Charities and NGO's helping The Gambia

Here at Luigi's Complex we try to support worthy charities which can change and improve the life of the local people.

You also have the power to help. Your gift to a charity can save a life. It's really that simple.

Here is a list of charities active in The Gambia.

1 to 3 is a small charity (Charity No. 1082151) in Wellingara, The Gambia.
To date they have built, and are equipping, a nursery school for 250 children, a skills centre for teenagers, teaching typing, sewing and computer studies, they have started adult literacy classes in Mandinka and Pula, installed electricity and running water to the site and constructed a modern toilet block.

Their next major project is to build a Health Post for the community which will house a doctor, surgery, pharmacy, maternity care unit, and a facility for dipping mosquito nets. Meg Lyon, Chairman.

ActionAid Gambia provides basic education and skills training, aiming for increased access to education for children and adults. It works to increase food production and improve access to marketing and sustainable agro-credit delivery services. An important role is to improve access to clean drinking water.

Projects include assisting with village initiated and village managed small scale enterprises, Primary Health Care services, family planning and development of community based organisations. Consideration is always given to empowering the recipients to manage their own development and to the conservation and restoration of the environment

ADRA International, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, works to improve the quality of life for people in developing countries through integrated community based development and disaster preparedness and response activities.

Operations in Gambia include Primary and Secondary Schools in New Jeswang and Sotokoi Community Health Outreach in Lamin/Abuko, Sinchu and Brufut, and Water community projects in Faratu Daru, Sinchu, Sotokoi, Brufut and Ghana town.

Africa Muslim Agency The Africa Muslim Agency (AMA), a non-governmental organization (NGO) from Kuwait, was founded in 1981 with the aim of strengthening cultural and human relationships between African countries and Arab states.

AMA's priorities are the building and running of schools in rural areas, building and running health centers or hospitals and providing free medical care, providing water resources such as boreholes and wells, building and running of orphanages, and sponsoring orphans and the handicapped, training women, professional and vocational training, providing food and nutrition and relief work.

African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights The Centre's activities are carried out in four main units: Management; Training; Information and Documentation; and Legal and Research. The African Centre serves as a bridge between the African human rights NGOs, the governments and the general public. It disseminates information on human rights bodies and situations in various African countries.

It also serves as an educational channel for human rights NGOs. The Centre prepares manuals for human rights teaching in schools, from the primary to higher levels. The Centre also runs a women's programme and works to remove the barriers that impede women's growth and development

Age Care Association, (TANGO), is a network of independent organisations working to improve the standard of living for poor elderly people in the Gambia. ACA provides shelter, food, clothing and medical facilities to the old.

Agency for Personal Services Overseas, (TANGO), is an Irish charity which aims to contribute to sustainable improvement in the living conditions of poor communities by enabling skilled Irish people to transfer and share skills and knowledge and contribute to a process of development, peace and justice.

Albaraca Nursery School, UK Charity, 01328 830044

Anglican Mission Development Ministries Engages in projects including non-formal education, nursery schools, skills training, relief programmes for refugees and emergency preparedness. As a Church Community the Mission is committed to making available access to resources, power, assets and knowledge as the means to its goals.

Ardingly Old Jeshwang Association, UK Medical Charity, email only

Association for Intervention, Cooperation and Development, (TANGO), provides services to sustain and expand the primary health system in the Eastern region of the Gambia.

Association of Baptists for World Evangelism Exists to train and assist Gambians in attaining self-sufficiency in areas of expressed need in physical educational and spiritual needs. Particular projects include health care, non-formal education and provision of a nursery school.

Association of Farmers, Educators and Traders, (TANGO), aims to create firm and effective cooperation amongst grassroots farmer organisations in rural areas. It assists production and promotes self-sufficiency through skills training, credit and savings facilities.

Association of Gambian Entrepreneurs, (TANGO), provides credit and savings mobilization, trains entrepreneurs in business management through seminars, workshops and study tours, provides advisory and consultancy services to members, promotes business ventures with national and international investors and publishes a business magazine and directory.

Association of Small Scale Enterprises in Tourism The aim of ASSET is to enable small-scale tourism enterprises to benefit more from their participation in the tourism industry by providing them with assistance for product development, marketing, finance, co-ordination services and representation, and by identifying and promoting appropriate standards of service and facilities.

Bansang Hospital Appeal Bansang Hospital stands deep in the African bush, 200 miles east by road from the coast and is responsible for the health care needs of some 600,000 Gambians. Additional strains are placed on its extremely limited resources with the constant arrival of patients from neighbouring countries.

The main focus of the Appeal is always centred on raising the necessary funding to continue with the regular container shipments and purchase of essential life saving medical equipment, dressings and medications that are constantly required.

Baptist Mission exists to meet the needs of the people of rural Gambia so that they can live longer, healthier and more happily, and so come in contact with the love of God. The mission surveys existing development projects and assists where appropriate to gain perspective, identify gaps and determine possible locations for new work and new types of ministry.

Field of interest include Sanitation, dental care and agro-forestry. The mission runs a Community Centre with non-formal education and arts and crafts.

Brikama Library, UK aid Charity, 01392 873061

CARITAS provides aid as a sign of the Catholic Church's concern and commitment. It aim in particular to improve the living conditions of the rural population by providing good water for domestic use, animal husbandry and gardening, enabling employment and family income possibilities, improving the food situation and daily regime of the rural population and stimulating community organization and cooperation through an animation program.

Castellan West African Trust Project is run by David and Jewel Goss from Newton Abbot. The Trust came about as a result of David and Jewel's experiences following their sponsorship of a child in Senegal.

When they visited the child during a family holiday in neighbouring Gambia they were appalled at the ostentatious signs of wealth displayed by those working for the charity involved, compared with the plight of the people it was set up to help.

On a trip to inland Gambia, they met a little girl who had been forced to withdraw from school because her recently widowed mother could not afford the fees. They agreed to pay for her education and gathered support from friends and well wishers to sponsor the little girl's sisters and brother too.

The Trust continues to channel funds directly to those individuals for whom it is intended. It is not a registered charity but a private non-profit making concern with totally altruistic ideals. Recently the Trust has been raising funds to support the treatment of a little Gambian girl with severe burns.

Catholic Relief Services provides technical assistance for the implementation and sound management of agro-enterprises. It aims to increase the opportunities for farmers to move beyond subsistence level.

It also provides technical assistance, support and training for the development and sustainability of Gambian NGOs and assists with capital costs of projects. It offers credit and saving promotion where appropriate.

Child Hope International (CHI), a charity, believed Gambian

Children of the Gambia This UK charity was founded in 1997, when it sent its first 36 boxes. Over the last three years they have sent a forty foot container with nursery equipment, medical supplies, desks, chairs, and books, from which many schools and nurseries have benefited.

They have a library, a school in Manjai Kunda, and they have built their first nursery school in Kusalang, which will be called Children of the Gambia. Cullingeworth Methodist Church are funding the building of Nyodema Nursery School through Children of the Gambia.

Child Youth Support and Rural Development Agency, (TANGO), focuses on child/youth support and rural development, including basic education for children and skills training for all. It also works on health and family planning projects.

It supports horticultural development projects and adoption of improved farming techniques, programs to arrest soil degradation and deforestation and to implementation of ecological intervention systems.

Christian Children's Fund The Fund supports and constructs schools and nursery schools, assists in community development, health care, nutrition, recreation and water resources, and provides assistance to needy children and their families.

It aims to develop the capacity of children and their families to become fully responsible for their own lives and to contribute to their community and nation. It also supports small enterprise development and provides loan schemes and skills training.

Concern Universal is a UK registered Charity which provides strategies for dealing with poverty around the world. Their key focus in the Gambia is on agriculture, food security, organisational development and capacity building.

Whilst working towards developing long term sustainable solutions they also respond to emergency situations as they arise, for example, averting potential food shortages by distributing seeds to host families supporting influxes of refugees

Credence Charitable Trust is a UK Charity supporting The Credence Nursery School. The school was founded in 1994 by young people in Latrikunda Sabiji and registered by the department of state for education in the same year.

The young people were inspired by the President Award Scheme Programmes in The Gambia, known in England as the Duke of Edinburgh Award International Association.

The nursery at present is funded through school fees. The land which the school stands on is not owned by the school, instead the two classrooms are on a rental basis. The charity's aim is to purchase a piece of land big enough to build a school complex on freehold land.

Deafax The Deafax Trust is the only organisation in the UK dedicated to the education, training, research and development of ICT for deaf children. Deafax is training teachers of the deaf to maximise the benefits of ICT as a teaching tool.

This has evolved into a number of training programmes which are now available to share with deaf children and educators internationally. Comic Relief are funding a programme to improve the communication skills, literacy and employment prospects for deaf people in The Gambia.

As a first step, Deafax staff have visited the Gambia Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (GADHOH) to set up the personal computer that has been obtained with the funds and to offer training in Gambia and the UK to GADHOH staff.

Deafchild International, is a catalyst for the creation of personal and educational opportunities for deaf and hearing children to communicate with each other throughout the world, by using face to face communication and Information and Communications Technology. They are working with Deafax on projects in The Gambia.

Derek Bailey Foundation is a UK charity whose objective is to relieve the need, hardship and distress and promote education and health care of the people of Nyofelleh and the surrounding villages in the Gambia, West Africa.

There are two immediate objectives, firstly to provide funds to enable the school to continue to operate and to do so with better facilities, and secondly, to contribute to the completion, equipping and staffing a Medical Dispensary.

EBU Commission The European Blind Union is one of the six regional bodies of the World Blind Union. The Commission promotes and coordinates efforts towards assisting blind and partially sighted people in developing countries.

Special priority is given to the establishment and strengthening of organisations of the visually disabled. The Commission also explores other ways of assisting visually handicapped in developing countries, e.g. promotion of work in the fields of rehabilitation, braille production, technical aids, etc.

Education Aid Africa, is a UK Charity working mainly in The Gambia but also in Sierra Leone, in close partnership with the Catholic missions.

They collect donated new and used educational items and ship them out to the schools. They assist 80 mission schools catering for over 30,000 children aged 5 to 18+, and 5 Vocational schools.

The charity runs a friendship scheme partnering a school, group or parish in UK with a school in Gambia. The object is to give UK pupils some idea of life in a developing country and the partner school some knowledge of life in UK by exchanging letters and photographs. It also provides UK pupils with a practical opportunity to help others.

Education for Development is an independent development charity offering training, research and consultancy in non-formal education and training for adults and children. They work alongside those engaged in development programmes both overseas and in the UK, to help them to develop their own capacity to deliver effective, quality development programmes. They are involved with Deafax in their current work in The Gambia.

Family Care Gambia is a Dutch organisation. Their Small Village Plan was created to help develop a variety of projects that work towards sustainability; for example, clay from the riverbank making firebricks for bread ovens and utilization of land in the village for the development of village gardens.

In addition, while we endeavor to bring materials for the building of schools, skill centers, and clinics in the villages, we also emphasize that it is imperative that the villagers themselves give of their time and resources to help the village develop. The pilot project is in Sintet, Foni Jarol District where the main task has been the building of the Nyarika Sonko Memorial Junior Secondary School.

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations exists to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity, and to better the condition of rural populations. Today, FAO is one of the largest specialized agencies in the United Nations system and the lead agency for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development. FAO gives practical help to developing countries through a wide range of technical assistance projects.

The Organization encourages an integrated approach, with environmental, social and economic considerations included in the formulation of projects.

Forbes Trust - The Gambia, (TANGO), Small-scale loans for rural women, skilled workers and school leavers involved in vegetable gardening, tie-dyeing and tailoring.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The FCO provides constantly updated Country Profiles which aim to provide a general overview of the country concerned. They include information on the country's recent history, recent political developments, relations with the international community and bilateral political and commercial relations with the UK, as well as links to other relevant pages on the FCO website.

FORUT is a Norwegian based charity working to improve household food security, income levels and health status in their partner villages. Projects include provision of a domestic water supply, a Primary Health Care facility in Wallalan, a cereal bank, a consumer shop for the women in Daru Salaam and a seed collection exercise.

Women from partner villages are being trained in tie and dye, farming and management, food processing and preservation techniques. Adult literacy programmes are also in progress. FORUT also helps to address alcohol and drugs related issues. FORUT replicates Village Savings and Credit Associations (VISACAs) within its project areas

Freedom From Hunger works to increase food production through the development and improvement of infrastructure in swamp rice cultivation. Its aim is to establish food self-sufficiency at village level. Projects include construction of seed stores and cereal banks and provision of remuneration in cash and kind to communities participating in food work so as to combat the adverse effects of the famine months

Fresh Stream Christian Outreach International, UK charity for aid and relief in the UK Nigeria and The Gambia, email only

FROGS - Friends of Gambian Schools, 01634 862365, is a UK Charity which helps over a hundred Gambian Schools by shipping 40 foot containers of supplies to The Gambia. Contents of the containers include school supplies and equipment, furniture, typewriters, sewing machines, duplicating machines and clothing.

Friends of KAUR is a UK Charity which supports three schools, the community and a hospital in Kaur. Containers are shipped to The Gambia with commodities from toys and clothes to office equipment and stationery.

Friends of Manding is a UK Charity supporting the work of Dr. Alhasan Ceesay, a doctor at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Banjul since 1992. During his spare time Dr. Ceesay runs the Manding Medical Centre with the help of other doctors (some from overseas) where he sees around 1000 patients in 2 days.

Lorna Robinson, a nurse at the Colchester General Hospital set up Friends of Manding to raise funds for a new hospital at the centre in Njawara village on the North Bank of the river Gambia.

Friends of Si-Kunda (Charity No. 1097750) aims to help with the education of children in Gambia, with an emphasis in and around the village of Si-Kunda. This village is in country away from the coast and tourists and therefore these children and schools do not get as much help.

They have so far raised funds to build a wall around a kindergarten, which has helped to keep the children safely within the school grounds and also keep out the snakes. They also sponsor several children through their education in Si-Kunda and a few in Bakau.

They are trying now to equip the schools in Si-Kunda and provide the two teachers of the 150 children with a monthly payment. Sara Pridham, Treasurer.

Friends of The Gambia Association is a UK charity which operates a sponsorship scheme and sends a variety of goods to The Gambia including both medical and educational equipment. FOTGA funds small projects in schools and villags throughout The Gambia.

Friends of the Gambian African Christian School is a UK based charity set up to help educate children of the Gambia, in particular those who attend the GACS run by the Reverend Richard Jackson. At the present time they are a small charity run by a few people.

Their initial goal is to raise enough money to construct a school building in the village of Essau on the piece of land given to the Reverend by the village chief. With the school building in place they will then need to supply funds to pay teachers and provide school equipment.

Future in Our Hands - FIOH is a Swedish charity which works to improve basic education. Its major project is the building of a school featuring kitchens designed specifically for hygienic and energy-saving cooking. The charity also supplies furniture to schools.

Gambia Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, C/O GOVI PO Box 2053 Serrekunda, Tel Voice: +220 22 63 02, Fax: +220 22 72 14

Gambia Education Support Organization Gambia Education Support Organization is an internattional collaboration whose mission is to provide assistance to Gambians and Gambian institutions in education in The Gambia, to provide intellectual, material, logistic and other support to individuals and institurions in need at all levels of education in the Gambia, to facilitate access to information and resources on education and research in the Gambia and to improve co-ordination and communication among members to support education in the Gambia. A major project at present is to improve the library facilities at The Gambia College.

Gambia Family Planning Association is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Information about The Gambia can be found on the IPPF website. GFPA supplements the national family planning programme in disseminating information and providing family planning services to adults and young people.

Projects include The Planned Parenthood and Women's Development project, which integrates income generation with family health. For example a project in the North Bank Division includes installing a milling machine, sesame oil extraction, training, meetings, lectures and film shows. The family planning motivation and promotion project includes meetings, talks, lectures, home visits, follow up visits and film shows. The social marketing of contraceptives aims to increase the use of contraception.

Gambia Fellowship Association, UK charity for Aid and Relief, 01626 332512

Gambia Food and Nutrition Association, (TANGO), supports Community Management Committees who manage health and nutrition programs at the field level. Projects include schemes to combat malnutrition in rural areas, especially among pregnant and nursing mothers and their children. They also assist rural women in implementing income generating projects using local Gambian food crops

Gambia Girl Guides Association The Girl Guides have been active in The Gambia since the 1920's. Their mission is to enable girls and young women to develop their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world

Gambia Good Seed Mission, (TANGO) The mission's purpose is to feed the hungry, to multiply good quality seeds for distribution to farmers, to assist farmers with a range of improved agricultural practices, to establish good quality seed producers in The Gambia and to work in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture on research projects.

Gambia Good Templars Association The International Organisation of Good Templars is an organisation which promotes the ideals of temperance, peace and brotherhood. It is the largest international non-governmental organisation working in the field of temperance.

IOGT is a community organisation with a wide range of social, educational and recreational activities. International cooperation is encouraged and a variety of projects are carried out. IOGT's development programme helps to provide better living and learning conditions. The promotion of a positive, alcohol-free lifestyle is an important part of any such programme.

Gambia Help the Gambia Health Education Liaison Project, is a US non-profit organisation enabling communities in Gambia to protect, conserve and improve their own health, the health of their community, and their natural environment by providing books, educational opportunities, seed money, and human resources.

The Well Project improves health by providing clean water year round. The Books & Library project has created libraries and sent 25,000 books for distribution throughout Gambia. Gambia HELP also supports Library Education so the books are well cared for and accessible.

Gambia Home Economics Association Skills Centre - GHEASC, Gambian NGO which provides training to early school dropouts on home management and job skills

Gambia Link, UK Education Charity, email only

Gambian Development Trust, UK charity for a variety of purposes including Education, 17S Selcroft Road, Purley, no telephone, email or website known, appears inactive

Gambian German Family Planning Association

Gambian Morning Star Mission, UK Charity for Religion, Health and Education, 07803 192785

Gambian National Olympic Committee

Gambian Schooling Fund, UK Education Charity, 01582 764254

Gambia Schools Trust Fund is a Jersey Registered Charity. The objects are to provide financial and practical support for the promotion of education in The Gambia

Gambian Schools Trust - Manjai Kunda The Gambian Schools Trust, a registered UK charity, was set up two years ago by Christine Schofield and Kathy Tristram, following a visit to Manjai Kunda in connection with The Children Of The Gambia.

The school supported by this charity was in danger of closure because of mounting debts, including rents. Teachers were working for nothing and had not been paid for several months. Christine used her management experience to plan ways in which finances could be better managed, while Kathy (a trained teacher) ran workshops and training sessions to introduce teachers to different methods of engaging their students.

The charity has been working alongside The Children Of The Gambia, initially to clear debts and to find sponsors to pledge as little as two pounds a month to pay the teachers' wages. This was achieved within three months. In 2002 they were able to begin giving support to a second school. The main aim now is to raise money for teachers' wages and major resources.

The charity's founders are therefore engaged in identifying schools where lack of funding for teachers could bring about closure, and in thinking of ways to resolve the fact that children who can't pay to attend school are simply sent home.

Gambia Red Cross Society A major part of the work of the Red Cross in Gambia is to assist refugees. It also provides services such as health care, relief programs, sanitation, day care centers, education and skills training, first aid, emergency and disaster relief and community based rehabilitation programmes

Gambia Rural Development Agency - GARDA, (TANGO), exists to improve the socio-economic well-being of rural Gambians in Lower River Division, North Bank Division, Central River Division, particularly the poorest households and most disadvantaged groups, namely women and children.

The agency aims to improve agricultural production through seed store construction, farmer training and reforestation and to establish a variety of income generation projects for the rural population. They give special attention the education of youth

Gambia Rural Development Agency - GRUDA, (TANGO), operates throughout The Gambia to promote social and economic development especially in the rural areas. It assists in the coordination of activities relating to rural development at all levels as a voluntary organization.

Gambia School Appeal, UK Education Charity, 01246 268512

Gambia State Education Department

Gambia Tourism Concern http://www.Gambiatourismconcern.com/

Gambia Tourist Support GTS provides 2 way support. Gambian hosts provide support for tourists who can feel completely confident to explore The Gambia, whilst tourists provide direct income to the hosts and the local economy.

GTS members can obtain discounts from many shops, bars, clubs and tourist locations. This helps the local people by distributing the tourist spending more widely. GTS membership fees are used to provide small interest free loans for locals to improve their tourist services and to sponsor education for local children

Gambia Women's Finance Association Exists to promote and develop women enterpreneurship in The Gambia through the provision of access to institutional credit, revolving fund loan guarantee scheme, business skills training, technical assistance, advisory and counseling services and savings services and advice, promoting internal generation of resources among women through savings mobilization

Gambia Youth Federation, (TANGO), undertakes to support the socio-economic development of young men and women, to assist communities to achieve self-sufficiency through self-help and to assist in improving the equality of life in rural communities

GambiCats cares for cats and dogs around the hotel areas, having the animals neutered and returned back to their colonies in and around the beach areas.

GAP Foundation, UK charity for Education, Aid and Relief, email only

Glosaid Glosaid is a registered charity whose main aim is to help educate children in The Gambia, particularly at Lamin-Daranka Primary School. They are based in Gloucestershire and The Gambia. Glosaid holiday lets are one way of supporting Glosaid. The charity also has a sponsorship scheme for the children.

Go Gambia GO Gambia is a UK charity focussed on assisting the development and improvement of education, basic public healthcare and Police, Fire and Ambulance services in the Gambia.

The objectives are to:
1) Manage a sponsorship program, which provides financial assistance to individual students to enable them to attend primary and secondary schools.
2) Supply medical/laboratory equipment, medical/laboratory consumables, fire fighting and police equipment and clothing to support the development and improvement of basic public healthcare, and to assist in the development of the emergency services via The Royal Victoria Hospital, The President Jammeh Foundation Hospital and the Police and Civilian Clinic in Banjul.
3) Provide funds to set up and run a student/adult skill center.
4) Provide funds for the shipment on an annual basis of equipment and consumables to facilitate Go Gambia's programs.

Gospel On Wheels

HASTE - Help African Schools to Educate, UK Education Charity, email only, no website.
Indigenous Business Advisory Services, Gambian NGO

Institute for Human Rights and development in Africa is a non-profit, non-governmental pan-African organisation headquartered in the Gambia. The Institute is committed to contributing to the development of the African human rights system through its programme activities.

We are dedicated to making the human rights treaties of the Organisation of African Unity as effective as possible. The Institute works to strengthen the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights with whom it has observer status.

International Council for Education of Visually Impaired

International Society for Human Rights supports local groups and individuals engaged in human rights activities and education. It facilitates the publication of articles, reports, newsletters and other materials on human rights topics.

n important area of concern is the participation of women in the program and sensitizing young women on their rights. The society advocates public disclosure against all forms of human rights violation

International Trypanotolerance Centre ITC is an autonomous, non-profit-making research institution, established by an Act of The Gambian Parliament in 1982. The mission of the ITC is "to contribute to the efforts in increasing livestock productivity and utilisation in the West African region through the optimal and sustainable exploitation of the genetic resistance of indigenous breeds of livestock for the welfare of the human populations".
Islamic Culture and Development Association.

Islamic Relief Association, (TANGO), works to improve the socio-economic standards of the rural poor, especially women, by providing credit and skills training for income generating activities. It promotes greater awareness of the environment and endeavours to replenish it physically.

It aims to create awareness and understanding from an Islamic point of view of harmful cultural practices, for example it promotes the elimination of female circumcision, prostitution, violence against women and drug abuse. It also assists orphans, abandoned children and 'Almudos'.

Jammeh Foundation for peace - Gambia
Jan Francis is working to advance the education of the children of Besse in The Gambia by the provision & maintenance of a Primary School building, related equipment & sponsorship. Also working on the establishment of co-operative gardens. One has already been completed at The Police Intervention Unit, Kanifing Barracks.

June and Brian Cox Educational Project, UK Education Charity, email only

Junior Achievement International - The Gambia

Kabafita Fund, UK Education Charity, email only

KIDS - Kindergarten in Distress, Serrekunda, UK Education Charity supporting the Kadeejah/Khadeejah Nursery School, 01803 312204

Kindergarten Linden in Gambia, a German Charity

Kingfisher Trust aims to direct resources and donated equipment where it is most needed, encourage self-sufficiency by offering skills training, help raise educational standards by assisting with basic school equipment, especially in nursery schools, to encourage a sense of community in villages by working with people on local projects and to form a link between children and schools in Europe and The Gambia.

Projects have included providing medical equipment and two ventilators for the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, linking with UNESCO Clubs and The President's Award Scheme in the skills training of young people, providing typewriters and computers for schools, providing sewing machines and tools for villages and skills centres, with the generous assistance of 'Tools with a Mission' and providing machine tools for technical skills.

Kombo East Tesito Association - KETA, a Gambian NGO, works to support members to improve their living and working conditions, to develop the methodology and capability of each member so that they can better achieve their objectives, to establish village cereal securing reserves, to improve the nutritional situation of members and to establish permanent income generating cottage industry for women

Lend a Hand Society

Mandela Education Centre, UK Education Charity, the Mandela Trust is a Notting Hill Youth Project, 148 High Street, London NW10

Marlborough Brandt Group - MBG, is a UK charity which has developed links with the village of Gunjur. They have initiated a wide range of supportive programmes including health education, business education, numeracy, literacy, a credit union and loan scheme, exchange of young volunteers, clean water supply and institutional capacity-building. They are also active in the field of development education in the UK through the Wiltshire World Studies Centre (WWSC).

Malvern Girls College Gambia Project The link began when two vacationing staff members visited the country in 1992 and were invited by a former pupil to see the work she was doing in one of the villages. Experiencing the appalling level of poverty at close quarters, they decided they must encourage the College to develop links with a Gambian school.

The following year they contacted a variety of schools trying to decide which one was the most needy. Their taxi driver being intrigued at the purpose of their visit persuaded them to choose his village, Illiassa, a long way "up country" and well off the tourist track. So far the support has been for school projects but the College may branch out into other areas.

The village women's vegetable gardens provide most of the family food but they have little awareness of the value of working together or how to improve productivity. On our recent visit they made their sense of powerlessness known to their visitors and so the College is exploring ways to provide support.

Medical Research Council - Gambia Scientific research and documentation

Munazamat Aldawa Al Islamia, (TANGO), aims to assist with the spiritual development of the person so that he can take care of the material aspects. It encourages positive relations among members of the community without prejudice.

Specific projects include assisting in rural development programs at community level through self-help, charitable services and collaboration with other NGOs, providing education resources, agriculture inputs, health facilities, water supply and training facilities.

Muslim Aid is a worldwide organisation with an office in the Gambia. The UK office has worked with Friends of GOVI since it's early days and has given a great deal of support to our projects.

N.A.Y.C.O. National Association of Youth and Children Organisations, Kairaba Avenue

National Youth Council - Gambia Apart from co-ordinating, planning, programming, monitoring and evaluating all youth programmes, projects and activities, the National Youth Council (NYC) as an independent autonomous body is also mandated by an act of the National Assembly to advise Government on all youth matters in The Gambia.

Nova Scotia Gambia Association The Nova Scotia-Gambia Association is a non-profit, non-government organization (or NGO) dedicated to the creation and operation of sustainable development programs for Gambian and Canadian youth. Since 1985, the NSGA has carried out more than 25 successful development projects in The Gambia, mainly in the health and education sectors.

PAGEANT is a recently formed charity (2002), started by Ian and Pippa Howard, which aims to provide support for educational needs in The Gambia. PAGEANT stands for Projects Aiding Gambian Education and National Talent. For many years, tourists have been encouraged to provide help to schools near to the tourist areas, but most up-country schools get little help. Pageant is providing assistance to one of these schools, Bakalarr. Telephone 01403 730610.

Peace Corps Volunteers work closely with Gambians to alleviate the most pressing problems. In the words of the Gambian President at the Peace Corps' 30th anniversary celebration, "Their [Volunteers'] unique experiences and fraternal interactions at the grass-roots level of Gambian society can only add to greater understanding and good relations between the two peoples, and we urge them to continue their roles as American Ambassadors of peace, understanding, partnership, and progress."

People in Action, TANGO, a Gambian NGO which aims to assist local communities to be better organised, to become productive and develop better educational opportunities at the community level, to introduce modern farming technologies to members and to assist the handicapped and provide medical facilities for poor rural communities

Plymouth to Banjul Banger Rally The first Rally took place on Boxing Day 2002 with 30 cars costing less than £100 raising funds for the Castellan West African Trust Project and Riders for Health. Some of the participating cars were donated to charity. In 2003 car 144 - "Gerryatricks Frogs" - is running and will be donated to Friends of GOVI on arival in Gambia. It is a Mitsubishi L300 Estate, LHD, 4wd, 2.5 diesel. The team departed London on 19th December 2003 and were expecting to spend Christmas in Marakesh!

Project Aid Third World, TANGO, Gambian NGO concerned with control of epidemics and diseases, youth welfare services and the advancement of proper upbringing, popular and professional education

Riders for Health Africa cannot hope to develop, to fight disease and to move out of the poverty trap if it continues to depend on walking, and on 13th-century forms of transport such as donkeys and hand-carts. But neither can it develop if the 21st century vehicles sent by development agencies and others continue to break down after only a few thousand kilometres. Riders for Health addresses this issue with a range of techniques to ensure vehicles operate for as long as they would anywhere in the developed world. And at a normal, reasonable cost.

Riders relationship with the Gambia began in 1989, when they carried out their first exploratory training projects. In 2002 Riders and the Government of the Republic of Gambia signed a historic agreement: that the Gambia would outsource all its vehicle management (beginning with the Department of State for Health) to Riders. Never before has an African government taken such a step.

The World Bank are lending set-up and running costs as part of their larger Participatory Health, Population and Nutrition Programme. Riders Logistics operates through three transport management units, in Serekunda, Mansakonko and Bansang. As well as DoSH, the World Health Organisation and a number of NGOs have committed vehicles and motorcycles to the programme.

Royal Commonwealth Society for The Blind

Rural Development Bureau, UK charity for Education, Relief and Health, operating throughout West Africa

Save Our Souls, TANGO

Save The Children Federation - USA Serving children, family and community in integrated development projects aimed at achieving positive lasting change. Innovative, pace-setting community participatory programs that target women and children with particular emphasis on the economic, social, educational, nutritional, health, and environmental aspects of their lives

Save The Children Fund - UK Aims to achieve lasting benefits for children within their communities, to make a reality of children's rights and to work in partnership with governments, non-governmental agencies and local communities in the areas of health, child welfare, community development and education

Schools for Gambia, is a UK Charity working mainly with rural schools. They also sponsor children and currently 80 are sponsored through supporters of the charity.

They concentrate on one project at a time seeing it through to completion so that they can control how the money is being spent. They send school materials out to Gambia and have been supplied with seeds by Suttons for vegetable gardens at Jinak and maybe all the other schools they help.

Schools for Progress is a registered charity in The Gambia and in the UK. It was started in 1986 by two people working in the Atlantic Hotel. The original objects were to assist poor children to go to school instead of begging from tourists on the beach. Over the years the number of children being helped has steadily grown.

Currently we are sponsoring 33 children at all levels from Nursery to Senior school, (and have a queue waiting). The Charity has also undertaken small projects including rebuilding the kitchen and adding a new roof at Bijilo School, building an extra classroom and furnishing it at the Pentecostal Nursery School in Banjul, supplying New Yundum School with a classroom of new (16) locally made metal framed desks and refurbishing the toilets at the Albion School in Banjul.

Schools for Progress is a Netherlands Charity which has helped Kadeejah Nursery in Serrekunda and Sittanunku Primary School on the North Bank

Seeds for Africa is a charity run by the University of Kent at Canterbury. Seeds for Africa assists schools with money for seeds and tools to create school vegetable gardens, they are currently assisting ten schools in The Gambia through Schools for Progress.

SDRD - Support to Decentralised Rural Development Programme
Shipton-on-Stour School, Pirang is a project funded by The Black Horse Inn, Shipton-on-Stour, which aims to complete the building of two classrooms in the village of Pirang and to gain primary school status for the new school.
Skeikh Mudah Islamic Foundation

Sight Savers International Aims are to support the national eye care plan, to reduce preventable and remediable blindness through the provision of curative and preventive eye care services and to provide ophthalmic services within reach of the entire population through the integration of primary eye care with the existing primary health care structure, mobile eye service and ophthalmic health centres

SOS Children's Villages - The Gambia SOS Kinderdorf International first became active in the Gambia with the construction of the SOS Children's Village Bakoteh in 1980. Since then the SOS operation has grown continuously and has established itself as an integral part of the local community. Today there are 10 family houses and 77 Children of different age groups live with their SOS Mothers in the Family Houses. The project also includes a kindergarten, schools and vocational training facilities

SOS Kinderdorf International - Gambia is the Regional Office of SOS Children's Villages. SOS is chiefly concerned with the care of orphans, aiming to provide them with the needs of life including education and medical care until such time they can stand on their feet. The Regional Office for North/West Africa, based in Banjul, oversees the operation of all SOS Children's Villages in six countries in the North/West of the African Continent.

Sound Seekers is a registered UK charity, which supports deaf people, particularly children in developing countries of the Commonwealth, however, it does not operate in Gambia at present.
SSHFC - Social Security Housing Finance Corporation

St Mary's University St Mary's is a Canadian university contributing to the provision of degree level education in The Gambia.

Strand Educational Support Trust

Tesito is a UK Charity partnering with local communities in The Gambia to improve the lives of ordinary Gambians and undertaking community based programmes to raise the standard of health and education.

The major current objective is to lower the malarial morbidity rate in infants and pregnant women in Julangel village by 10% by 2006 through the use of impregnated bed nets, environmental control and social intervention.

The Gambia Experience is the leading tour operator to The Gambia offering flights and holidays all year round. The 72 page brochure features the widest range of holidays including beach hotels, Makasutu eco-lodges, birdwatching, fishing and photography tours. Flights available from Bristol, Manchester and Gatwick. An AITO 3 star responsible tour operator, The Gambia Experience run their own School Development Fund, supporting education across the country.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees

United Nations Population Fund UNFPA's mandate is to build the knowledge and the capacity to respond to needs in population and family planning, to promote awareness of population problems in both developed and developing countries and possible strategies to deal with these problems, to assist developing countries, at their request, in dealing with their population problems, in the forms and means best suited to the individual country's needs and to play a leading role in the United Nations System in promoting population programmes, and to coordinate projects supported by the Fund.

United Nations Volunteers

United Nations World Food Programme WFP's intervention in the Gambia is intended to support Government policies/goals of promoting 'Education for All', enhancing human resource development, assisting agriculture and rural development, increasing food security, and alleviating poverty.

Village Savings And Credit Association, TANGO, concerned with training staff of NGOs and other organisations who want to establish VISACAs in different parts of the Gambia. So far the center has trained staff from EDF, FORUT, AFET, and FFHC/WRP. VISACA projects are implemented by C.I.D.R. France under the Ministry of Agriculture with financial support from K.F.W. Germany and IFAD (UN).

The project aims to develop self managed associations at village level in order to channel cash savings towards productive loans for villages under their own control.

Voluntary Service Overseas VSO recruits volunteers for posts where they can assist with the development of skills which will allow people increased self-sufficiency, choice, and opportunity in their lives, helping to improve the living standards of the poor and disadvantaged by involving them in the work that benefits them and aiming to enhance the status of women.

Wellingara Community Initiative Support, UK for a variety of purposes including Education, email kateelyb@aol.com is no longer valid

West Africa Mission, (TANGO), aims to propagate evangelism (Church ministry) among the people and to address the problems of youth through the development of a community, sports, and vocational center

West Africa Mission - Korea - Gambia (TANGO)

Women In Service, Development, Organisation and Management - WISDOM, (TANGO), aims to provide easy access to credit for rural women and women in the informal sector and seek assistance from organisations to implement development projects for women. It provides services to enhance women's socio-economic status and launches awareness creation programs on social, political, and religious issues affecting women

Wonder Years Centre of Excellence, UK Charity, new in 2001, currently has an education project in progress in Medina Salaam. Tel 01554 820550

Woodbury Salterton, Devon and Dumbutu Village Community Link, UK Charity, new in 2001, for a variety of purposes including Education, 01395 233006

World Blind Union The World Blind Union (WBU) speaks on behalf of 180 million blind and visually impaired persons from about 600 different organisations in 158 countries. The underlying idea of the World Blind Union is that everyone, including the blind and partially sighted, is born equal and entitled to personal dignity and fundamental human rights.

On the basis of these rights, the WBU promotes prevention and treatment of blindness, advances the well-being of blind and partially sighted people all over the world, particularly in developing countries, and takes action against the high prevalence of poverty among people who are blind or partially sighted. The WBU also provides an international forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of blindness.

World Evangelism for Christ International aims to provide assistance and promote self-sufficiency and training in all areas of need; physically, educationally, and spiritually. Their main program of assistance is through health centers. They provide training for nurses, adult literacy, typing schools, and rural development on a one-to-one basis.

Worldview International Foundation Conducts participatory communications and media projects from grassroots level to the latest virtual reality products. Their video training and production and participatory communication training deals with areas such as fuel saving, forestry, horticulture, crop production, skills training, family planning and institution building

Young Men's Christian Association The YMCA is a worldwide fellowship based on the equal value of all persons. It initiates and maintains a number of projects within the community and provides accommodation to members in a Youth Hostel.

Young Women's Christian Association The YWCA aims to build a fellowship among women and girls of all denominations devoted to the task of realising in our common life those ideals of personal and social living to which we are committed by faith as Christians.

Projects in The Gambia include a Vocational Skills Centre and a Child Development Center.


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