We are not trying to save the world.  We are just trying to give a chance to young Gambians (mostly girls) to help themselves by going to school.  We know that the difference such an opportunity makes is life-changing in every case.  The difference between graduating from 12th grade - or college - and being married at age 15 is impossible to over-state.

Building a program student by student allows us to grow incrementally, as your donations allow.  At least it does when we are able to add students.  If donations decline, we are not willing or able to withdraw support.  (I don't know if people realize that when they stop donating; we can't walk away from our students.)

But the beauty of the program as designed is that it is one student at a time. In theory, that will allow us to add students "slowly slowly" if donations increase.  Or not if they don't.  Every Coordinator knows their budget may not increase, so they need to prioritize, and to economize.  I have been amazed at how each has adjusted their program once we implemented this system. Ebrima Sanneh told me his philosophy is simple: "Spend less, help more."  His brother (a tailor) offered to sew uniforms for free. The convinced four other tailors to do the same. Then Ebrima built a storeroom at his home so he could buy books in bulk in the off-season. In the Lower River Region, Alieu Gaye lives at the school where he is head teacher, but he got the local book seller to give him a 25% discount for buying in bulk in the offseason and also to store those books until schools opened. We have a system of setting overall criteria for support, then giving Coordinators flexibility in how the implement in their community. So when one wants to support more students than the budget allows, they can decide to cut down on the number of new uniforms for last year's students, or in other ways reduce spending to free up funds for a few new students.

One of the areas we had to address in recent years was "tertiary" education - after 12th grade. Some of our students are simply such good students that we try to give them a chance to study further. We set the qualification bar high, but even so there are many brilliant students in need, The costs are much higher at that level. Five percent of our students (the best of the best) are in college or university. But that requires up to 50% of our budget. We had already set extremely high bars for even to be considered for support. (A dozen students are repeating 12th grade to get their test scores high enough to meet those standards.) But we still had more worthy applicants than we could support. And so we decided to add another criterion: we would prioritize based on how many other people would benefit from that student going to college.  This immediately sent teachers and medical/ nursing students to the front of the line. We feel really great about this decision.  Across the country, new teachers and nurses trained with GambiaRising's support are serving their fellow Gambians.

And then an unexpected byproduct. The goal of most experienced teachers is to work in the built up region near the coast (the Kombo), where there is electricity, piped water, entertainment, and the opportunity for after-hours tutoring work. Therefore the most remote schools are staffed by newly graduated young teachers. And every year, more of these are coming from the GambiaRising program. 

If they are from the built-up coastal aresas or a larger town themselves, when they arrive in those remote villages, they are often surprised to find a high percentage of the children out of school. And others still in school are dressed in uniforms that may have only a few months more to hang together. These teachers are young, energetic, and idealistic. They have benefited from support from GambiaRising to start their careers. Naturally, more than a few of them call the Coordinator with whom they had worked before asking if we could help. 

Keeping kids in school through 12th grade, especially girls, is our primary mission. And so we pray that all our donors keep donating, that some increase their giving, and that others join (or re-join) us. Because we are sure of this: if not us, then who will?

We wrote recently about the village of Sare Bayo where last school year Ebrima Sanneh found the funds in his budget to buy uniforms and books fo 65 students that new teacher Enja Jarju had identified in Sare Bayo school and several nearby. This week Ensa came back with a proposal to extend our program to nearby Jarkunda Basic Cycle School, where 25 students were at risk or had already dropped out. 

This is where you come in. When we talk about buying cloth and books in the off-season to get discounts, those of you who donate monthly or have donated already this year are the reason we were able to do so. Thank you. If you donate at year-end, we will count on you to pay our January bills. That leaves us needing to buy books and uniforms for the rest of our students, and to pay college and university tuitions due any day.

The futures of so many young Gambians depend on the decisions of the few hundred people:who donate to GambiaRising. If you have donated in the past and paused for one reason or another, please make this year the year you re-start. Many Gambians are working tirelessly without pay so that 100% of your donation can be used only to support these young people. It is not their fault that they were born where they were, or that their father died, or that their mother or grandmother struggles just to feed them. But with a chance to go to school, their lives can be so much better.

$3 per month will get a girl back into school.

$40 per month will train a teacher;

$100 per month will train a scientist, attorney, or journalist.

Thank you for being part of GambiaRising.

Mike McConnell
Managing Trustee
GambiaRising
www.gambiarising.org/donate
www.facebook.com/gambiarising

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