The Gambia has plenty of problems, so a small non-profit must stay focused.  From the start, GambiaRising focused on education, especially education for girls. 

Over the years, when there were no schools for remote rural communities, we have provided building materials to local communities so they could build themselves small schools, which then become part of the government's school system.  And since we strongly support young women teaching in rural schools, we have also provided materials to build housing for their teachers.

Since scholarships require long-term commitment on our part, such one-off building projects are ideal for one-time gifts or special campaigns.

So when the Concord (CA) Rotary Club said they'd be interested in funding such a project, we leapt at the chance.  We had long sought to find funding to complete a major project in Wurokang, in the Lower River Region, where a teachers' housing project had been sitting half finished for half a decade after the Dutch donors who got it started saw their donations dry up when Russia invaded Ukraine.  Concord Rotary reviewed the project, wrote a check, we ordered the materials, and the community swung into action.

Pleased with the results, Concord Rotary offered to support a second project: housing for the women teachers of Massembe school. The Massembe school is near the Peace Corps training center and more than half its teachers are young women.  It is also experiencing nearly 100% turnover as the women have intolerable living conditions in various farmers' compounds in the village.  Concord Rotary agreed to fund the first five rooms of such a project, adding that they believed that other clubs in northern California would also be interested in such projects.  But they wanted an expert from the Club to see the work in progress and visit other potential project sites.

And so, just a few months after my "annual" trip, I bought myself another ticket to fly to The Gambia with Michael Barrington from Concord Rotary. This potential new collaboration could be a very important complement to our scholarship program, allowing us to keep our focus on keeping girls in school, while not ignoring the pressing needs of rural schools.  When we arrived at  Massembe a few weeks ago, work was coming along nicely. The teachers, the School Management Committee, and the alkalo (village chief) came to greet us; the school's Mother's Club also came to say thanks with a bit of dancing.

We continued on up the south bank looking at other sites in desperate need of housing for their teachers.  In the upcountry capital of Basse, we visited St. Joseph's school for girls, recently expanded through grade 9, with 2000 girls.  There, New York teenager Sebastian Tischwell had mounted a campaign to raise funds to subdivide and converting four unused classrooms to housing. This project was nearing completion, with only the plastering and bathrooms yet to be done.

No trip to The Gambia is possible without visiting with young students, whose desire to learn is what motivates us.  What makes GambiaRising special is our willingness to make long-term commitments to students so they can feel confident that if they work hard, they can stay in school.  That in turn is made possible by the greater than 98% renewal rate among our wonderful donors, who understand what is at stake for these young people.  And everywhere we went in the country, we also met with some students.  We met in small groups, so each student could talk a little about themselves. 

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the entire trip came at a last-minute meeting in Sinchu Alhagie at the home one of our Coordinators, Ebrima Sanneh.  On a Wednesday night, Ebrima placed a call to Mr. Ceesay, the school coordinator at Old Yundum schools.  "Please invite a few sixth, ninth, and 12th graders to meet with GambiaRising at my home after school tomorrow," he requested.  (These are the grades at which the highest drop-out rates occur, as students change schools and need new uniforms and additional supplies.)  When we arrived, we saw a crowd of school girls walking down the road toward us.  We had expected to meet five or 10 girls; but 26 students had come.  

Of the 26, five students were not even in GambiaRising's program.  How did they know about the meeting?  ANOTHER teacher had heard about the meeting and called them at home to tell them to try to go.  Four of them were 12th graders, hoping to go to college or university next year.  The fifth girl had graduated a year ago and was determined to go to college and be a teacher, but she lived with her mother, who had no chance of finding the funds to send her.  So, as she said, "I am just sitting at home, doing household chores, hoping for a chance."  After we visited a bit with the 21 others and they had introduced themselves, we stayed a while longer with these five, and heard more about each of their hopes and dreams.  At the end we said, "Give Mr. Ceesay your exam results when you receive them; if you don't have the grades we require, we will support you to do "private studies" and re-sit.  But we can't promise anything until we know how our fundraising goes this summer.  Please understand that you deserve to go to college.  Please don't blame yourselves if we can't find a way to help you."   

Then I took a photo  to remember the meeting.

And so there we were, face to face with the stakes in this project we call GambiaRising: 5 girls, excellent students, urged by a teacher whose name we will never know to invite themselves to a meeting with GambiaRising students.  All five of them in the top 10% of the nation's students, but not sure if they will end up selling vegetables in the market with their mothers, or have a career as a teacher or nurse.  They will each need just $20 per month to go to Gambia College. or  $60 per month to go to the University of The Gambia. We won't know until August if we will be able to support them; our first priority is the students we have supported through 12th grade, but these will come next.  I hope so very much that we will be able to give them the chance they deserve.

Thanks so much to those of you who have already donated this year and/or who donate monthly.  It makes such a difference.  For everyone else, please remember these girls and the many hundreds like them whose future is literally in your hands.  We have created a highly effective system through which you can change lives.  I hope you will choose to do so.

Mike McConnell
Managing Trustee
GambiaRising
www.gambiarising.org

1500 Park Ave. #503
Emeryville, CA   94608