By Kebba Jeffang Students from Carmel College in England led by Mrs. Perpetual Jones, a teacher at the college, over the weekend, visited and donated learning and teaching materials to Kuloro Nursery School in West Coast Region. The college delegates also gave the school a new facelift by painting the buildings in and out. At the presentation of the materials, Mustapha Jobe, the link coordinator who also doubles as the president of the National Tourist Guides Association, said he met Mr. and Mrs. Jones about two years ago when they came to visit The Gambia for the third time. He said after several correspondences it was agreed that they would raise funds to support schools and students in The Gambia. He explained that as professional tourist guides, they encourage tourists to support Gambians, particularly the children who are the future leaders of this country. According to him, as a tourist guide, his intention is to link tourists with the local communities while ensuring that the tourism code of conduct is respected to the maximum. During their stay in the country with them, he explained, they also encouraged them to help Gambian children and always tell them good things about the country as well as appeal to them to help the local communities. He used the opportunity to thank Mrs Perpetual Jones and the delegation for their humanitarian gesture and also commended the Government of The Gambia for creating the enabling environment for private sector involvement in nation building. Jobe finally urged the beneficiaries to make best use of the materials for its intended purpose. For her part, Mrs Perpetual Jones, a teacher at Camel College in UK who doubles as the team leader, thanked the people of Kuloro and the tourist guides for what she described as a warm welcome and the hospitality accorded to them, adding that Gambians are very nice people and they have not encounter any problem since they arrived in the country a week ago. According to her, such visits are organize every year after the students finish their exams and is a matter of choice for students to sign in for it but not compulsory. “We have been in The Gambia for several times and my husband and I have been coordinating and managing funds for the schools to be presented to the targeted beneficiaries,” said Jones. The students, Jones added, are very much excited to visit The Gambia and bring gifts for students, saying they are hoping that next year’s donation will be bigger than this year’s. Trish Edwards, a General Religious Education teacher at the college said the donation came from the students of Camel College who contribute while Emma Bell and her mother Carole Forrest Bell raised 360 pounds to sponsor a child in Kuloro Nursery school. She added that the donation is wonderful and students of Carmel College are very happy to be here on such a visit and to help the communities and children in need. “My mother and I want to sponsor a child in the school and we raised some money to pay for the school fees”, said Emma Bell a visiting student of Carmel College. According to her, it took her some time to make cake and sell them to generate such funds to support a child in The Gambia. The link is supporting the education sector through GOAL for Gambia, a local NGO, to provide learning and teaching materials support to schools and sponsorship for many children since its inception three years ago. ]]>
