Case studies: former SOS child Bakoteh, Gambia

From the SOS Children's Village to the SOS Nursery School

In the Gambia, the number of former SOS children who come back to work for SOS Children is incredible. They say they also want to contribute in giving a chance to other children, like they were once given. Giving them a home, a family, love and care... And who else better then them could know how to deal with such children, how to advise them and guide them to a successful life? Ndey Fatou is one of them and shares her story with you.

This 31-year-old young women is proud to be a former SOS child and proud to have succeeded in life! She was one of the first children to join SOS Children's Village Bakoteh when it opened in 1981. By then, she was five.

Abandoned by her father and having lost her mother at a very early age, Ndey Fatou was living with her grandmother before she was admitted into the village. But the loving women could not cope with all the needs a young child has. She was old and had not much money to raise her little girl and decided to request assistance to offer her granddaughter a better life.

One would always wonder if coming to live in an SOS Children's Village and leaving your surrounding is not hard and terrifying for a child. Well, Ndey Fatou explains she "was very happy to come to SOS Children's Village Bakoteh". "My grandmother had told me I would have everything I need here and that she would come and visit me as often as possible. I didn't need to worry…"

Growing up in Bakoteh, Gambia

Indeed, Ndey Fatou has very good memories of her life in SOS Children's Village Bakoteh. She and her five "SOS siblings" were under the care of mother Pullo. "My mother was a great one! She really loved us and would always buy us gifts! She taught us respect and tolerance, and forgiveness. And today, these values are also part of my daily work, as a nursery school teacher!"

"My mother also taught me plenty other things...like cooking, for example! One of the very special dishes I've learnt to do is "Findee", a dish made out of something that looks like couscous which takes very long to prepare and that very few people know how to cook! It's part of my family heritage!"

Today, Ndey Fatou is a happily married woman. She has three boys aged two to ten who regularly visit their grandma Pullo, and lives not far from SOS Children's Village Bakoteh. For the past eight years, she's been teaching in the nursery school she once attended when she was a little girl [SOS Nursery School Bakoteh]. And she loves it!

"SOS Children's Villages really gave me and still gives me an excellent life! Without it, I would not be here today; I would not be the woman I am and I also would not have such a great job! I see myself as an example!", concludes Ndey Fatou.

SOS Children has been working in The Gambia since 1981 and gives a family home to over 100 children at the SOS Children's Village Bakoteh. An additional children's village opened in 2007 at Basse, on the eastern side of The Gambia, and which cares for more than 80 children to date.

You can support children like Ndey by sponsoring a child.