‘Never in contact with Children of the Sun’

Some elders of Gunjur Kunkujang in Kombo South District of West Coast Region have vehemently refuted claims by members of a Belgium-based organisation that they rendered a €50,000 worth of assistance to a nursery school in that village.

The elder brother to the alkalo of the village, Malang Jammeh, one Baboucarr Jallow, a native of the village, and two other young men all from the same village, walked into The Point offices on Monday morning to express their dismay regarding the article published under the caption “Children of the sun supporting Education in Gambia” on page 7 of our 30th November 2010 edition.

It would be recalled that “Children of the Sun”, a Belgium-based NGO, organised a press briefing recently at the Omakan Hotel in Sukuta to inform journalists about the help they offered to Gunjur Kunkung Nursery School, which amounted to €50,000.

But Mr Malang Jammeh and Baboucarr Jallow have both refuted such claim of assistance and support to the village by the NGO organisation headed by two Belgian nationals - Mr Isabel Joseph and Didier Deylgat.

“The villagers of Gunjur Kunkunjang built the nursery school through our self-help community project, nothing else; so how can such a big help happen there and we didn’t know about it. It is shocking and interesting to hear that,” they said.  

Malang Jammeh and Baboucarr Jallow described the information as false and unfounded, adding that nobody from their village ever met the two Belgian nationals neither did they receive the said money from Isabel Joseph and Didier Deylgat. They added that the organisation never started any project with them in June 2001 as reported in the same story.