In The Gambia's Lower River Region (LRR), south of the Kiang West National Park, between the River Gambia and its tributary the Bintang Bolong, lie three villages: Kuli Kunda, Jamaru, and Brikamanding.

Kuli Kunda has a good school that goes up to grade 6, to which the children of Jamaru can walk  1-1/4 mile each day.  But of the 53 school-aged children in Brikamanding, only 8 are in school.  The distance of 4 km (2-1/2 miles each way) is just too far for a child of 5 or 6 to walk to and from school.  And so most never do.

Our  Coordinator in LRR, Alieu Gaye, discussed the situation in Brikamanding with a Peace Corps volunteer living in Kuli Kunda. The only way these children of Brikamanding would go to school, they concluded, would be if a small school could be built.  Might GambiaRising help?  We could consider helping, we replied, but only if the community did as much of the work as possible.  If they were motivated to do so, we would try to fund the materials and skilled workmanship.  So Alieu headed to Brikamanding to meet with the parents and community leaders.

A plan was made. The costs were more than we expected, so we had to put the plan on hold.  Then my granddaughter Flora called: summer camp had been cancelled; did I have any ideas for a summer project?  "Want to help some people build themselves a school?" I replied.  And so Flora started writing and posting to friends and relatives.  Small donations started coming, but rainy season (and planting season) was fast approaching, so we authorized work to began immediately.

The biggest challenge was getting materials to the site.  In most cases this involved loading materials onto a bush taxi (gelly gelly), then offloading them in Sankandi for another gelly headed "inside" to Kuli Kunda.  Then finally onto a third gelly or a donkey cart for the final stretch to Brikamanding.  When cement arrived, they started making bricks, then the walls.

Flora was making good progress with the fund raising, but the rains had come and we had to switch to cement bricks, not mud.  Costs were going up.  Then her friend Sebastian offered to help.  His bar mitzvah was coming and what better gift to ask for than to help build a school?

After wind storms had taken off the roofs of many schools in the past year, the Ministry of Education wanted a strong roof.  Local raw materials wouldn't do.  This made transportation to the site even more complicated.  So did transporting the the metal windows and doors.

GambiaRising chipped in to buy some tree seedlings, blackboards, and desks.  Mariama and Ebrima Minteh, two of our Coordinators in the Kombo, arranged to have the desks made by a local contractor.  But then they had to get to the school.  Again, gellies to the rescue.

It took a lot of hands, in the U.S. and around The Gambia, to pull together everything necessary.  But by last week, the classrooms were almost ready.  There was still work to be done: the toilets were under construction. The second classroom needed some final touches.  But the first day of school was coming.  So the community turned out to weed the schoolyard.

Finally, October 28th, the first day of school!   We are lucky to have a video of the first class in session, because Alieu Gaye, who worked so hard to mobilize the community and make this school a reality, was named the school's Head Teacher!  So Alieu put an older student in charge of the class for a moment, and took out his phone to document the momentous occasion.