Belgium Friends of The Gambia (BFoTG), who arrived in the country last week, have commenced donation of educational, health and agricultural items to institutions.
The latest to benefit from them was the community of Siffoe in the West Coast Region.
Speaking at a presentation in the community, the chairman of BFoTG, Patrick De Vos, extolled the beneficiary students to take their education seriously.
He informed parents that the BFoTG had paid the school fees for 24 students who are under their sponsorship at Siffoe from nursery, to lower and upper basic schools and skills centre respectively.
“This donated items we are giving out to you today is not coming from me Patrick and my wife Christa alone; we also have genuine friends in Belgium who also contributed immensely to change the lives of Gambian children so that in future they can be responsible leaders for this country,” he said.
He promised Siffoe villagers and the school administration that they will continue to help the students but was also quick to advise both the parents and teachers to take good care of the items presented to them by his organization.
“Let me thank the villagers of Siffoe for their efforts and we have seen that you have appreciated what we are doing for your children,” he said.
Sunkary Sanyang, headmistress of Siffoe Lower Basic School, thanked the BFoTG through Patrick and his wife Christa for their kind gesture to her students for the past ten years.
“This help will transform our children into better leaders tomorrow and it is a wonderful gift and I am urging the BFoTG to continue with the good work,” she said.
At Siffoe Lower Basic school campus, four certificates of appreciation were presented to BFoTG chairman Mr Vos for their wonderful help to the villagers of Siffoe and more so to the future leaders of the country.
At Jambanjelly presentation, Mr Vos said they are sponsoring 78 students from Nursery to Upper Basic school levels but called on the sponsors’ parents to write thank-you letters to people who are sponsoring their children so he could take the letters to their sponsors in Belgium.
“Anytime we come to Jambanjelly we are happy and are glad to see our family members; that is, the children, who some of them by the time we started this help were not born while others were born but very young,” Vos stated.Lamin M. Bojang, a teacher of the school, and Ousman Darboe, who spoke on behalf of the parents, both commended the group for the continued assistance they are rendering to the community.
The BFoTG donated books, second-hand clothes, cooking solar panels, dust bins, garden tools, bags of rice and many other items to the above mentioned schools.
