The Projects - Stepping Stones Nursery School

Stepping Stones Gambia is a nursery school in the heart of The Gambia's biggest city, Serrakunda.

With more than 100 children attending every day, the school is a vital part of everyday life in the Kunkujang district.

The Stepping Stones story started with the African Oyster Trust's first project, the Kunta Kinteh Nursery School. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we were able to transform Kunta Kinteh into a bigger, better and safer environment than had ever been possible before, creating a facility in which local children could flourish.

Using a model which we would eventually roll out across all our nursery school projects, our support helped the local community as they  worked to build this fantastic new facility. Together we were able to extend the nursery from one classroom to four, to provide new segregated toilet facilities and to enclose the nursery in a new wall. 

Then, in late 2011, the Trust was informed that, due to a change in land ownership, we had to vacate the premises on which we had built Kunta Kinteh.

Never one to shirk a challenge, Kira immediately tried to find alternative accommodation and managed to secure premises on the grounds of the local secondary school, very close to the original premises.

Remarkably, the new school was constructed by Easter 2012 and and was ready for the new school term that September - meaning there was no educational time lost between Kunta Kinteh closing and the new school opening.

Stepping Stones Nursery School was formally opened in March 2013 by the deputy regional governor Jim Jeng, with James and Laura Holden (who generously provided the funds to allow this project to happen) also in attendance.

The African Oyster Trust continues to support the Stepping Stones Nursery School, contributing towards teachers' wages and training, meals for the children and equipment for the school. We also supported the building of a new kitchen for the adjoining Kunkujang Keitaya Lower Basic School - read the full story here.

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