Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tuesday morning, we headed off to the offices of the National Environment Agency, where we met with Anneke and the staff of the NEA. We were sincerely impressed by the work that is going on there, and I was excited to think about the future collaborations that I could pursue. The GIS and mapping team were kind enough to prepare a large map of The Gambia for us.
After the NEA, we departed for Bakoteh Lower Basic School with Anneke, who works on environmental education projects with a number of schools in the Greater Banjul area. The Bakoteh School has an active environment club, so we were going to work on a pen pal exchange and green mapping exercise with this group of approximately 30 students (mostly 11-14 year olds). The impressive Headmistress, Ms. Chow, explained the details of the school to us, and the shear numbers of students boggled the mind. She was very pleased with our token of appreciation (a mini Team Canada hockey stick), which she promptly displayed on her walls among the other received tokens. Unlike the Wellingara School, we could tell that this school had received many visitors.Letters from The Gambia to Canada!
Working on Green MapsThe students worked hard on their letters and their green maps. One of the teachers took us on a very interesting tour of the school grounds, where they have been composting and planting a vegetable garden. Mira, Camaro and Dustin will be incorporating
School yard vegetable garden

The students all wanted their photos taken!

The formidable Mrs. Chow
The teachers at Bakoteh wanted us to take their photo with some of the school supplies we brought them.
Look at the numbers of students at this school! These are just the Grade 2 classes!

Thank You Bakoteh!

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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Thank You Sambro Elementary

Yesterday, I went to the Grade 2, Grade 3/4 and Grade 6 classes at Sambro Elementary. These classes had sent letters to The Gambia and I was delivering the letters that had been written by students at Wellingara Lower Basic School and Bakoteh Upper Basic School. I have already written about Wellingara in previous posts. I will be posting about Bakoteh in my next post.

Stay Tuned!

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Thursday, March 5, 2009

Letters from Africa

Today Mira and I delivered the letters from Wellingara Lower Basic School to the students in Ian Forsyth Elementary School in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. These letters were delivered to two Grade 3 classes, two Grade 4 classes and a small group of Grade 6 students. The students were really excited to receive their letters from their new friends in The Gambia and many were talking about sending more letters and maintaining the new pen pal exchange. We are looking forward to going back to the school in a month or so to bring the video that the group has been working on as well as photos for them to see. Tomorrow I will go to Sambro Elementary to deliver the letters to a Grade 2 class, a Grade 3/4 class and a Grade 6 class. Congratulations to all of the students at both schools and in both countries for doing such a great job of the letter exchange!

I thought I would post one video clip from one of the activities that the children at Wellingara put on for us. In the video you will see a so-called dinka warrior and some of the students clapping and drumming and one spirited young boy dancing and teasing the dinka. By the way, those knives were real!

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

About the Wellingara Lower Basic School

This profile was prepared by the Headmaster of Wellingara, Mr. Badjie. I look forward to the day when we have a proper web site that will enable us to fund raise for the school. This will be coming soon. In the meantime, I will post about the school here periodically. Please read the last post to get the context regarding this most wonderful school!

"Wellingara Lower Basic School is an elementary school which was established in September 2004. This was a result of a high population density in the area with a lot of small children who required to be schooled. There are a lot of nursery schools (i.e. early childhood development centers) in the area and well over 300 small children attained the age of 7 years and require transit from Nursery school to Wellingara Lower Basic School every year.

The school has 2 buildings with 6 classrooms in each. Since the school opened in September 2004 it has been rapidly expanding in terms of pupil population. An average of 250 pupils are enrolled in the school annually but the infrastructure development has not matched with the enrolment rate. As a result, there has emerged an acute accommodation constraint which requires serious attention.

The school numbers stand at 1373 pupils, comprised of 655 boys and 718 girls. There are 30 members of staff in the school. The pupils are housed in 12 classrooms for lessons with half of the school coming the in the morning (i.e. from 8:00 am to 1:30 pm an the other half come in the afternoon from 1:30 pm to 6:30 pm). Even with this arrangement, the classes have an average of 57 pupils which makes them very congested and too much for the individual teacher.

This, not withstanding, another batch of over 300 young students (i.e. 7 years old) are on the waiting list for enrolment into Grade One in September 2009. With all 12 classrooms fully utilized in both morning and afternoon shifts, the management committee is faced with the task of making available at least 4 classrooms before September 2009.

In view of the low socio-economic status of the students' families, the committee seeks to solicit support from any party, individual, organizations and other groups to facilitate the construction of at least 4 classrooms for the needy children of Wellingara Lower Basic School.

In the school the pupils undergo a 6 year course (i.e from grade 1-6). They are taught the core subjects, which are English :Language, Mathematics, Science and Social and Environmental Studies. Religious knowledge, art and crafts, and sports lessons are taught but at most twice in a week. Pupils in the school take part in different extra-curricular activities. These include the Cultural and Drama Group, Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Red Cross and the Environmental Group. All these groups play a vital role in the physical, socio-cultural and educational development of the students.

There is a formidable school football [soccer] team named the Wellingara Stars*. Athletic competitions are also held in the school during which the 4 "District" houses (i.e. Yellow Kunda, Red Kunda, White Kunda and Green Kunda) compete.

The school is situated in the middle of the Village very close to a market. Because the school is not fenced round so the school ground is made almost a public thorough-face as passers by and market vendors pass through the school on their way to and from the market. This has created insecurity for the school property and causes disturbances during the teaching and learning process.

With a view to making the learning environment more conducive for the students, the school committee is as well seeking support to fence around the school perimeter. With a perimeter fence, the school environment could better be enhanced by making a garden and planting fruit trees and ornamental flowers which could in addition serve as useful aids for science and related lessons.

The Government of The Gambia provides textbooks and other instructional materials for the school. However, the pupils need support in the provision of exercise books, pencils, pens, erasers and other stationary and sporting materials (including first aid equipment)."

So begins the fund-raising for the Wellingara Lower Basic School.
Stay Tuned....


*When we were at the school, we were asked to re-name the school's football (soccer) team. After some thought, I chose the Wellingara Stars, since one of the schools we plan to twin with in Canada, Sambro Elementary, has a hockey team called the Sambro Stars. The Wellingara Stars has a nice ring to it, and was also symbolic of the one sky under which we all reside here on Earth. Good luck to both the Sambro and Wellingara Stars!







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Sunday, March 1, 2009

No words can describe the magnitude of what we experienced at Wellingara School

After a quick lunch, we headed to Wellingara Lower Basic School (referred to as Elementary schools in Canada). We had been told that a pen pal letter exchange had been arranged with a grade 2 and a grade 5/6 class. We had brought numerous letters with us from both Sambro Elementary and Ian Forsythe Elementary schools in Halifax regional Municipality in the hopes of having Gambian students write similar letters that we could bring back to Canada. If possible, we were thinking that we might set up a school twinning between the schools in Canada and Wellingara. We were also planning to speak to the classes about Canada and get them to tell us about the things they would like us to talk to children in Canada about themselves andwhat they like to do and the kind of environment they have.

We had no expectations for any formal greeting and certainly did not expect what we were met with. As we drove towards the entrance of the Wellingara School, we could see a few children holding up signs and then girls dressed in traditional West African beads and ceremonial dress. We couldn't believe our eyes when they started cheering us upon our arrival. We got out of the vehicle and then saw that there were girl guides in their uniforms and others dancing and cheering. We were prodded to move forward and the sight that we were met with when we turned the corner to the school yard is something I will never forget. There was a processional way cleared for us to walk down with all of the students and teachers from the school lining either side. Everyone was cheering and waving and wanting us to shake their hands. It was a greeting for someone famous. Presidential. I was embarrassed and in awe: I had never experienced anything like it. Who were we to receive such a welcome!? We were ferried into the Headmaster's office where we were told that this was the school's first opportunity to welcome visitors from another country. Many schools in regions of Africa benefit from twinning with schools in Europe or North America. This school did not. They were struggling to make ends meet, and to provide the basic education requirements for their students. We were a godsend, they informed us. Within those few minutes sitting in the Headmasters' office, we all knew that we would carry some of this responsibility for the rest of our lives. We were speechless, in tears, and changed in many ways.
From this office, we went to a classroom where we were treated to dancing, singing and skits.
From there, we had the opportunity to deliver the letters from Canada to the two classes, talk about life in Canada and receive messages from the students to take back to the students in Halifax.

This experience was the origin of the Wellingara Foundation, which will serve as a non-profit charitable organization to support the basic supplies and infrastructure requirements of schools in West Africa. We will begin with the Wellingara Lower Basic School. A web site is being created for this Foundation, where more information can be learned about the initiative. In the meantime, I post photos from the experience here, followed by a letter summarizing the details of the Wellingara School.


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Days like these are few and far between in a lifetime

Monday, February 16th we set out with our supplies for the day. We started off with a visit to the offices of the Nova Scotia Gambia Association, where we met the local staff and learned of the initiatives that they are working on.
We then left for St. Terese's Junior Basic School, a private school in the Kanifing region. We were going to work with a group of peer health educators that work with the NSGA. This group of approximately 30 students ranged in ages between 11 and 16. We were leading a so-called green mapping workshop to teach them about mapping out and indicating local environmental places of importance and potential concern. We were also mapping places of cultural and historical significance. The workshop ended with some skits that the peer health educators use when talking to students about issues like HIV/AIDS, the importance of caring for the environment and issues related to safe sex. The skits were wonderful: these kids could win Oscars one day for their performances! They had us in stitches and talking about the performances well into the day.

Preparing green map of the Kanifing Region

Camaro assisting students with their green maps.

Students present their completed maps.

A student gives a presentation on the importance of trees in the environment and issues related to deforestation.

Camaro, Dustin, Mira and I watch and video tape the student's skits.


Proudly displaying our gift to the school: the very recognizable Canadian flag.



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Landing in The Gambia

On Sunday, February 15, 2009, Camaro, Dustin, Mira and I (three IDS graduate students and one geography professor) landed in Banjul, The Gambia. We were met by Lamin and Sisawo from the Nova Scotia Gambia Association. Little did we know that in one short week, we would become lifetime friends. Our goal was to work with various school groups and clubs on green mapping exercieses and in pen pal letter exchanges. Little did we know that one of these groups would prompt us to form a NGO and re-dedicate our work. This blog will take you on the journey of this trip, and will serve as a site where future trips will be logged.

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