Gambia Side By Side

In The Gambia 2007

8 volunteers went from Maryland, USA to work “side by side” with youth in The Gambia, West Africa from June 27 th -July 18 th They are from left to right: Vera (Mariama) Goldberg, LeeAnn (Fatou2) Henkin. Abby (Abie) Grow, Esther (Animata) Lykes, Alysia (Isatou) Flynn, Joshua (Mustafa) Berndt, Emerson (Ebrima) Lykes, and Sarah (Adama) Berndt

Cooking together for the kick-off beach party

Beach Party with SFP and UYA At the beach SFP Sukuta, SFP Maryland, United Youth Association (UYA) from Bakau and Jeshwang met together to get to know each other and make plans for the next 3 weeks.

Service

For

Peace

Projects

Clean-up in Sukuta Auntie Sally Savage (3 rd from the right) works tirelessly to take care of the people of Sukuta. She had been up much of the previous night delivering babies, but was right there for us and even did some cleaning with us.

Sukuta Cleansing Auntie Sally Savage, the head nurse, showed us around the Health Center before we cleaned. Sarah got to hold an adorable baby who had been born a few hours earlier.

The Imam and Alkalo of Sukuta We met the Imam and the Alkalo (village leader) of Sukuta at the end of our cleaning from the Health Center to the Mosque.

Bakau Health Center Cleansing

The Alkalo of Bakau came out to inspire us and brought GRTS, Gambia and Television Stations to get the story for the evening radio news.

Helping out on Mother/Baby-Care Day Cherno Cham has been the director of Service For Peace in Sukuta for 3 years. One of the campaigns of Sukuta SFP has been to educate mothers to get immunizations and weight checks for their babies to catch any problems.

Baby Immunization and Weighing The SFP campaign has brought great results. Long lines of mothers and babies come for immunizations and weight checks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Esther Lykes and Abby Grow helped administer the oral vaccines and weigh and record the development of the babies.

Sukuta Nursery School Everyone enjoyed singing and dancing with the adorable children in the Nursery Schools. We sang “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” sooo many times and they taught us songs and dances. It’s great when cultural exchange starts at such an early age.

Sukuta Nursery

Bakau Nursery “Old MacDonald “ again, but still with a lot of Heart!

Service For Peace Awards: The Sukuta SFP has about 76 members:19 received certificates for 50+ hours, 14 received certificates for 100+ hours, and 18 received awards for 150+ hours of service. 6 Ambassadors For Peace were appointed.

Clockwise from left: Betty from UYA awarded 50+ hour certificates. Cherno Cham gave awards to the Americans. Auntie Sally Savage received an Ambassador for Peace appointment. Ebrima Jadama from Family Federation for World Peace spoke about service and peace.

Tuberculosis Training Two men from the Ministry of Health came to train us all about tuberculosis which is increasing in West Africa. SFP Sukuta is doing an on-going campaign to educate people about the symptoms that develop when the disease becomes contagious, and how to get tested and treated for TB. It is estimated that 80% of Gambians have been exposed to TB, so everyone needs to know how to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their community.

Universal

Peace

Federation

Character Education

58 Youth Leaders Beverly Berndt explained about the need for and value of character education in The Gambia. The youth leaders were inspired as she explained Alan Saunders power point presentation.

Discussions Then the interns each worked with a different discussion group based on a different year of the curriculum. The youth leaders really understood the timeliness of the curriculum because they themselves see changes between the values they grew up with and the attitudes of many youth they mentor.

18 Teachers and the Headmistress in Jeshwang Lower Basic School

Teachers had many great ideas about how to adapt the UPF curriculum using stories, sayings, and songs from their culture. One set of books for grades 1-6 will be donated for use in the coming academic year.

Explanation and discussions and comments at Jeshwang LBS

18 Teachers and Administrators in Sukuta Lower Basic School Equally enthusiastic discussion and comments followed the presentations. One set of Grade 1-6 books were donated to Sukuta Lower Basic School.

We taught character ed. also. One day the interns themselves had an opportunity to share a lesson from the UPF character education curriculum. Although language was somewhat challenging in the younger grades teaching a lesson wasn’t difficult because values are so universal. They supplemented the lessons with songs and small dramas. The students loved acting out the stories.