Gambia Speelt Mee donates classroom furniture to Aunty Dorricing’s Nursery school

A Dutch foundation, ‘Gambia Speelt Mee’, has donated sets of tables and benches to Aunty Dorricing’s International Nursery School in Brufut Ghana Town.  The handing over ceremony of the furniture was held at the school’s ground on Monday.

The foundation donated 36 set of tables and benches 24 of which are sponsored by Madam Therese Min, the wife of the initiator Gambia Speelt Mee, Mr Bert Min.  The rest, 12, was sponsored by A.D.I. Funds for Schools, a UK based charity organisation established to support Aunty Dorricing’s Nursery School.

Each of the donated tables and benches can be used by three pupils.  Initially, the pupils of the nursery school used to sit on empty crates and some dilapidated benches – without tables. 

Speaking at the handing over ceremony, the chairperson of the ceremony, Susana Baiden, said the school teachers and the pupils welcomed the support as it will contribute to the progress of the school.   She noted that the furniture will further enhance the quality of education being delivered by the school. 

“Now, we are assured that more children will be comfortably seated to pay attention to lesson,” she stated. 

Mrs Baiden told Mr and Mrs Min that the pupils of the nursery school see them as great providers for putting smiles on their faces. 

The principal of Aunty Dorricing’s International Nursery School, Mr Alexander Mensah, stressed that he is so pleased to receive the furniture because the pupils have not been sitting on good furniture for the past four years.  “So I am really honoured by this gesture,” he said. 

The school started operations in 2009/2010 academic year and since then none of the six classrooms in the school have good seats.  

The school principal said, before now, the pupils used to sit on empty crates.  Then the school later got some carpenters to help with some temporary benches but even those benches are dilapidated now. 

“So when Bert visited the school during the last academic year to install the playgrounds equipments – three swings - he was touched to see the children sitting on empty crates to attend lesson,” Mr Mensah said.  “This is why when he went back to Holland, he talked to his wife to see what they can do and thank God the wife decided to sponsor the school with some tables and benches through the foundation – Gambia Speelt Mee.”

Bert Min, initiator of Gambia Speelt Mee, said he is very pleased that his foundation is helping the pupils with the essentials that they need to attend lesson comfortably. 

He said initially, he donated the school and other schools with playground equipment because he did not know that the pupils do not even have the essentials classroom furniture.    

‘Gambia Speelt Mee’ installs playground equipments at Nema Nursery School

Swings

A Dutch project meant to create more fun for schoolchildren in The Gambia recently installed two playground equipments at Nema Day Care Nursery School in Nemakunku.

The ‘Gambia Speelt Mee’, which means ‘Gambia plays along’, has given Nema Day Care two swings - a seat joined by three ropes to a metal bar on which a child can sit and move backward and forward.

Installing the equipment, a member of Gambia Speelt Mee, Fatou Ceesay, said the playground will help to bring comfort to the children. 

Fatou said she derives her joy by seeing children happy.  “When I see children, particularly schoolchildren, it makes me happy,” she said. “Making the children happy, bringing comfort to them, while in school is the ultimate aim of Gambia Speelt Mee.”

According to Ms Ceesay, the playground equipment encourage the students to go to school and also improve their participation in class because after playing on the equipment the children are active and ready to participate actively in class.

The initiator of the project, Mr Bert Min, a successful Dutch businessman, says the playground will help to increase the enrolment of the school.

“Like I told the Principal of the school (Name Day Care), the school will soon experience higher enrolment of students,” Mr Min said. 

“From my experience with other schools where I installed playground equipment, when I go there again I usually find out that the number of students going to that school has increased. 

L - R:  Mr Min of 'Gambia Speelt Mee' shaking hand
with the principal of Nema Day Care Nursery School
 Ebrima Dickson

“This is because the children in that neighborhood who were not in school before would tell their parents they want to go to school - not only because of education but also because the playground attracts them to the school.”

Nema Day Care is the 15^th school that Gambia Speelt Mee project has given playground equipment to since 2010, when the project started. 

It has built and offered playground equipment - such as swings, climbing-frame, and seesaws - to 15 nursery and primary schools in The Gambia. 

With proper maintenance, the playground equipment have a lifespan of 10 years.

Foundation ‘Gambia Speelt Mee’ donates playgrounds to 15 schools in Gambia

A Dutch project ‘Gambia Speelt Mee’, which means ‘Gambia Plays Along’, has donated playground equipments and stationeries to about 15 nursery and primary schools in various regions across The Gambia.

The project started in 2010 and it was initiated by Bert Min, a successful Dutch businessman who owns a video production company called TBMVISUALS Professional Video Experience, in Holland.

Mr Min said the initiative to build and offer playground equipments - such as swings, climbing-frame, and seesaws - to various schools in The Gambia came after visiting the country in 2010. 

“Once back in Holland it became very clear that children in Holland have little to worry about, they own a lot of stuff they do not even really need,” Mr Min said while noting that children in the Gambia most of the time do not even have the essential. 

Other than a game of football on a dusty field, there is no real possibility for entertainment, he observed.

It is in cognizant of this that Mr Min made some plan and drawings of various playground toys, modeled after Dutch example and decided to travel to The Gambia again.   This time he was armed with some necessary documents to start a project to create more fun for the schoolchildren. 

This is how Gambia Speelt Mee started in Gambia with its slogan "Together we make it a little more fun".  Mr Min said together with other sponsors, those who made some financial contribution towards the project, the lives of many schoolchildren in the country are “a little better” now.  Personally, he said, I consider it a privilege to spend my donation to realize more fun for the schoolchildren.

“I always feel happy when the children are happy, and this is my biggest motivation to continue with the project,” the initiator of Gambia Speelt Mee said.