GAMBIAN SCHOOL EDUCATION ADVANCEMENT AND COMPUTER LEARNING PROJECT

SANYANG UK ASSOCIATION (SUKA) GAMBIAN SCHOOL EDUCATION

ADVANCEMENT AND COMPUTER LEARNING PROJECT

The Education Advancement and Computer learning is the 6th major project undertaken by Sanyang UK Association.

In around early 2019, a good Samaritan named Mr Mekonnen Tekeste resident in the UK, visited the Gambia and visited Sanyang Senior School. He made friends with one of the teachers of Sanyang Senior School named Babansu Bojang who is also a native of Sanyang. Babansu is blind but despite his disability, he is a very dedicated and outstanding teacher of the Senior School.

According to the donor Mekonnen, he was impressed with Babansu’s commitment. During discussions with Babansu Mekonnen informed him that he works for an IT firm in the UK and will try and convince the company at their next office move to donate their office computers to schools in Sanyang and its environs and other parts of the Gambia.

Mr Mekonnen during their visit was also introduced to one Mbemba Bojang a member of SUKA who was also on holiday at the time in the Gambia. Upon his return to the UK Mekonnen was able to convince his company to donate the computers to Gambian schools. The company whose name is withheld as part of our agreement with them informed Mekonnen to invite some Gambian UK Registered Charities for vetting and trustee background checks by the Organisation before they can donate the computers to any of these Charities.

Sanyang UK Association was contacted through our member Mbemba Bojang for the executives to make contact with Mekonnen. The President Mr Sarjo Fofana and Secretary General Mr Saikou Camara contacted the donor immediately and we were delighted to be informed that SUKA has passed and met all background checks and the company’s criteria for donating the computers.

Since July /August 2019 the Secretary General Mr Saikou Camara and the President Mr Sarjo Fofana have been working with this reputable organisation in the UK to make the project a success. The Secretary General kept the executive members informed of their office move dates and the organising Committee headed by Jerreh helped mobilise and coordinate our human and financial resources in place for immediate collection and transportation of the computers.

This donor organisation shares Sanyang UK Association’s vision to fill the technology gap not only in the designated Sanyang schools and environs in particular but Gambia as a whole as our partnership with the company is ongoing and solid.

The organisation has so far donated more than 200 high quality PCs comprising of Dell Optiplex 7040 PCs with 16GB and 64 bits operating systems; Monitors; Keyboards; Mice; Speakers and Cables. The hard drives of all these computers had been personally cleaned by the donor for data protection purposes.

This project is also the biggest and most capital intensive project our Sanyang UK Association has undertaken since its successful recognition as a bona fide UK based Charitable Organisation by the UK Charity Commission. The whole project is projected to cost the Association £4900 to £5500 UK Sterling equivalent to about D318000 to D357,000 Gambian Dalasis.

The computers have been donated to us free of charge, however, our costs includes but not limited to paying for transport cost to collect the computers from the Company’s office in Central London to our member Ebrima Ceesay’s home in Newport Wales for storage, purchase of storage boxes, cello tapes, bubble raps to name but a few. About £1900 has already been spent for transport from London office and packaging materials.

We have also obtained proforma invoices for cost of shipment to Gambia from various freight companies and this also costs between £15 to £20 for each full set of computers which is about a minimum of £3000 pounds. Shipment of the computers to the Gambia has also been arranged.

All the physical labour including disconnecting the computers, packing, sorting and collection have been provided by the Association members and the donor. We attended their offices on 3 occasions and on each occasion we have been working through the night for 9 or 10 hours from 8pm until 5 or 6am the following day, packing and loading the computers into the rented vans.

Members of the Association have further volunteered their valuable times to installed and update all the donated computers with the latest Windows 10 Operating systems. Thus all the PCs are ready to plug and play by the beneficiaries upon arrival.

Advancement of Education is one our Charity objects. SUKA's goal in this project is to widen access to basic computer knowledge for educational purposes in communities of The Gambia, where often there is little or no public access to computer technology.

Our computer learning project will aim to increase basic computer skills and encourage computer education and STEM related subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) etc among students of all age groups. We believe that the spread of Science and Technology education can be key to a nation's future economic prosperity and independence.

SUKA will be working tirelessly to empower children, youths and adults with computer training to help close the technology gap that exists in this modern day digital society.

We collaborate with educational providers to make education more accessible and effective. We strive to support elementary, junior and senior secondary schools in The Gambia by providing them with computers and other learning materials.  We also engage with various stakeholders to support students, teachers and parents to realise our aims.

SUKA hopes that by enhancing education, we will help eradicate poverty, broaden options and open doors to new opportunities. It will also enables bright young minds to become better qualified for jobs that were previously unavailable to them. We encourage other organisations and individuals to donate here or contact us to help more students bridge the digital divide. 

You can view more of our activities on our photo gallery.