Facts and Figures
- DDF Project Title
- Stationary and Mobile Library Services
- DDF Fellow Reference Number
- DDF 37
- Partner in The Gambia
- Starfish International
- Geographical Coverage
- Urban-Rural
- Period
- 2022 – 2022
- DDF Grant
- D300,000
- Cash Contribution
- Nil
- In-kind Contribution
- Nil
Challenges and Opportunities
While conducting community assessments and surveys, Ndei Mariam and her colleagues at SI discovered that the majority of the schools in the west coast region of The Gambia don’t have access to libraries and a library program. And given the essential role of such facilities in helping students acquire knowledge beyond the classroom, they decided to initiate a small project to address the problem in their locality.
Ndei Mariam Njie (USA)
DDF 37
Outside of her day job as a banking executive, Ndei Mariam is a seasoned youth coach and mentor. ‘’I have been teaching and inspiring young people for more than 20 years’’ she said. Ms. Njie aspires to leverage her practical and diverse experiences to ‘’transfer knowledge to other Gambians and nurture them as global citizens.’’
Back home in The Gambia, Mariam works very closely with Starfish International (SI), a school and organisation dedicated to providing advanced mentoring and certified vocational training to hundreds of young girls and boys. At SI, Ndei Mariam holds the honourable spot of being the the first librarian. She is very passionate about her coveted library program and seeks to expand the impact the organization is making in under-resourced communities.
‘’Our proposed DDF project in The Gambia is to transform a container (that we already have) into a library structure and program in Lamin Daranka.’’
~ Ndei Mariam, Project Lead.
‘’DDF has done a great job in supporting grassroot organisations to soar and create more meaningful impacts in all aspects of development in The Gambia.’’
~ Ndei Mariam Njie.
About The Project
Lamin Daranka is one of the merginalised and vulnerable communities that don’t have access to a library. The container library will offer literacy & after-school tutorials and extra-curricular activities for all age-set groups in the community. The project will also facilitate a mobile library component that will reach as many communities as possible that also don’t have access to similar facilities.
DDF Results and Impact
- The library program has registered over 60 community students who now have access to diverse programs and resources.
- A well-equipped Tech/Computer lab for research and academic development.
- A resource team of 10 college and Masters level students and 1 librarian who works closely with the students from 9:00am to 6:00pm, Monday through Saturday.
- Free classes on subjects that help students improve their vocabulary, reading and writing skills: English, Math, Creative Writing, Reading, Social studies, Agricultural Studies, Literature
- After-school extracurricular activities for students to learn other skills outside of the classroom: Poetry, Singing, Dancing, Photography and Instrument Learning.
- Full access to novels and story books for the community of Daranka and even beyond.
- An adult literacy program for the kids’ parents and other elderly participants from the community.
- Access to Starfish International’s top mentors and coaches.
- Partnerships and Networking
- Divine Beauty Agency: This collaboration brings youth leaders to conduct an extensive training program on Self Agency, Personal Development, Finding Purpose, and Beauty and Wellness awareness programs.
- Starfish Land Team: The group implements SI’s sustainable farming and agricultural production programme. Through collaboration, the library students have had access to these lands, and participate in the agricultural production processes.
Also, the Starfish student leadership council share their learning materials, facilitate service projects on elevated conversations and social discourses that are affecting young people in The Gambia and solutions to these problems.
- Next Steps
- Mobile Library Programme: Work is currently underway to secure proper transportation to deploy mobile library projects in rural communities beyond Lamin.
- Classroom Building Project: The challenge of accommodating 60 students in the library has led to efforts to raise funds, to build a classroom. This way the students will have enough space to attend year-round classes.
