As the number of applications for college scholarships passed 700, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed.  We encouraged applicants to look elsewhere, specifically listed other sources of scholarships on our application page, and asked them to apply only if they could not find help elsewhere.  But this of course meant that as we read the applications, we knew that we were likely their last hope of going to college.  You could tell a quite a bit just from the way the letters were written -- on a laptop, nicely printed, or handwritten and photographed with a phone.  But the content was the most important to us.

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We say on our application page that we simply don't have the funds to help most of the students who will apply to us.  Then we add this: But that doesn't mean you don't deserve to go to college; it only means we don't have enough funds to help you.

The good news is that we had several lovely surprises at the end of the year.  Sadly, a few gifts we expected did not come, but others did, and several were larger than we expected, and the net was that we were able to spend much of January sorting applications, meeting with applicants, and funding a cohort of new college and university students larger than we had ever expected or dared to dream of.  More than 150 new scholarships in total, bringing our total being supported this year alone to more than 500.  All the while not forgetting our mission to help students stay in school through 12th grade, we also funded more than 200 new scholarships for grade school students who had dropped out earlier this year.  With more than 5,000 grade 1 to 12 students now receiving uniforms and books from GambiaRising, that means that our college/university program is close to 10% of our total students.  But because of the costs, it takes 50% of our income to fund it.

I will share with you (below) some of the photos that our Coordinators have been sending back.  Each one of these students is at college or university today; none would have been able to be there without the support of GambiaRising's donors.  

To those of you who participated in making these miracles happen in 2024, thank you.  If you have not donated recently, please do so as soon as you can.  Every day, more appeals, more applications arrive.  Our ability to say yes depends on you.

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

1500 Park Ave Apt 503
Emeryville, CA  94608-3578