GambiaRising

GambiaRising's primary program is to support the education of those who without help will not be able to attend school, with a special emphasis on girls. At the end of 2023, more than 5,100 students were in school with scholarship support consisting of whatever was needed to have them start, continue, or go back to school. This included school uniforms, books & supplies, tuition, study fees as needed and occasionally bicycles, car fare, lunch money, medicine, shoes, etc. as well. Some university and college students were also provided laptops and even plane tickets and visa fees for those able to win full scholarships to study in the U.S. for graduate degrees. Of all these students, 69% were girls.

GambiaRising provided fiscal and administrative support to Working Water Gambia (with most funds provided by Water Charity but including other small donations) whose work included repairing or replacing wells and pumps in rural Gambian villages. In 2024, pumps and wells were repaired and rehabilitated in 40 Gambian villages and 4 major new solar powered water systems were installed, two in The Gambia and two over the northern border in Senegal.

In rural areas where the primary cause of children not going to or continuing in school is the absence of a school close enough to walk to, we have supported the construction of schools by funding materials and the necessary skilled labor to construct "hand-made schools", with bricks made by hand by the community. We have also supported communities and teachers in building housing for teachers in rural schools, repairs and improvements to rural schools, construction and repair of school kitchens and wells, and for tree planting and garden improvements in rural schools and training for rural school garden masters.

Working through the Gambian non-profit Forest Gardens Gambia, with funding from Trees for the Future (through Water Charity) in 2022 and 2023, GambiaRising supported the continuing work of training Central River Region farmers in sustainable agriculture programs, propogating and planting thorny "live fences" around their farms and propogating and incorporating trees of all kinds into their farms. At year-end 2023, 607 farmers were actively participating in the program, and during 2023 they propogated and planted more than 960,000 trees and live fence bushes.