Sue and Steve have just returned from an amazing two week visit to The Gambia. We spent several days meeting teachers, headteachers and members of the Early Childhood Development Association (ECDA) executive committee members. In all we were able to travel to 14 schools and successfully met all our previous sponsored teachers and the 8 newly sponsored teachers.
Our partnership with the ECDA is going from strength to strength and we are so pleased that we took this important step last year. We have now seen first hand the value of involving these key people in the selection of teachers to receive our support. Another important decision we made last year was to ask Chillel Bojang to work as our link in The Gambia. Chillel has done a fantastic job of keeping financial and other records of SAGT’s activities in The Gambia. She works closely with Lamin Kijera, the secretary of the ECDA executive committee and meets all of the teachers regularly.
The teachers they have chosen all have wonderful stories to tell of their journey into teaching and the impact that sponsorship is having on their lives. This goes far beyond the individuals as benefits are felt in their classrooms, their families and the village communities surrounding the schools.
We have so much to report about our time in The Gambia that we have decided to write a more detailed newsletter for our supporters and sponsors. Copies will be available soon.