Travelogue from Anbjørg
Published July 19, 2022
Anbjørg has returned to Norway after four weeks in The Gambia. It was a busy time filled with many wonderful experiences with both students and staff. We now have a total of 2,300 students and 130 staff members.
It was exam time in The Gambia for all students, from preschool through the final year of high school. A total of 170 seven-year-olds across three schools—Ebo Town, Bakalar, and Brikama—took their exams. The students from Ebo Town will continue in first grade at the elementary school in New Jeshwang, where they will receive 12 years of free education—covering elementary, middle, and high school. The students in Brikama will continue at the school in Brikama, where they will receive nine years of education. Butterfly does not have a high school in Brikama. The students in Bakalar will continue at the Gambian elementary school in Bakalar.
All grades have exams, but final exams are administered in the final year of elementary school, the final year of middle school, and the final year of high school. In addition, there were home economics and handicrafts exams. It’s good to see that everything is running smoothly at the schools and that the students are receiving the quality education Butterfly wants them to have. The teachers are working hard and doing a great job for all the students. There was a distribution of rice, oil, and money, and all the families who received them were very grateful.
The health center is running smoothly. In 2021, 551 babies were born at the center, and so far this year, over 200 little ones have come into the world. Four times a month, vaccinations, vitamins, and health checkups are provided. Gambian health authorities are responsible for this service. Butterfly Friends is only responsible for paying the salaries of three midwives and two cleaning staff. Anbjørg visited the center this past July, and the UN had provided many thousands of mosquito nets for distribution to the families.
It was Tobaski time in The Gambia, and during this time, everyone ideally wants to have a goat or ram to slaughter. Of course, not everyone has one. This day is like Christmas Eve in Norway; parents really want all their children to get new clothes, and if there’s any money left over, it goes to mom and dad. You can read more about Tobaski here: www.accessgambia.com/information/tobaski-feast-festival.html
Girls are important to Butterfly Friends, and 80% of the students at the schools are girls. With the education they receive at the Butterfly schools, they’re now ready for further education and work. These are amazing girls who are driven and, as they say, “We now understand that we can get an education and a job, and that’s what we really want.” They don’t just want to be married off and have children—HOORAY FOR THE GIRLS!
Butterfly has once again focused on the girls with the Butterfly Friends Soccer Academy for Girls. We can assure you that this was a huge hit! Unfortunately, we can’t accept everyone; we registered 8 teams with a total of 88 girls, and there was plenty of cheering and joy. The schools have a sports team, but so far it’s only been the boys who’ve enjoyed it. Now the girls are in on it too—HOORAY!
As you can see, this is pure joy, but we need some help to purchase all the soccer uniforms and cleats. Right now, they have a little bit of everything, because the most important thing for the girls right now is to get started. When November 2022 rolls around, there will be a big tournament with cheers from many Gambians and many sponsors.
In The Gambia, the rains came early this year—a lot of water that doesn’t drain away quickly; the soil is so hard that it takes time for the water to soak in. One day, the schools in Ebo Town and New Jeshwang were closed because parents didn’t dare send their children to school—there was water everywhere. A few years ago, one of our girls drowned in this flood.
I also visited some homes this time—it’s so sad… If you haven’t been to the slums, it’s impossible to understand how terribly many of our families live. The streets and roads are almost impossible to drive on; now there’s also a lot of water, and that water contains all sorts of things—it’s not just clean rainwater. If you walk, you have to balance on some old sandbags, a few rocks, and maybe a patch of dry sand. In many homes, the water comes right into the house. The mattress they sleep on lies on the floor; it has to be moved out of the way, and they try to prop something up so they have something to sleep on. But when you meet them, they always show joy and smiles—gratitude for their children attending school, gifts from sponsors. Mothers dancing with joy.
We should all be happy and grateful to have been born in Norway.
A big thank you to all of you out there who have supported Butterfly Friends over the years; a thank you to you sponsors who have provided an education to poor students, given them hope for the future… and as you can see, they have been given the opportunity we all want them to have—education is the key to a good life. A thousand thanks to all of you for your generous support; without you, there would be no schools in The Gambia.
If you’d like to become a school sponsor, you can support the school project and help fund the students’ education for 200 kr per month.
Our Vipps ID is: 12648
Email: sponsor@butterflyfriends.no
Mobile: 906 52 378
The Butterfly Friends board wishes you all a wonderful rest of the summer.
