Bakoteh Upper Basic School

Helping blind children in The Gambia receive an education

The Bakoteh Upper Basic School was established in 1999 near Serrakunda the largest town in The Gambia. The International charity Sightsavers asked the School Development Fund to assist the school in two ways.

Firstly, to fund the building of 14 ramps into the classrooms enabling the visually impaired children that attend the school easier access to the classrooms and secondly to fund a vegetable garden including the fencing, tools and seeds. This will benefit all the children at the school enhancing their studies of agricultural science.

The amount needed to build the vegetable garden £854.178 was kindly donated by The School Print Shop following a visit to Bakoteh by one of their directors David Noble. The school has now received this amount and work is underway. In addition The School Print Shop is also funding the water payments of the school. You can read more on their website TheSchoolPrintShop.co.uk

Sadly we have been informed that Sightsavers will be no longer working in The Gambia as they believe that the Special Needs Education Unit at the Ministry of Education is considered fully capable of addressing the educational needs of children with disabilities.

With the withdrawal of Sightsavers support for this school and potentially fewer visually impaired or blind children attending Bakoteh Upper Basic School in the future, The School Development Fund believes it would not be an appropriate use of funds raised to build the ramps as previously agreed. Instead we are looking at other ways of assisting the blind children currently attending the school.