SOS Children in The Gambia

The Gambia, situated on the Atlantic coast of north-west Africa, is the smallest country in mainland Africa and one of its poorest, with neither properly developed health or education systems.

The economy is based on agriculture, which provides a living for most of the population, usually at subsistence level. Industrialisation is still in the early stages, although tourism has become a major industry in recent years.

We started our work in the Gambia in 1981 with a community in Bakoteh, a short distance from the town of Serrakunda and about 10 miles from the capital, Banjul. The 12 family houses, built in the local style and surrounded by flowers, shrubs and trees, are home to around 120 children and their SOS mothers. There is also an SOS Nursery, used by local children as well as children from the Village, and an SOS Primary and Secondary School, which are now run by the national education authority.

The main aim of the SOS Vocational Training Centre Bakoteh is to pass on to young people knowledge and experience that will enable them to run their own businesses and lead independent lives. We specialise in three areas: carpentry/woodwork, car mechanics, and metal work/tool making. Five SOS Youth Homes provide accommodation for young people from SOS Children's Villages in neighbouring countries who come here for training. The centre also operates as a production and service unit supplying the general public, making it to some extent self-sufficient.

A shortage of medical facilities in the area led to the establishment of an SOS Mother and Child Clinic in 1997, which provides medical care and counselling especially for pregnant women and mothers with small children. An ambulance is available to transport emergency cases. The clinic is one of Gambia's most important medical facilities providing services and assistance to around 20,000 people in the locality each year.

There is also a Family Strengthening Programme in Bakoteh which supports over 300 community children and their families with food, healthcare, education costs, and provides income-generating opportunities for caregivers. This programme helps to prevent child abandonment.

We set up a Girls’ Youth Home in 2006 to support young girls forced into commercial sex work due to economic hardship and who are as a result outcast from society. SOS Children began this project, which has now been handed over to the Department of Social Welfare.

Basse, in the far eastern part of the country, is located on a trucker route between northern and southern Senegal and also receives a very high number of immigrants from the surrounding countries, coming to the Gambia without resources hoping to make money to send back home. The area suffers very high unemployment rates, and most people make a living from subsistence farming. Together with the increasing HIV/AIDS rate this means that this part of the Gambia has the country's highest numbers of children without parental care.

This made Basse a natural choice of location for the second SOS Children's Village in the Gambia, which opened in 2007, thanks to the support of SOS supporters in the UK! There are 12 family homes at the Village, giving homes to 114 children (40 girls, 74 boys). There is also a large playground and lots of green areas for the children to run around in. The SOS Nursery offers a pre-school education to 126 little children, and over 200 children attend the SOS Primary School. A Family Strengthening Programme supporting vulnerable families in the community was started in Basse in March 2010.

Aids Orphans in the Gambia

There is also information on the Aids Orphan Projects in the Gambia, Africa.

Oumou, a 13-year-old girl from SOS Children's Village Bakoteh, on why she loves living at the village: