Three years ago, after a conversation with Peace Corps training staff and our new Community Coordinator in the Lower River Region (LRR), GambiaRising appealed to returned Peace Corps volunteers to fund a program to help children from Peace Corps training villages return to and stay in school.

Training villages play a critical role in preparing these future volunteers for service, yet they rarely benefit from having volunteers posted to their villages.  Working with the training staff, we made a list of 18 current and former training villages and sites in the Kiang West district of LRR, and by the end of the summer of 2020, our Coordinator,  Alieu Gaye, had identified more than 500 children in need of help.  We made several appeals and received some welcome support, but we fell short.  Most of our donors are returned Peace Corps volunteers and their families, so many were already giving what they could, but a handful of new donors joined.  We lowered our aspirations, but began small programs in ten training villages.

Then for two villages, everything changed.  Volunteers who had trained in one of these villages and the family of a volunteer who had trained in another raised their hands and said "We'll take care of the children from that training village."  So we got to work.  The two villages were Sare Samba and Kaiaf.  Today I want to tell you about Sare Samba.

Gavin Gladding (PCTG 1998-2000) and Kevin Moore (PCTG 1999-2001) were two of the many hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers who have trained in Wolof villages in Kiang West.  After completing their service, Kevin went on to become a Professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.  Gavin became a beloved science teacher in the Clovis (Calif.) School District and the Vice Principal at Mt. Washington Elementary School.  On September 16, 2018 while jogging, Gavin was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident.

Gavin's family and friends created the Gavin Gladding Foundation in his memory "to carry on the legacy of Gavin Gladding by inspiring youths to make the world a better place by providing scholarships and grants for higher education, camps and other educational programs."  Kevin introduced us to the Foundation, and they immediately decided to sponsor not a only a few but all the children of Sare Samba who were not able to attend school without such support. 

Here's what that incredible offer led to this year.  In March, realizing that  book prices were soaring in The Gambia, Coordinator Alieu Gaye approached book sellers in the market town of Soma, offering to buy all the books we needed for the Lower River Region early, in time for the bookseller to re-stock before school, if we could receive a substantial discount for doing so.

When Alieu arrived with the final delivery of supplies, village and school leaders gathered families at the school.  Elders talked about the importance of education.  Students were told they would be supported through 12th grade, if they pledged to stay in school and study hard.  It was a joyful occasion.

This year, the generosity of the Gavin Gladding Foundation, and Coordinator Alieu Gaye's careful stewardship of the funds have led to 57 Sare Samba students receiving support, including four who are studying at Gambia College to become teachers.  

Here are a few more photos of some of this year's new students, whose lives will never be the same:

As schools re-open we are getting appeals from teachers and families about young people who did not come back or who want to.  For the first time in a while, we have not raised more money this year than last.  So we can promise this: if you have not donated in the past year and can do so now, your donation will result in a young Gambian going back to school.  Right away.

And if you have donated already, thank you so much for being part of GambiaRising.  Thank you for giving these young people a chance.  There is nowhere else they could have turned.

Mike McConnell
Managing Trustee
GambiaRising Charitable Trust
1500 Park Avenue PH 503
Emeryville, CA  94608
www.gambiarising.org