Our involvement in the Sifoe project began when we were approached by a group of people from the village of Sifoe, about 30 miles from the capital Banjul, who were trying to set up a nursery school for needy children in their area. They had formed a committee and had one volunteer who was teaching any children who turned up whenever he was available, but as his father is a farmer he was needed to help him in the fields quite a lot of the time. When the children did get together it was in a very small room on his compound, with no desks, books or pencils, as seen in the pictures below.

The group asked us to help them find funding for a building, for desks and chairs to put inside it, and for a salary for a teacher to teach the nursery school. We were impressed with the fact that the group were collecting 10 dalasi per month from each member to try to save up for some materials. This may seem like a very small amount, but it is as much as they can afford, and it shows their commitment to the project – they were not just asking for money, but were doing what they could themselves.

One of the members of the committee had a contact in Ireland who had visited Sifoe whilst on holiday in The Gambia, and on her return home successfully raised funds to get the project off the ground. (Read more about how she came to be involved in the project here  »). The committee have got permission to use the village's Methodist church building to start with (in the future they are hoping to have their own building for the school), and some HopeForAll volunteers spent time there painting the inside.

If you would like to help raise funds to help them, then please contact us. We are especially looking for funds towards their own building in the future. Please think about helping these people – they really want to make a difference in their community, and give the next generation a chance which most of them did not have.