school build that I have seen in all the 20 odd years that I have been holidaying in The Gambia, and it is a credit to the UK committee and project team, and to the efforts of our team in The Gambia office, Yaya, Sukai and Fatoumatta.

The teachers and staff are over the moon with excitement to have such a facility. Big smiles of wonder all round. They are so dedicated to their job of giving the children of Brikama a sound educational start in life. And me! The success of this project is one of the highlights of my work with Friends of The Gambia Association. We have certainly proved that we can deliver, if we can only raise the funding for our next proposed project at Bakindik. Dave Smith 2011 12 27

Brufut Run

fotgablog — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:02:41 +0000

Registrations are rolling in for the 2011 Brufut Run which takes place in Brufut, The Gambia, West Africa on Saturday December 17th 2011.
This will be the first Half Marathon (21km) to be held alongside the regular 10km run and a special Cycling event covering many areas of the country and finishing in Brufut on December 17th 2011.
The Friends of The Gambia Association is again sponsoring the event.
To enter contact martin@fotga.org.uk

Brikama nursery school Block-work Finished.

fotgablog — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:30:00 +0000

Despite the rains, the Brikama nursery school project is on schedule. The second stage build is now complete and verified by Yaya and his staff. Our project manager has given the all clear for the third stage to begin. This will be the major work of fixing the roof, doors and windows and rendering all of he plasterwork, inside and out etc
We are already thinking about furnishing the school, and making it a nice welcoming building. A place in which nursery school children will get a good start to their education: We are planning to finish the project ready for the September return to school. That is a real tough deadline, but we will do our best to meet it. The official opening will be later in the year when the donors are in The Gambia on holiday.

Just a thought!
Is there anyone out there with nursery school wall charts etc. going begging? If so please donate them to us. Please get in touch through our website. Thank you.
Dave Smith 2011 07 28

Athletes Get Registered for the Brufut Run

fotgablog — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:27:05 +0000

Friends of The Gambia Association are assisting the Brufut Marathon Run Association to make their successful annual event into a truly international sporting occasion. “THE LONDON MARATHON OF WEST AFRICA”.
It costs just £15.00 for Europeans to enter. There are 10 K races for males and females and a popular cycle race. This year for the first time the Brufut marathon association are staging their first ever half marathon. To run in any of these races would be a truly amazing experience for any European athlete. It would be very rewarding if, for your efforts, you were able to raise money by asking friends and family to sponsor you. All money raised will be donated to children’s education in The Gambia. What a fantastic cause that is!
Why not combine the occasion with a great holiday in The Gambia. The people are friendly and welcoming. The sunshine is guaranteed! And you will be assured of a tremendous welcome on race-day.
The race-day is 17th December 2011.
For more Details e-mail Martin Myers: martin@fotga.org.uk or Dave Smith: davesmithfotga@aol.com and see the Brufut Run Website:

Dave Smith 2011 07 26

The gift of a regular meal

fotgablog — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:22:02 +0000

Gifts of rice to sponsored children’s families. This is a wonderful donation from sponsors, particularly in he rainy season, when the worry of where the next meal is coming from really hits home. The faces in the picture say it all.

Dave Smith 2011 07 22

Maka Ali Sarr Nursery School

fotgablog — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:04:56 +0000

From one of the poorest areas of The Gambia comes exciting news. Maka Ali Sarr Nursery school that started out as a dream tribute by Trish to her late husband is thriving and flourishing beyond our wildest dreams.
74 children are now regularly attending and learning from the enthusiastic and dedicated staff headed by Isatou John.
After suffering from a huge storm that blew the roof off of the building and made the school un-inhabitable, Friends of The Gambia Association have rebuilt and strengthened the structure. Now the school is full of cheerful children keen to be able to learn at last.
Isatou would like to have all Makka Ali children wear uniforms like the ones in the photographs, but most local people are subsistence farmers and are so poor they could not afford to purchase uniforms.

The cost of 100 uniforms is £690.00. It would be wonderful if Friends of The Gambia could receive donations towards buying these uniforms for the school.

Sukai, now one of our very hard working and capable office staff, fought to get herself educated in this up country area, and knows personally of the struggles that poverty there brings.

Please dig deep in those pockets and help us. Thank you for taking time to read this.
David Smith 2011 07 15

Sullayman Sowe: Blindness! No Problem to this Man on a Mission

fotgablog — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:07:52 +0000

Today the office witnesses yet another major gift: A talking laptop worth D7,000.00 from Friends of The Gambia Association to Sulayman Sowe a blind student studying law in the University of the Gambia.

Sulayman is a very clever young man who is mentally superb, socially brilliant and has a lot to offer mankind.

Therefore, supporting his future in education must be a very good course. Sulayman, as usual is always proud of the association and more so the committee members for their foresights.

He promised to take a good care of the machine and use it as expected.

Tell Andy I shall pray for him each day from the bottom of my heart for taking the responsibility of paying my house rent for 7 months said Sulayman. According to poor Sulayman the gesture will offset him from going out begging money to pay the rent, which normally consumes a lot of his potential time of studies. Thanks very much Andy for saving my time and energy Sulayman concludes.

Yaya Camara - Friends of The Gambia Representative in The Gambia

The Rains Have Started.

fotgablog — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 18:01:19 +0000

By 10.30am the heavens over Brufut had blackened. The sky was angry and building, ready to un-leash its might and fury upon us.
The sound of approaching torrential rain likened to the roar of an oncoming express train. The wind howled and gusted into the compound. One second it was the sunny dry season. The next, it was truly turbulent wet season, and what a dramatic entrance the rainy season was making.
Children ran out waving their arms in the air, enjoying the free cool shower. Women ran out to collect the washing. Too late! Gosh! Did it rain!
In half an hour, despite the parched earth, the whole compound was flooded. Frogs appeared, jumping here and there with great excitement. The rainy season has started with vengeance. After 1 hour I had over 5 inches of water in my bucket.
However, despite the joy of experiencing this sudden cool down and welcome cooling interruption to my holiday, I remembered that I had arranged to be picked up at 1.00pm for a shopping trip. I doubted if the two-wheeled vehicle would make it to my compound. The electricity grid had been turned off. All phone networks were down. Ah well, I’ll just have to be patient, and wait. I cannot contact Dodou at this moment. Something you get used to in The Gambia.
At 12:45 I managed to contact Dodou, my driver. We decided to wait a while till the fresh new lakes in the road had sub-sided. Dodou eventually arrived with vehicle muddy, but in one piece, at 2:30pm. Temperatures were now in the low 30’s, and the good old current bun shining brightly again. We’ll cut the shopping trip short I decided. I was impressed though, just how Dodou negotiated the lakes. He must have mentally noted the exact position of every deep pothole for years.
And, so ended the first day of the 2011 rainy season.
Dave Smith 2011 06 25

Reporting live from The Gambia 2011 06 23

fotgablog — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:21:42 +0000

Today is cloudy and overcast, a total change from the blistering sun of yesterday. I was lucky to have chosen yesterday for a fun day on the beach at Batakunku. It was a fantastic day, including a 3 hour beach walk along the deserted coast-line. Even more incredible a 2 foot long ladyfish jumped clean out of the water and onto the beach right in front of me. I grabbed it quickly before it managed to flip- flop right back into the sea. A local boy came walking along, and he jumped with joy as I presented him with the fish. The smile on his face said it all. However, today I am in the office working with the team to improve our marketing. The artist is working away on the new look office front. So far it is looking great, a cross between a Picasso and a Michaelangelo no doubt. We are updating the Visitors book, and creating an electronic copy spread-sheet of it, for weekly e-mailing to the UK committee. We are preparing for the arrival of a new notice board for the office, dedicated entirely to attracting new sponsors. We are working enthusiastically on ideas to try to make a big impact with prospective sponsors.
On the project front I visited Brikama Progress Nursery School with Yaya to see progress on the three classroom nursery block for myself, and was most impressed as the block-work has reached window top level. Materials have arrived on site for the concreting of the floors, and the irons are on site for the reinforced concrete pillars etc. Mr Njie, the builder has also excavated the soak away for the toilets. We were pleased to meet Lamin Saho excited head teacher of the nursery school and Mrs Williams, head teacher and Mr Badjie head master of the adjacent Jeddah Lower Basic School. Children from the Nursery will follow on there.
An interesting conversation with Mr Badjie and the others revealed that his school had over 1,400 pupils, and was working on a double shift basis. Asked what his major problem was, he replied immediately, “WATER”! They have none on site, and they have come close to closing the school on many occasions. They have been quoted 400,000 Dalasi for connection to mains water. The school has already raised 200,000 Dalasi towards this. I said I would raise this matter at committee and see if we could approach Comic Relief or some other large donor for help.

David handing over a laptop to Tamara from her sponsor

Tamara Bayo, one of our star students, now studying LAW at the university gave us a great big smile as she was given a laptop donated to her by John, her sponsor. John, you must be very proud of her
Dave Smith 2011 06 23

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