The Gambia
VSO has been working in The Gambia since 1960, and our work currently focuses on the areas of education, secure livelihoods and disability.
Education
Education volunteers are working with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education at all levels in the sector. The aim is to improve the quality of primary education for all boys and girls living in rural areas and volunteers do this by working at the country's one teacher training college – Gambia College in Brikama to train teachers in learner-centred teaching methodologies. Volunteers also support the Regional Education Directorates countrywide. Their work includes working with cluster monitors and developing the skills of cluster training teams to be able to plan and deliver in-service training activities.
As a member of the Education for All (EFA) campaign network, the programme is involved in education advocacy activities to support EFA goals and education-related Millennium Development Goals.
Secure livelihoods
In secure livelihoods, volunteers are ensuring that the poorest rural communities can increase their income and food security from small business enterprises and farming activities. Agricultural specialists work with local NGO staff offering guidance on how to increase food production through the uses of different techniques and equipment. Organisational development and management volunteers work with partner agencies to build their capacities to effectively manage these agencies. These volunteers encourage the development of new skills, such as strategic planning, record keeping, proposal development, report writing and marketing.
Disability
Volunteers focusing on disability are working with disabled people’s groups in both rural and urban areas. A significant amount of work is going into:
improving the management structures of these agencies
providing support to the day-to-day needs of people with disabilities
advocating for the rights of people with disabilities
increasing awareness of disability issues in Gambian society.
A joint project with the Disabled Peoples Organisations has just successfully secured funding from Big Lottery Fund in the UK. The project was implemented in October 2007 and will end in September 2010. The Learn Work Path project (funded by Dutch organisation PSO) is supporting selected disabled peoples organisations to be able to monitor learning from their work experiences to feed into programme planning and implementation cycle.
National volunteering
VSO The Gambia is currently exploring the possibility of using national volunteering to maximise the impact of our three programmes. There will be a pilot programme using national volunteers teachers for our education programme.
Our national volunteering programme in The Gambia is run in partnership with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, the National Planning Commission and United Nations Volunteers. Future plans include setting up a national volunteer service centre for the overall management of the national volunteering programme.
