Click here to go to: SAMBAKALA News Page or: A few views of the people and village of Sambakala
Click here to go to: SAMBAKALA Links Page or: Sponsor Page or: SAMBAKALA Press Release 1
An Introduction to The Gambia and the Village of Sambakala........
The Gambia is a small country in West Africa surrounded by Senegal. It used to be a member of the British Empire and gained independence in 1965. The country is poor and exports very little, just Peanuts and some Mangoes. The major industry is tourism since Gambia enjoys excellent weather, long clean beaches and many smiling faces.
Gambia has however many plus points. It boasts a religious and cultural tolerance to be envied throughout the world with Christians, Moslems, other persuasions and seven indigenous Tribes all living in harmony together. It is also the home of the "Roots" series about the Slave Trade, and our village, "Sambakala" is to be found in the area which was 'rich pickings' in those cruel days before the 1807 treaty which abolished Slavery. Sambakala itself was founded in 1917 by one Samab Njie and today is little changed from its early beginnings.
Virtually no one in the village speaks English (the official language of the Gambia) since there is no means of education. Without simple English Language skills and knowledge of mathematics, reading and writing it is impossible for the inhabitants to find gainful employment. There are a few Carpenters and Masons who live away from the village for most of the time, earning a living and helping their families by living in Serekunda, the largest town in The Gambia on the South Bank.
Moreover, without basic (nursery) education, children are unable to secure places in the local Primary School - about 5 km away - since they need basic Writing, English Language and Numeracy skills in order to apply. They thus become caught in a 'non-education trap' which condemns them to a life devoid of any kind of meaningful education at all and therefore skills and abilities to be able to seek work. The tiny handful who are educated were lucky enough to be able to go and live with relatives in and around Serekunda which meant they got Schooling, but grew up away from their natural parents with uncles and aunts.
What this Project is all about....................
We want to change all this, and build a School which will be more than just a place of education for the very young. It will also be able to provide Adult Education and basic Health Care through First Aid Post. This means that no longer will young lives be lost through a combination of non-education and the lack of Hfl 0.90 (less than $1.00) which a course of 20 Anti-Malaria tablets costs.
Modou Njie lost his life to Malaria in such a way on the 20th of Oct 1998 at the age of 5, and it is in his memory that our School Project is named.
We would like to show you how you can help us to help them to help themselves. We aim to make Sambakala self-sufficient within 3-5 years through our Sambakala Village Project, which will:
a.. Build a Nursery School (the School Project) to provide education for all (about 150) village children and about 75-100 adults.
b.. This first project will provide an income for 8 families, (5 Teachers and 3 co-workers).
c.. The School will provide daily (powdered) milk and other nutrition such as pancakes to the children thus improving their diet greatly.
d.. A later (second) project will improve the Water provision in the village and thereby allow several hectares to be commercially farmed, thus helping the village to earn revenue through a Co-operative which will eventually pay the salaries of the teachers and other school workers.
Interested? Then please read on for more information about Sambakala, us and our project......................
More about us and how we work........
We are fully registered as a charity in Holland with Banking facilities in Holland, The UK and The Gambia. What makes us different from the larger Charities (who also do excellent work) is that since we are small, we have minimal overheads. At least 95% of contributed money is spent directly on the Project, buying materials to build the School and paying the salaries of the co-workers (from Sambakala Village).
A further advantage of being small is that we have very short lines of communication which means that we can react quickly to changing circumstances and are able to oversee tasks personally. This leads to much greater efficiency, again ensuring that donated funds are spend where the sponsors intended.
The 'Stichting', (dutch for "voluntary organisation"), was set up at the end of 1998 after our seventh visit in October to The Gambia. We'd long wanted to do 'something' and what we saw in Sambakala prompted us to take the step of starting this organisation with the goals set out above. Later, (probably this year), we intend to increase the size of the Organising Committee to 5 as the work-load of the project increases. New Committee Members and helpers accept that the workt is 100% voluntary and will be invited to be a part of the organisation on the basis of their abilities and willingness to further the goals of the Stichting to benefit the people of Sambakala.
New helpers will, it is intended, be able to use their skills to assist in and advise on, the setting-up of other projects such as improved water facilities, a commercial Market Garden and a Tourist Shop. These projects will be set-up and initially financed by Stichting Sambakala. Subsequent earnings will go directly to the Village via a sub-committee of local people (Sambakala Village Elders) who will administer the day-to-day operations. Stichting Sambakala will maintain over-all control and responibility to ensure that the projects are run efficiently and that all profits are used solely for the benefit of the village and its people.
These profits will eventually be sufficiently large enough to be able to pay for the running costs of the school (within 3 to 5 years), allowing Stichting Sambakala to start a new project in another deserving Gambian community. All projects will essentially be small; targeted at communities of circa 1000-2000 people. This will avoid the need for the Stichting itself to grow too much since this inevitably brings new costs such as for administration and personnel, which we wish to avoid.
Contact Information
"Stichting Sambakala" is looking for people who would like to help
If you would like to be a part of this project you can help by making a small monthly contribution of as little as Hfl 10.00 (a little under $5.00).
Contributors are asked to contact us by E-mail at [log in to unmask] for details. This is because we very much value all our sponsors without whom we wouldn't exist and therefore would like to know who they are and in which country they live. Internet sponsors can read the up-dates on the project in the usual way. Non Internet users will receive a quarterly News Letter as outlined above.
You can contact us by:
Telephone (+31) 76 596 6126
FAX (+31) 76 596 6127
Postal address Heiveld 35
4891VD Rijsbergen
Holland
E-mail [log in to unmask]
Click here to go to: SAMBAKALA News Page
Click here to go to: A few views of the people and village of Sambakala
Click here to go to: SAMBAKALA Press Release 1
Click here to go to: SAMBAKALA Press Release 2
Click here to go to: SAMBAKALA Press Release 3
Click here to go to SAMBAKALA Press Release 4
Click here to go to: Sponsor Page
Click here to go to: The SAMBAKALA Links Page
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Please visit us regularly for up-dates on our project.
Send mail to [log in to unmask] with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: September 5, 1999
Allahumma salli wasallim alaa Nabiyyina Muhammad. Wasalaam.
Modou Mbye