Fundraising pays for Gambian teacher
A donation from Shropshire’s international school will pay a year’s salary for a school assistant at a community nursery school in The Gambia.
Concord College raised £250 from an outdoor film evening and this has enabled a charity run by a Paula Howells to expand the nursery school’s teaching staff and change the life of a resident in the Ebo Town community.
Paula, who founded the charity behind the Ebo Town community nursery school in The Gambia, spoke over the internet to Ebrima Samateh only a few days ago.
She offered Ebrima, who is in his mid-30’s, a full time position in the school. His job in a juice bar on the Senegambia Beach had come to an end and he was out of work.
“He needs a regular salary and Spider, as we nickname him, was overjoyed to accept the position in the nursery school – all thanks to Concord College,” said Paula, 52, of Sundorne, Shrewsbury.
She runs the charity that supports the school and visits The Gambia at least twice a year where she has also set up a scheme to reach out into the community and help poor families.
She visited The Gambia with her husband Dave in 2014 and decided their mission would be to help others less fortunate.
As a result, the Ebo Town nursery school was founded with 83 pupils aged three to seven being educated – free of charge. Paula added: “The charity offers a sponsorship programme of £50 per year to sponsor a child which covers all educational costs for that year.
“This enables all three to seven year old children at this school to have a free education. The school employs two teachers, two assistants and now, thanks to Concord College, Ebrima who will work on a one-to-one with slow learning children.
“Our school is the only one in The Gambia which supplies a free nursery school education – in addition to all the work we do for the poor in the community such as providing rice, mosquito nets, free clothes bank, bedding, cleaning materials and repairing roofs and floors.
“This has all happened since my husband and I first visited The Gambia in 2014 and with £200 in our pocket we tried to make a difference to educating nursery school children.
“The great thing now is that in addition to educating the children, Ebrima will receive a regular salary every month for the next 12 months.”
Paula added that every penny donated goes into the charity whose bank account is held in the UK.
Anyone interested in sponsoring a child or making a donation can contact Paula on 01743 467426/07738022397 or email ebotowncommunitynurseryschool@outlook.com
Donations can be made to www.justgiving.com/ebotown-communitynurseryschool
