Jun 12 2023

Kick Off

The excitement for soccer in the Gambia is quite high. Not only since the great advancement of the team from Senegal to the round of sixteen in the WM 2022. Still, first an enthusiastic and engaged Player like Ousman Kebbeh was needed, for the boys of the Rhema Abam school to regularly follow their passion and build a team. Ousman build that certain team, thought of a training plan, bought soccer balls and organized regular training on the sports field of the Nusrat Senior Secondary School, which he visited himself once.

Our association contributed the money to buy the training gear and jerseys. Soon after the first training everything got more serious, because the team was supposed to have their first match. It was a from Muhammed Dampha oranized co-tournament, with eight teams from the age classes U10, from the Kombo-St. Mary Area. Because all the players of our team were students from the Rhema Abam school, they took the name “Rhema FC”.

The opponents were the teams Pristin FC, Rhema FC, Tigers FC, Lazio FC, Dampha FC, Pa Colley FC, Blackpool FC and Wami FC. They played in a simple co-modus, where no team could afford even one fail, if they wanted to earn the trophy.

The first game from the Rhema FC against Pristin FC ended without one goal so it had to be decided trough a eleven meter penalty. Rhema FC won. The second game against Tigers FC was a beautiful 2:0 win. Now the Rhema FC was in the finale. On 11th of July they played against Lazio FC. That team pushed trough the other co-group but at Rhema FC they had to give up. The last game was won by the team from Ousman with a 3:1.

Now against the Wami FC. That team proved themselfes in the last league. We wish our boys good luck and congratulate for their many wins till now.

May 15 2023

You are loved, don’t stand alone

Andreas brought this Song to Kienitz, to the men, women and children from the “regional church community Bad Freienwalde”.

Every one of them came to the nature discovery farm to spend their Sunday afternoon. And so, the community of “Andacht” from Andreas, came to sing songs to the guitar and speak about heaven and earth. Our association used that opportunity to tell everyone about our work for the Gambia in the last year. For everyone interested they had pictures and postcards. Together they collected ideas on how to work together with the Laurentiusschool.

At the end of the evening the donation jar for our work with the kids was nearly full. We thank everyone for their support and solidarity.

Apr 30 2023

Cycling for Solidarity

While following our daily life, Martin took a break from that life, from his job and from his family to discover the USA by bike. While on his trip, he met many interesting people and saw many beautiful places. After he came back he didn’t just bring loads of stories, but also countless photographs.

He presented some selected pictures, printed in life size, on November 26th 2023 in the rooms of doc. Sörensens pet clinic. Members of our association visited to present themselves and the intentions of Gambia-Bridge.ev. Then Martin had a new idea. All the pictures from the exhibition should be sold and the net income gets donated to Gambia Bridge.ev. Till now nearly 800 euro were transferred to our accounts thanks to that exhibition. We thank Martin and the clinic team for that wonderful idea and very successful action.

Martin 2. from the left

Feb 28 2023

Thanksgiving in the school garden

In one of our other articles we already mentioned the school garden. During our last visit in The Gambia we went on a trip to the PermaFoodForest Project (from Sarsarale e.V.) in Senegal with the sponsored kids of the 5th and 6th grade. [report from Jens Haucke].

Immediately after we returned, the kids ran into the school garden and began to shape it like they have learned in the project. The fields got newly planted, field edges and pathways were build and the well was repaired. Our association donated new fences for the fencing of the garden and we build an entrance.

Now, three Months later, carrots, tomatoes, salad and onions are growing. The banana tree started to bear fruits und the well gives fresh water. For everything to stay intact, we asked the kids to write down some rules for the garden.

We are very happy that our project worked so well, and that the school was able to fulfill some of the requirements set by the Ministry for Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) in the Gambia.

According to that, the schools are required to maintain a school garden to get their kids closer to working with agriculture.

Aug 05 2022

Donations with Creativity

Solidarity has many faces. A foxy and wonderful idea to collect some donations, has had Richard from Leipzig. He and his father spend a visit to the nature farm in Kienitz. They have heard, that the people from The Gambia don’t the same materialistic prosperity then we Germans and often live in poverty. So, he learned about the work of our association.

Without further ado, Richards father made the cotton candy machine, that his dad gave to him, ready and started a sale. Very much for the excitement of the farm’s visitors. Richard is a student in 7th grade, very interested in mathematics and astrophysics. He plays table tennis, practices the piano and drums und cares for his cats Johnny and Gansha with heart and soul. The candy machine has already been in the family’s household for quite some time and to create such a sweet fluffy candy cloud isn’t always as easy as it looks. Still Richard has all the know-how and shows how to wind the sugery threads with elegance and grace. In the picture you can see him with one of his best examples.

In the end, Richard was able to give 63.00€ our cash ward.

We thank you very much for this beautiful event.

Jun 18 2022

The next generation

“I’m more interested in the future than in the past, because the future is where I intend to live.”

~ Albert Einstein

When talking about future, one can find many quotes from all those smart, prominent people. We think about the future of our association and took Rosas confirmation as a chance to bring her into our association. She’s now our first honorary member.

But what makes her so special for that? She has already been to the Gambia several times and made many friends. She is very interested in the country and it’s people and she tries to understand, why the people there have to live such different lifes from us in Europe. She takes interest in the language, the culture and morals in the Gambia. With her open and joyful character, she is loved from the students and teachers from the Rhema Abam School and she is a wonderful ambassador for our association.

We are convinced, that Rosa has a deep connection to our cause, for now and the future. We are honoured to greet her in our team and we wish her the best of luck.

The members of our association. Rosa is the second from the left, first row.

May 01 2022

Cabbage and Beets

Like the four seasons for a gardener, so are the rain cycles for the Gambia. It’s raining from June to October, mostly at night hour, sometimes as hefty thunderstorms. During the dry season, from November to May, there is no rain, the humidity sinks to 30% and the temperature difference between night and day gets more extreme.

All this and more, is important for the revival of the school garden from the Rhema Abam School. Inspired by the school’s director Fatou Boye, the garden project now meets the requirements from the ministry of education. Supported by Alieu Joof, who build a concept for the whole project. Alieus studies at the University of Gambia are sponsored by our association and with his participation in this project he wants to give something back to us, by using his skills to teach the kids about agricultural practices.

Our association provides the money to buy the gardening tools and seeds for the project. In total we made around 170€ available for that.

Planned is the planting of salad, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots and onions for once own use. Every class takes on the care for one patch and every student has their own little plant. The goal is to build up responsibility and teach a positive attitude towards a healthy diet and the knowledge and understanding related to producing foods.

We wish Fatou, Alieu and the kids, good luck with the garden project and a good harvest.

Mar 31 2022

Teacher Pension in Kerr Ardo

In January of this year, we organized a new donation campaign to rebuild the teacher pension in Kerr Ardo. The building was greatly damaged from a hefty storm in 2021 but we were already able to get some donators till March.

Our associations president, Steffi Bartel, collected some information in The Gambia in March 2022, so we could optimize our campaign. To our delight the pension in Kerr Ardo is now nearly finished and ready to use. They got help from someone else. We are happy for the kids and their teachers – and we learned: when help is needed it is happily taken from the first to offer. The possibilities of our association weren’t fast enough to help instantly. The people in Kerr Ardo were faster, and that’s wonderful.

We will now stick to other tasks: because we want to use the earmarked donations with consent of our donators. Like so often in our relationship with The Gambia, things change unexpectedly and in many points simultaneously.

Jan 03 2022

In eigener Sache – Rückschau, optimistischer Ausblick und Spendenaktion

Wir möchten an dieser Stelle allen Unterstützern und Förderern der Projekte unseres Vereines herzlich danken. Wir wünschen Euch allen ein gesundes und erfolgreiches neues Jahr. Gesundheit, Glück und einen optimistischen Blick auf die Zukunft.

Für unseren Verein war 2021 ein erfolgreiches Jahr. Wir haben unser Förderprogramm für die Rhema Abam School fortgesetzt und darüber hinaus vermehrt SchülerInnen an anderen Schulen sowie Auszubildende an Sponsoren vermittelt.

Wir haben die Förderung von Atta Boye, einem Mädchen mit Entwicklungsverzögerung, in unser Programm aufgenommen und unterstützen die Familie mit dem Kauf von Lebensmitteln für eine ausgewogene und gesunde Ernährung des Kindes. Darüber hinaus fördern wir eine regelmäßige Betreuung mit Bewegungstherapie.

Mit einer spontanen Spendenaktion im September, konnten wir 2.160 Euro in das von einem Sturm stark in Mitleidenschaft gezogene Dorf Kerr Ardo schicken. Von diesem Geld wurde Reis für betroffene Familien gekauft. Wie anlässlich eines Besuches im Dorf zu erfahren war, kam diese Hilfe genau zur richtigen Zeit.

Die Anfang des Jahres an der Rhema Abam School eingerichtete Bibliothek arbeitet unter der Leitung eines Lehrers der Schule erfolgreich und wird von den SchülerInnen angenommen. Der Buchbestand wird nach einem für die Kinder leicht zu erlernenden Zellensystem präsentiert; Bibliotheksregeln wurden ausgearbeitet und angewendet. Bücher werden an SchülerInnen verliehen und im Unterricht eingesetzt. Unser Verein finanziert 2/3 der Halbtagsstelle für den Bibliothekar. Für die Verbesserung der Raumsituation wurden zwei Deckenventilatoren finanziert und installiert.

Und wir haben die Arbeitsweisen unseres Vereines weiterentwickelt. Mittlerweile sind wir als NGO in The Gambia registriert, verfügen über zwei eigene Konten vor Ort, was unsere Transferkosten für Bargeld reduzieren wird, und haben zwei zuverlässige Mitarbeiter, die sich um die Belange vor Ort kümmern. Die Vernetzung und Zusammenarbeit mit befreundeten Vereinen, die in The Gambia arbeiten, wurden weiter ausgebaut.

Für das Neue Jahr haben wir uns wieder viel vorgenommen. Unser zentrales Projekt, die Patenschaften für SchülerInnen, Auszubildende und StudentInnen gilt natürlich unsere größte Aufmerksamkeit. Aktuell sind wir auf der Suche nach Sponsoren für sechs junge Menschen, die finanzielle Hilfe für die Fortführung der Schule und die Aufnahme einer Ausbildung brauchen.

Die Unterstützung der Familie von Atta Boye werden wir aufrechterhalten. Das Mädchen erzielte im letzten Jahr ermutigende Fortschritte in ihrer körperlichen und geistigen Entwicklung.

Die Weiterentwicklung der Bibliothek an der Rhema Abam School werden wir auch im neuen Jahr begleiten. Geplant sind zwei neue Regale für die Unterbringung von Spielen.

Versammlung in Kerr Ardo

Und wir werden an die erfolgreiche Arbeit in Kerr Ardo anknüpfen und uns am Aufbau der Lehrerpension der Grundschule dort beteiligen. Das Engagement der Menschen des Dorfes hat uns überzeugt, uns für die Wiedereröffnung der Schule einzusetzen. Dafür starten wir eine Spendenaktion (Download Spendenaufruf).

Wir hoffen, dass wir unsere Arbeit in The Gambia mit der Unterstützung all unser FörderInnen, SponsorInnen und SympathisantInnen auch in Zukunft fortsetzen können.

Aug 16 2021

Rice for Kerr Ardo

Congratulations, you all made our last call for donations a full success. In total we were able to send donations in the amount of 2.160 euros to Kerr Ardo. This is an extraordinary result for our little association. We thank all our donators with hears content.

With the money we organised a delivery of rice for the families in Kerr Ardo. In dry numbers, overall 83 bags of rice with 50 kg content each. Every household in Kerr Ardo got a share of 34 kg. A family is able to live around half a moth from this amount.

And still with all this, there is no house build, no field cultivated and no livestock bought. But our help gives the people in Kerr Ardo hope and confidence and it was taken with happiness and open arms.

In a letter of recogntion the village chief Salifu Jallow expressed his own and the villages gratitude for our support. Our secretary, Sheikh Joof, has taken impressive care and responsibility with the coordination of the rice donation. You can find his moving report here as a Download.

Again, we thank everyone involved in this great action.

Herr Sheikh Joof (links) und Herr Saliful Jallow (rechts)

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