By Laura Holden, Trustee
Written March 2007

It is a week since we returned from our most recent visit to The Gambia, and I now feel able to put into words what I saw, heard and felt at Kunta Kinteh Nursery School.

When we visited Kunta Kinteh a year ago, it was to see the compound walls and foundations. And now? Well, can so much have happened in just a year?! It has of course, made possible by so many things: the materials we have been able to make available; the guidance and buying / bartering skills of the dynamic Kira Dalton; the funding from family, friends and business colleagues in the UK; and the amazing effort and dedication of the local community, led so well by our friend Fanding.

It was ‘Nation’s Day’ (former Commonwealth Day) when we visited, so the children were in their best clothes – some traditional, some Westernised, but all looking their best. Some of the little girls had colourful foil wrapped sweets and shells braided into their hair. All the children brought their own lunch for this special day.

We arrived to a “Welcome Welcome” song, followed by a stream of colourfully dressed children with ear-to-ear smiles and hands outstretched in greeting. Playtime followed, with a small ball pool, a slide, a sandpit, and new swings, completed just the night before by a local carpenter. Tennis balls were handed out to the children, and music played to complete the celebratory atmosphere.

Fanding and the teachers proudly showed us the classrooms (their walls adorned by wonderful alphabet pictures), the work books of the children, then the store room, the four toilets and the kitchen.

The teacher and trainee teachers are working well together, and the 60+ children looked well nourished and healthy. The daily meal is very much appreciated by children and staff alike, and we were also given the chance to sample Caddy’s cooking as she prepared chicken, onion and chips, all on a wood fire! A new bore hole has made a real difference in terms of the time and energy spent collecting water from the ‘local’ well a mile away - 17 visits a day had been normal for the cooking, drinking, washing and toilets. The addition of new gutters and a water butt mean that now no water is wasted at all.

The new community clinic will not take long to complete, requiring as it does some tiling in the surgery, a new roof, paint for the wall and ceiling, a bench for the waiting area, an examination couch and of course the medicines. The clinic will mean that a qualified nurse / midwife will be available to the community every evening.

And as we sat enjoying translated conversations with some of the mothers who were waiting for their children, we were reminded that the school is about even more than nursery education and healthcare. Adult education is also an important feature of the work here, with the women we spoke to so keen to learn numeracy and literacy skills that they would like to attend five evening a week if they could (and that after a very full day caring for husband and family).

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