The Gambia Project

The Strode College Gambia Project is now entering its fourth successful year with excellent progress being made with the building of the Youth Centre in the Gambian village of Tujereng. Tujereng is a poor village where there would be little or no chance of being able to afford a project of this kind.Unemployment is very high and the average income for those to be lucky enough to be employed is less than 50 pence a day.

The Project started in 2005 when College staff approached the Alkalow (Head) of Tujereng village to ask what the College could do to support the young people of the village. The Alkalow arranged a meeting with the young people who were unanimous in wanting a Youth Centre with an Internet Café and hard court for Basketball and Volleyball. The land for the Youth Centre was subsequently donated by the Alkalow and College staff and students commenced fundraising efforts to raise the estimated £15,000 needed. Since then approximately £16,500 has been raised and the building and hard court are complete but due to fluctuations in the exchange rate and increase of building materials the building cost increased to £20,000. Currently fundraising is taking place to raise the remaining £3,500. One hundred percent of the money raised for the project goes to the project - there are no hidden administration costs. The Alkalow sees the Youth Centre eventually becoming a community centre used by everyone in the village for gatherings, adult literacy and numeracy classes and young womens meetings.

Since the Project started most of the money raised has been by the students through their fundraising activities such as car washing, sponsored bike rides, auctions, pub quizzes, music concerts, raffles with donated prizes by local businesses, bag packing in local supermarkets and selling Gambian material, bracelets and bags. Strode College staff have been very supportive of the students fund raising activities. There have been some donations by local business people.

A group of students accompanied by staff go out to the Gambia every February for 2 weeks. These visits strengthen the link we have with the village of Tujereng and offer students a valuable learning experience as they very quickly realise how fortunate they are with their material possessions and access to services and facilities that they take for granted, like education and the Health Service. They also experience and gain an insight into a very different culture with many different beliefs and attitudes. Each student is linked with a family in the village and over the 2 week stay their relationship is developed by regular contact. Students spend time with the families to gain insight and experience of a typical family day taking part in daily duties including drawing water from the well, shopping at the market and preparing meals. The students are accommodated in the Tunbung African Art Village in Tujereng, owned by a well known Gambian artist, which is modelled off a traditional African village built using traditional materials.

In February 2009 the fourth group of students visited. During their stay the Youth Centre was officially opened by Malang Jassy, the Gambian Government Minister for Youth and Sports.Speeches were given by the Alkalow and senior representatives from the College, Lorraine Smart and Pene Prior. In addition to the speeches the opening ceremony involved a programme of dancers, musicians and singers by local people as well as students from the College.During the ceremony the College representatives presented a village football team ‘Old Hands‘ with a complete Liverpool football strip donated by Liverpool Football Club. The ceremony was covered by a Gambian television crew and a substantial news coverage of three and a half minutes was shown on Gambian national television the following evening. The ceremony was also covered by a number of Gambian newspapers.

The visits to the Gambia have a tendency to have a high profile as during the first visit the students were formally introduced to the President of The Gambia, Dr Yahya Jammeh at an official opening of an energy plant in the village of Tujereng. This was shown on Gambian national television and was covered in local newspapers.

In addition to the building of the Youth Centre the Project also supports the village Nursery providing educational resources, toys and equipment. Local nurseries and schools have been very generous in supporting the project providing computers, pens, pencils, paper, books etc including Croscombe Primary School, Frome Nursery and the Pepperbox Nursery in Frome.