GambiaRising's pledge to use donations only to support students is possible only because of the dozens of Gambians who tirelessly work without pay to implement our program.  They have "day jobs" and are delighted to have the opportunity to help others in the places they live and work.

Alieu Gaye is a teacher in the Lower River Region (LRR),  We met Alieu in 2018 through a returned Peace Corps volunteer.  He was teaching in his home village of Misera, near the country's southern border, and introduced us to three teen-age girls there who had dropped out of school.  He involved their families and the local School Management Committee in committing to support them to stay in school if we provided the uniforms and books.

The following year Alieu was transferred to Kuli Kunda, which is isolated between the Bintang Bolong and Kiang National Forest.  We then had two places from which he could work.  What happened next in Kuli Kunda was dramatic. When Alieu arrived in the fall of 2019, Kuli Kunda Lower Basic School (LBS) was the smallest of three schools in Kuli Kunda village.  The other two were madrassas, affiliated with rival mosques who were in competition to have the largest madrassa in town.  Kuli Kunda LBS had just 127 students spread over 7 grades (Nursery through 6).  Only 56 of them (44%) were girls.

Despite there being three schools in the village, Alieu noticed that some children in the village were in none of them, so he proposed a budget to get them uniforms and books so they could attend Kuli Kunda school.  Most of these were girls. We like to work organically, by word of mouth, and sure enough, the mothers of the community started talking to each other: there was a new teacher in town and he was helping students go to school.

Not everyone could afford to pay the fees of the madrassa but rather than let their children go to the "government school", the husbands were keeping their kids at home; mostly the girls. But mothers starting coming to see Alieu after school, asking if he could help their children get an education.  In order to expand our program, we need either new donors or increased donations; luckily in 2019 we had both.  As funds allowed, we bought books and uniforms, and Alieu helped children enroll in his school.  By the time schools closed in the COVID shutdown in March 2020, Kuli Kunda's school's enrollment had more than doubled, to 246. The number of girls had nearly tripled, from 56 to 160.  More children were enrolling than we were helping.  When school re-opened in October 2020,  enrollment was up to 280.  Two thirds (186) of the students in the school were now girls.

In response, the government increased the number of teachers assigned to Kuli Kunda from seven to nine.  Seven of the teachers were women.  We feel strongly that having women teachers in schools provides the strongest possible role model to students, so we were delighted.

Now the question was: where would the teachers live?  In upcountry schools with no teacher housing, teachers find spare rooms to rent in the community, or in neighboring villages.  This arrangement is rarely ideal, and it is far more complicated when the teacher is a woman.  What is her relationship to the other women in the compound?  Does she help cook?  Clean?  Care for the children?  What is her relationship to the men in the compound.  To use a Gambian phrase, it is not easy.  

Alieu had a simple request: could GambiaRising provide funds to build  housing for some of the Kuli Kunda teachers?  We told him that our scholarship funds were going to be sorely stretched, but we would look for the funds needed.

That is when my granddaughter asked if I had any ideas for a project she and her friends could work on.  I said I did.  Alieu made a budget; she and her friends went to work.  A Gambian company offered to loan one of their brick-presses; supplies started to arrive.  It was more than 100 degrees in the afternoons (and rarely below 70 in the night), but parents, teachers, and other community members showed up and work began.

Our scholarship program is completely dependent on the generosity of our donors,... year after year.  If you haven't donated recently, this is a perfect time to do so.  We are deep in the middle of budgeting for the new school year and we know we will be challenged again to  help everyone who deserves our help.  I know the world is broken right now and many hands are reaching out for help.  What I can promise is that there are few organizations that do as much good with each dollar raised as we will with yours, and that the other troubles in the world mean that now, more than ever, the question truly is if not us, then who will help these young people?

Thank you for being part of GambiaRising. 

Mike McConnell
Managing Trustee
GambiaRising
1500 Park Ave PH 503
Emeryville, CA 94608