A little boy from the SOS Basse, Gambia primary school.…

A little boy from the SOS Basse, Gambia primary school.

I have been finding out about after-school clubs in Bakoteh. It's a lovely story, actually, becasue it starts off with a tree planting club that children enjoyed so much that it inspires others clubs. It just shows that sometimes small beginings can have bigger effects and it shows the children's eagerness to learn. Here is what I found out:

The SOS Secondary School in Bakoteh started some extra projects children could take part in outside of their lessons, like literacy programmes and tree planting:

The literacy programmes began in 1996 when a group of student volunteers from the SOS Secondary School in Bakoteh came together under the guidance of the English teachers to write short stories. The volunteer students then shared their stories with the other pupils in the neighbourhood. This was to encourage the enjoyment of reading in the children.

This literacy programme became very popular with school head teachers in the neighbourhood. Regular weekly visits were organized, usually on Fridays, and student volunteers participated in turn to give a helping hand.

With time, the stories were put together in the form of books decorated with illustrations courtesy of the arts and craft department of SOS Secondary School in Bakoteh. The books were given to the community schools visited.

In addition to the literacy programmes, student volunteers also participated in periodic tree planting and cleaning of their environment. They also organised fundraising by selling their art exhibits as well as produce from the school farm to help the needy and destitute students among them. These activities continued through the years as the occasion demanded.

Then with the popularity of the other program, and the children's eagerness to learn in April 2005, the community service programme took a slightly different approach. The SOS Secondary School in Bakoteh had organized a seminar on "Vocational Awareness" which brought in five guest speakers.

One of them was Mr Saidou Jallow from the National Aids Secretariat. He explained the vital statistics on HIV/AIDS in The Gambia and pointed out that in spite of the low prevalence rate in HIV/AIDS infection a lot of education needs to be done to avert a future national disaster.

The students' were very interested in this seminar and together with the School's Counsellor, a group of them set up a "Peer Health Education Team" made up of 35 members to educate their peers on health-related issues especially on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

A training workshop was held in the school on 6 May 2005 to equip the team with the essential tools to rightly disseminate information.

Highly motivated, the team visited three schools in June and July 2005 to pass on information and basic facts on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Cholera: At the SOS Lower and Upper Basic School, the team spent two hours sharing information to 70 students in Grades 7 and 8 on issues relating to HIV/AIDS.

In Bakoteh Upper Basic School, a community school, a total of 500 students in Grades 7 and 8 benefited from 30 minutes of information sharing on HIV/AIDS. Afterwards, the school's drama club staged a short but relevant sketch to reinforce what the Team had shared with them.

Kotu Primary, another community school had a 90-minute interactive session with the team. Altogether, 60 Pupils in Grades 5 and 6 participated.

The responses from these schools have been positive. Students and pupils have been very open and shared their thoughts freely. They also asked questions which they would probably hesitate to ask their parents at home. Many of them expressed how enlightened they felt after the sessions with the Peer Health Education Team. The principals and teachers in these schools were also very appreciative.