Update 2015

Just arrived it became obvious that the Ebola epidemic has a bad effect on this land. Although there anybody hadn’t been infected and there are strong health controls when you enter the country, the number of tourists decreased by about 70 % and that means for many Gambians unemployment and growing poverty.

So we – 11 members and friends of our society – were really happy to have many emergency supplies and donations with us. For example pupils and teachers of the “Freie Schule Güstrow” donated 355 Euros. We took that money to buy 11 sacks of rice and two big bottles of oil. This way we can guarantee that our pupils in Labakoreh get a warm meal for four months. Each family of the eight godchildren got a sack of rice.

A generous donation we also got from two groups of the “Freie Schule Bützow”, which we could present the teachers in Labakoreh together with a photo of the German pupils.

Our older school children were especially happy when we presented them 4 bikes which we could buy there thanks to a generous sponsor.

During our stay there the wall round our school area and the three classrooms were painted again. The school sign at the main road was renovated and new school materials were bought. Thanks to pharmacies in Güstrow and Bützows we could take a lot of first-aid kit and medication to Dr. Emanuel. Also our Ramatolei, who suffers from rickets, could be provided with her medicaments.

As every year the beach party was a highlight for our school children. They enjoyed playing, swimming and having a lot of fun very much and especially when every child got a bag with clothes, shoes and toys – all these things were donations from friends of our society in Germany – they were happy.

And in our village the young football players cheered when they got 20 pairs of new football shoes, sponsored by Hella Jobarteh. When – after the football match – medals, which were brought by Malve Lucke, were handed out they all shouted jubilantly.

We were very happy about the growing engagement our teachers developed. They prepared a big school festival. All of the villagers were invited and together with us they realized the improvement of the educational standard. The pupils proudly presented a programme to show their abilities in reading, singing, reciting and dancing. Very impressive for us was how thankful the villagers are for our help to provide their children with education. They didn’t only express that in words but also in little presents for us and small donations for the school.

And there is another thing which makes us happy: many “graduates” from our school,who are sponsored by friends of our society, successfully finished higher school qualifications or a vocational training.

All in all we can say that our long-standing activities in Labakoreh bear fruit with regard to our aim to give aid for self-aid, to help young Gambians to improve their living conditions in their home country.