April 2023
Earls High School students visit The Gambia
In April students from The Earls High School in Halesowen visited The Gambia with us. During the week they visited all our projects and the schools we work in. Mornings were spent doing a variety of craft activities in each of the schools. During the afternoons the team painted and decorated all the classrooms at Wisdom Nursery School.
At the end of the week students visited Kotusilo to distribute mosquito nets and toiletries to families there.
Sanitary Pads Distributed
In The Gambia, as in many developing countries, menstruation is considered one of the highest factors for school drop out amongst girls.
1 in 10 girls miss school or drop out due to lack of sanitary products or sanitation facilities in schools. This increases their likelihood of teenage pregnancy, health complications, and early marriage, and limits their future career and economic opportunities.
On average girls miss 48 days of school each year due to their periods.
In a typical poor Gambian family where there is not enough money to buy food, shelter and other basic necessities sanitary products are not a priority. Many girls therefore are forced to use paper, leaves or old bits of cloth.
To help address this issue, through our ‘Let’s See Red’ project over 400 reusable sanitary pads were given to girls at St Peter’s Lower Basic School School in Lamin and Half Dye Upper Basic School in Latrikunda.
