When I arrived in The Gambia in 2007 as the new Peace Corps Country Director, one of my strongest impressions was the quality and commitment of Peace Corps' Gambian staff.  As I got more familiar with the country I realized that an auxiliary benefit Peace Corps brings to The Gambia: it provides great jobs and training in a market where these were hard to find. Most good jobs there require years of previous experience,, but how can young people get on the career track? I proposed to Washington that we create an internship program which would provide entry level opportunities to young Gambians. The two interns selected were Ebrima Sanneh and Ebrima Minteh. You may recognize their names; both are now volunteering as Coordinators for GambiaRising in their communities. 

Ebrima Minteh used his experience at Peace Corps to get a job at the US Embassy. It was an entry-level job in the mail room. Fourteen years later, he has risen to be the Embassy's Housing Assistant reporting to the GSO, and overseeing all the Embassy's leased housing for American staff.

Coincidentally, Ebrima is married to Mariama Jallow, a teacher from Fula Bantang, where our upcountry program is headquartered. And when Ebrima and Mariama learned that we had started a small program to help young people go back to or stay in school, they asked if they could be part of it. They live in the village of Lamin Daranka, not far from the airport, which is also where Mariama taught.  We asked them to prepare short descriptions of the children they were nominating to be assisted.  Mariama responded with descriptions written in the voices of the children. 

We are fixated on giving young people the certainty that they will continue to receive our support at least through grade 12. Too many other things are uncertain in their lives. I asked Mariama and Ebrima this week for an update on these 14 girls, eight years later.  Here are the photos we received (in the same order as the photos above):

Of course, these were not the only 14 girls in Lamin Daranka who need support to go to school.  Every year, we have difficult conversations about how many students we can support this year.  Not many people are going to prioritize the needs of young Gambians over all the other problems in the world, so we focus on staying in touch with those who have a first- or second-hand relationship with The Gambia.  And we try hard to deliver compelling effectiveness so that it is clear that any donated dollar will have an outsized impact.

Eight years later, Mariama and Ebrima have more than 150 young people in GambiaRising's Lamin Daranka-area program, from nursery school through the University of The Gambia. Recently, Mariama told of being called to the hospital where the father of a local family was breathing his last breath. "Will you please help my children stay in school?" he asked. 

Minutes later, he died, and her waiting list grew by four.

If you are donating monthly or have donated recently, thank you so much for changing lives in such a long-lasting and powerful way. Thank you for being part of Gambia Rising. If you have not donated recently or know someone who has not, it is so important that we receive more help before year's end.  

Thank you.

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

1500 Park Ave Apt PH503
Emeryville, CA  94608-3578