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A group of 37 formerly sponsored children €” now young adults €” have formed an alumni association in The Gambia. They hope to increase awareness of ChildFund`s sponsorship program at a community level, as well as ChildFund-supported projects that improve education, early childhood development, health care and other needs.

“To ChildFund The Gambia, I have to say that you have indeed restored and nurtured the hopes and aspirations of over 20,000 people in this country through your sponsorship program, which all of us here today benefited from,” said Alieu Jawo, who was elected chairperson of the alumni group. “This is indeed a divine investment.”

Alieu, who is now 35, runs a graphic design and printing company, owns a general merchandise brokerage and serves as a shareholder and director of an insurance firm.

“My inclusion into the sponsorship program brought hope and joy to me and my entire family,” Alieu said, “as it was a serious nightmare for an ordinary farmer like my dad and any other average farmer to be able to send his or her kid to high school. There were no good ones around my village or region.”

But with the help of his ChildFund sponsor, who paid his school fees above and beyond the monthly sponsorship, Alieu was able to excel at primary school and continue his education. Other alumni echoed Alieu`s story.

“I was privileged because it gave me the opportunity to continue my education,” said 30-year-old Fatou Bojang (pictured above with her son), who received shoes and medical supplies too. “That meant less worry and burden on my parents.”

Fatou, a former sponsored child, is now a mother, senior researcher and a part-time college lecturer.

ChildFund The Gambia hosted the forum to formally launch the alumni association in Bwiam. Participants received a briefing on ChildFund`s organizational structure, a refresher on its mission and overviews of ChildFund`s five-year strategic plan and The Gambia`s strategic plan.

Equipped with a better understanding of ChildFund`s operations in The Gambia, the group drafted a constitution and nominated candidates for an executive board. Then the members cast votes.

Staff from ChildFund`s national office challenged the participants to continue to make time for the alumni association, to work in their communities and to assist ChildFund as partners to promote child development and protection. The alumni, who well recall what sponsorship means to them, expressed optimism for the future.

“My enrollment in ChildFund sponsorship program really did contribute to what I am today,” noted Demba Sowe, 37. “I am now a father of five and an interpreter at the judiciary of The Gambia.”

For 50 days, ChildFund International (our American sister organisation) is joining with numerous organisations to demonstrate support for government policies and programs that will allow women and girls to be healthy, empowered, and safe – no matter where they live. Improving the Health of Women and Girls is this week’s theme.

Visiting the doctor is usually a mild inconvenience in the United States. It may entail a drive across town and a sit in a waiting room filled with people coughing and sneezing. But in Senegal, which has only 822 doctors serving a population of more than 12 million, seeking medical attention is a major undertaking.

For some families, it’s too much. Sadio is the mother of two-year old twin girls in the village of Pakala, which is often flooded during the rainy season – making it extremely difficult to travel 6 kilometres to the nearest health post staffed by nurses. Both Awa and Adama suffer from Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI); Adama is particularly ill, with a debilitating cold that requires care from a doctor – a 50 kilometre journey from their home.

Sadio and her husband Moussa, a farmer, have experienced loss before; their first child, Matar, died in 2007 at just 13-months old from diarrhoea and a respiratory infection. But today their village has a health hut, which is staffed by a matron, community health workers and birth attendants. They can help patients with basic needs, but more complicated illnesses and ailments still call for a trip to the health post 5 kilometres or the 50 kilometre journey to the hospital.

Sadio reports that her diet improved during her pregnancy with the twins after receiving advice at the health hut, but her little girls still face challenges from their respiratory infection.

The health of women and girls is important to ChildFund; we are working with local partners to provide access to health care in isolated villages as well as underserved urban areas in developing nations.

In Senegal, ChildFund is leading the implementation of a $40 million grant from USAID to establish community health care services for children and families in great need.

Over five years, we plan to establish 2,151 health huts and 1,717 outreach sites throughout the country, along with a sustainable national community health policy working in partnership with USAID and other key community development organisations.

By the end of the project, we expect to have helped more than 9 million Senegalese people in 72 districts – we hope this will help young children, like Awa and Adama receive the proper healthcare they deserve.

 

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