Education in Gambia is not a given. Help give children a future!
Great progress has been made, but we’re not there yet. Our goal is clear: every child in school. Because even today, too many children are still missing out on education. Through local initiatives and support, we are opening more doors to learning and building brighter futures. Every donation, every effort, brings us closer.
Will you help us make a difference?
A New Step: A Secondary School in Farato
This year, we’re taking the next big step — building a secondary school. Because education shouldn’t stop after primary school. Last year, we bought the land. Right now, the school fence is under construction. With your help, we can build the full school within two years.
Even a small donation makes a big difference.
Together, we can give the children of Farato a future beyond primary school.
Simon Suta Mendy is the founder, school director and teacher at the Xavier Nursery School. Together with the teachers, he dedicates himself day after day to all children. With a lot of personal attention, he wants to give the children a better future. He will introduce himself and the school.
My name is Simon Suta Mendy, a teacher by profession and born in the West Coast Region of The Gambia. The idea of starting the Xavier Nursery School came to me in 2008 during my time as a teacher. As a trained teacher, it was a big challenge for me to see many children of school-going age unable to experience education. I said to myself, “Something must be done to give these children one of their fundamental rights”, which is the right to education. This was not easy since most of their parents could not even afford the three fundamental meals in a day and the nearest school was two kilometres away.
When I began constructing the first school, I did not concern myself with the difference in age between the children, since my priority at that time was to make sure they were all able to participate in some form of education. As a result however, I recieved less trust and some parents even developed some skepticism about the project. I decided it was best to go about it in a low-boundary manner, in the form of simply visiting houses and telling the family members about my ideas. I explained to them the importance of education and how it is a basic right for children to be able to receive education. This period of preparation was followed up by implementing my idea with a small group for the very first time. As of right now, the school has grown to a capacity of 688 pupils, facilitating students from nursery to primary levels.
Even though big steps have been taken and a lot has already been accomplished, there is still a lot of opportunity to grow. I am excited to see what the future holds and to invest even more of my time in making the experience for the students the most fun and stimulating as possible!
In case your company would like to sponsor our foundation do not hesitate to contact us via the contact form.
Let us introduce ourselves!
We are six students, all following the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program at Nyenrode Business Universiteit. This academic year (2024-2025), we form the board of the Farato Education Foundation (left to right: Jaap Berden, Maaike van Nieuwkerk, Stan Horden, Puck Veldt, Julian de Jong and Donna Schipper).
Each year, six new Nyenrode students will form the board of the foundation, together with our mentor and founder of the foundation, Herman van der Meulen, we run the foundation and try to help the region of Farato in the Gambia increase its potential at a better life.
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