Posts from — February 2013
New Project for Sumakunda In The Pipeline
On Sunday 27th January 2013 the day after inaugurating “Angels Sittanunku Nursery School” on the North Bank, Karmic Angels team members travelled to the small village of Sumakunda some 40 miles from its base to discuss with the VDC and its chairman the possibilities of Karmic Angels 5th school project since its inception in 2008.
This is going to be called the “YES WE WILL” project as all VDC members have pledged to do everything possible once we have the funding to complete this project with volunteers from the youths and the men promising that “Yes We Will” not just yes we can. The village does not have any schools and is severely under developed. It has a small clinic (which we donated medical needs to whilst we were there) but this is only attended by the district nurse once a week. They have also built their own church. We held our meeting under the canopy of the church.
Our 1st proposal is to build a 3 classroom nursery school block together with teacher’s office and store and include with this a toilet block for the children and teachers. This would also include all the school furniture and all the stationary required to make this a school to be proud of. Costs of all this are in the region of £11500 now and would be based on the same idea of construction that took place in Sittanunku. The school will be called “Angels Sumakunda Nursery School”.
During discussions the VDC gave Karmic Angels the plans and budget, together with the legal documentation of the transfer of a piece of land to the community 100metres by 50 metres for the development of the new school.
The VDC Chairman Bernard Gomez said “This is a great day for the village of Sumakunda and thanks to Karmic Angels we will be seeing the first ever school in our village in due course”.
Speaking on behalf of Karmic Angels Stephanie Turner the founding director stated “This will be one of the best developments in this area. You have the University of the Gambia just 5 miles away and if at all possible we would wish to bring education to the village right up to the older students so that they can take advantage of the University Facilities once they are 18. This will take place over some years of course unless we have a very generous benefactor who comes to our aid”
The day ended with a walk through the dried up beds of the mangroves through to the River Gambia (Balong from the Roots series) and then onto a plantation in the village which helped support some of the villagers who worked there.
Now we need that support so much now to help develop this village so anyone out there that can supply national curriculum books for ages 3 to 7 and donors who wish to make a difference can contact us. Just go to our contact page and tell us what you can do to help. Thank you.
February 13, 2013 No Comments
Angels Sittanunku Nursery School Inaugurated 26th January 2013
We travelled across to the North Bank of the Gambia on Friday 25th January 2013 on a delapidated ferry with cows, goats and everything that a Gambian wanted to trade with. We arrived to a fantastic reception on the Juffereh (the Roots Kunta Kinteh village) road (thats if you can call it a road) at the village of Sittanunku where we were due to inaugurate our 3 classroom school with teacher’s office, store and toilet block. There must have been 200 men, women and children to greet us all singing their tribal welcome song.
> On Tuesday 29th January we received a phone call saying that the 1st nursery intake had started school in Nursery 2 and that the enrolling had commenced for Nursery 1 and Nursery 3. So within another week or so all 3 classrooms will be filled and this school will be playing a major part in teaching the children ready for the Primary and Lower Basic School that they already have there opposite the Nursery School. They now have education for all ages for children 3 to 14. A joy to behold. The final point on this nothing would have been possible without the fabulous help we received from the Herrod Foundation who played a major part in funding the school build and a large contribution towards the school furniture. Thank you all for your support for this and your continued support towards Karmic Angels goals in the Gambia.
February 7, 2013 No Comments