Children all over the world have different desires and dreams. Some children in The Gambia want only one thing: TO GO TO SCHOOL TOGETHER WITH THEIR FRIENDS! Make at least one child’s dream come true and sponsor a child today!

ABOUT SPONSORSHIP

Helping families directly by means of monthly contributions and annual fees has proved to be the best solution for improving quality of life today and in the future. The sponsorship project ensures underprivileged children a stable and secure childhood, provides them with access to healthcare, food and quality education.

The sponsorship project aims to offer a direct support to the children who are most in need. All funds go to children and their families for clothes, education, food and healthcare.

You can make a deep impact on the quality of life of children in The Gambia now and in the future. Those families, which we have met in person and have sponsors for their children, have been doing better since we started helping them. The children are more self-confident and can’t wait to go to school every day, mothers have new hope. They express their immense gratitude in their own way, by praying. We would like everyone to visit these families, talk to them in person and see with their own eyes the circumstances these families live in. It’s difficult to describe what we feel when we shake hands with a desperate parent and when people express their gratitude. These connections are of extreme importance to us.

The aim of the sponsorship project is to offer direct support to the children who need help the most. All means are intended for the children and their families for the purposes of buying clothes, providing education, food and healthcare.

10 REASONS TO BECOME A SPONSOR TO A CHILD

– because you want a child to get proper education,
– because you want to see a child get an opportunity for a brighter future,
– because you want a child to learn how to read and write,
– because you want children, when they grow up, to have their own views and opinions, which are different from their parents’,
– because you want to help a child’s family as well as the local community,
– because you want to see girls get proper education, too,
– because you want a child to have regular daily meals,
– because you want to make sure a child has access to healthcare,
– because you don’t strive to change the whole world; you want to change somebody’s world.
– because of that feeling when you know that there is someone whose life you helped make a little better.

ABOUT OUR RESULTS

All active members of the humanitarian organisation Charity Pearl are sponsors and regularly visit their families and families of all sponsors who, for different reasons, can’t travel to Africa. We have met all children and their families in person and have seen with our own eyes the circumstances they live in.

Charity Pearl The Gambia monthly supports over one hundred families. This is our third year of helping families to pay annual school fees. We have distributed cooking oil, over 6,000 kg of rice and over 1,000 kg of sugar, bought 30 bicycles and have given out many school bags, shoes, clothes and other presents that sponsors have been sending to The Gambia regularly.

CHILDREN NEED RICE

Food is shared in The Gambia. If this was not the case, then we would be able to show you pictures of Gambian people dying of hunger, which you are used to seeing in the media. It’s not the case in The Gambia, but that does not mean that there is no hunger or malnutrition. Children from underprivileged background come to school without a snack, which means that they do not have any breakfast, snack or lunch at home. Their only meal is a late supper when the family shares one bowl of rice. It is impossible for such a child to study when all he or she is thinking about is how to have some food.

Nobody gets their own plate. When the meal is ready, they put a large bowl in the front yard and everybody present can have a bite. People live in large communities, so called compounds, and are closely connected. Therefore, there are always lots of people sharing one meal – women, children, men, neighbours, relatives. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll see only one person eating from a bowl. So people don’t die of hunger in The Gambia – there are some rare cases in remote villages that are miles away from civilization.

This fact may be misleading to those who wish to help only after they’ve seen horrific images of malnourished children in Africa. Hunger and malnutrition are everyday occurrences in The Gambia. A bag of rice that provides enough food for a month for one family costs 35€ (with all expenses). Malnutrition affects physical and emotional development of a child and as long as we don’t do something about this, our efforts to provide quality education won’t bring satisfactory results. Hunger can permanently affect children who were born in a country where climate makes growing food for their own needs extremely difficult.

WHY THE GAMBIA?

Many people live in shortage in The Gambia. Over 60% of people in the countryside live in very poor conditions, no matter ethnicity and village size. Every year people of The Gambia have to face the so called “hungry season”, in a period of 2 – 4 months, at the peak of the rainy season between July and September, when food supplies are extremely low or completely gone.

Monthly income of people in The Gambia is as low as 30€. The annual school fee for a child is 50€ and the majority of parents have to pay the fee in monthly installments to afford it. Costs of transportation, school meals and material are too high for most parents, and for this reason many children can’t attend school. The percentage of illiterate people is quite high, the majority being women. When a family has to choose who to send to school, they will most probably choose the boy, so some girls stay at home and never learn how to read and write.

Read more about poverty rate by clicking HERE.

IT BEGINS WITH ME, IT BEGINS WITH YOU

People carry charity within themselves – it is not something we can learn. As long as there are underprivileged children in the world, there is place for good deeds and solidarity. All children are entitled to lead a happy and peaceful childhood. However, in order for them to change the way of thinking in the same way as their predecessors, we have to educate them first.

You can become a sponsor by contributing 17€ monthly. These children attend a local nursery school and primary school. School fees and costs of attending high schools and faculties are higher because they also include transportation to the capital city and higher school fees.Sponsorship is an excellent way to ensure children from a disadvantaged background a stable and secure childhood, provide them with proper healthcare and quality education. A monthly contribution to sponsor a child in The Gambia is 17€ per month. Annual school fees are 45€.

Donations transferred directly to the account of humanitarian organisation in The Gambia, Charity Pearl The Gambia will be given directly to the parents/schools, with no intermediaries. Every sponsor receives a picture and data of the child they are sponsoring. They have opportunity to see and to talk to a child through the skype for addition charge (the amount of expenses of transportation, internet fee). The majority of parents are illiterate and therefore we assist with translations and information.

You can find more information about sponsoring a child in The Gambia by clicking HERE.