Back in 2018, donors helped us to build a school in Wudeba – a small village in The Gambia, West Africa. It’s the only school for miles around and has proven incredibly successful – with around 80% of children attending regularly. In fact, it’s proven so popular that the children have already outgrown the school!
We initially raised enough money to build two classrooms. But the school now has 80 pupils, aged between three and 13, split into four groups. Half of the children attend school in the morning, and half in the afternoon.
To us, that’s just not good enough. Across The Gambia, almost 50% of people live in poverty and around 10% of children suffer from acute malnutrition. Education is crucial to lifting children out of poverty and giving them a brighter future. These kids deserve a full education, not just half a day.
So, we’re building two more classrooms. The children of Wudeba will soon be able to attend school for a full day. Not only that, but the school will be able to accept an extra 20 pupils.
We provide lunch for all the children, helping to tackle malnutrition. The school also has three toilets and is home to the village’s only water pump, which we built in 2018. Safe water and sanitation are vital in preventing diarrhoea and other diseases. (Over 45 percent of water sources in The Gambia are contaminated with E.coli, and globally, diarrhoea kills a child every two minutes.)
Along with the extra classrooms, we’re repainting the whole school, and providing more learning resources, such as notebooks, pens and posters. The teachers are paid by the government, so there are no school fees, meaning more children can attend.
Why we set up an African education charity
With no school buses and little in the way of transportation, village schools like this one are crucial to keeping children in education. As one villager told us, “The availability of the school is giving chance to every child in the village to access education. I can vividly remember walking for 3km in order to learn and attend school. Most of my friends couldn't make it and decided to quit. Most of the children will now complete their school because the school is just at our doorstep. With the extended classrooms, the children will not face many challenges and teachers can have enough time to teach and plan their lessons.”
Of course, extending the school would not be possible without the generosity of our supporters. If you’ve made a donation, thank you. We use 100% of donations to fund our work, so you really are making a difference to the lives of children in The Gambia.
Help to build a new school in Africa
Sadly, there are many more villages like Wudeba that don’t yet have a school. At Africa Angels, we always have one eye on the next project. If you’d like to help to build a school in The Gambia and support our current schools, please consider making a donation today.
Would you like to see the difference your donation is making? We organise regular trips to The Gambia. Whether you want to volunteer, visit our schools or just experience a new country far from the usual tourist destinations, please do get in touch to find out more.
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