Schools for Gambia Foundation, a charitable organisation based in
The items, including bicycles, schoolbags, pens, pencils, blackboards, second-hand clothing, pampers, and other essentials, were donated to Fonkoi-kunda Lower Basic School in Jarra West, Lower River Region; Conteh-Kunda Lower Basic School in Upper Badibou District, North Bank Region; and Kinteh-Kunda Lower Basic School in Lower Badibou District .
The other items that were donated included bags of rice to needy families and physical cash to the Foundation’s sponsored school children.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony held at Fonkoi-Kunda Lower Basic School, one of the donors, Karl-Heinz Schweizer, said the foundation was founded in 1997 and registered in The Gambia.
The foundation was founded by a German national called Riebock Gerhard, who came to The Gambia over thirty years ago and visited Farafenni where he met with MAE Winterton of England and decided to create the School for Gambia Foundation.
The foundation, he noted, started with six members but the number has now increased to more than thirty with ten most active ones.
The goal of the foundation is to give annual support to Gambian schools, he said, adding that their members do collaborate with other friends to collect second-hand materials for Gambian children.
“Currently this foundation is sponsoring one hundred and twenty children in The Gambia,” he disclosed.
The foundation received support from schools in Germany and each year do send two containers to The Gambia with second-hand clothing and other materials including school items.
In receiving the items on behalf of his school, the headmaster of Fonkoi-Kunda Lower Basic School, Lamin Danso thanked the donors for their kind gesture, saying: “These people [the donors] are real friends of The Gambia as far as education is concerned. Their intervention is to see that school children are well supported with learning materials.”
He assured the donors that the donated materials “will be put into good use”, while appealing for more support for school children in the area, who come from needy backgrounds and families.
For his part, the headmaster of Conteh-Kunda Lower Basic School, Lamin Ceesay, expressed similar sentiments to those of the headmaster of Fonkoi-Kunda Lower Basic School while thanking the donors for all their invaluable support to Gambian schoolchildren and families.
“These items will go a long way in easing the school burden of their parents, especially in buying learning materials,” Mr. Ceesay said, while assuring donors that the items will be used accordingly.
Also receiving the items in his school, the headmaster of Kinteh-Kunda Lower Basic School in Lower Badibou, Barham Wadda, hailed the donors for coming all the way from Germany to give support to his schoolchildren.
“This is a welcoming gesture,” he said, thanking the donors for giving blackboards to his school. “This is the first time we are getting such a donation,” he noted.
The donors also gave a helping hand to the Farafenni Fire Ambulance and Rescue Services.
