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Make a real difference...
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to communities across Africa.
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Share skills and knowledge...
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and sponsor children...
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to develop a better future
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...and change lives forever!
The
Gambia is one of Africa's smallest countries, completely encircled
by Senegal apart from its coastline, and is one of the poorest
countries on the continent with poorly developed health and
education systems. The Gambia is in 172nd
place out of 189 countries and territories in 2019 when ranked in
terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the
living standards of a country. It has a small population of just 2.417 million (2020) with a life expectancy of around 62.05 years (2019), over half of whom (rising
to 68% in rural areas) live in poverty coping on less than £400 per year given
most are involved in agriculture and only one sixth of its landmass is arable
with poor soil making it only suitable for its one main produce, peanuts.
As such, the country is heavily
dependent of foreign aid and hopes that it can rebalance its economy with oil
have, to date, proved fruitless as none has been struck. Matters have been
compounded of late with drought in the area together with flash flooding
making access to safe water increasingly difficult. Access to
education is also a major issue for children in the Gambia, for whilst secondary
education is free, most secondary schools will not accept children who have not
had a primary education, and that is not free and beyond the means of many
Gambian families.
This is reflected
in its literacy rate, standing at 63.9% for males and but just 47.6% for females not
least because only 39% of children in the Gambia go to secondary school. Child sponsor
programs in the Gambia focus on installing wells and water pumps, access to
health and education, including the building and kitting out of schools and
providing poorer children with books and uniforms, providing mosquito nets and
vaccinating children from infectious diseases such as malaria. Other work
includes caring for the 72,000 child orphans out of a total child population of
811,000 in the country. You can help when
your sponsor a child in the Gambia.
Child Sponsor Gambia: The Lighthouse Project
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Child Sponsor Gambia: SOS Children's Villages
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Child Sponsor Gambia: H.E.L.P.I.N.G.
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Child Sponsor Gambia: Sponsor a Gambian Child
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Child Sponsor Gambia: Lisa Kent Trust
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Child Sponsor Gambia: GETS
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Child Sponsor Gambia: Pageant
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Child Sponsor Gambia: Volunteer in Gambia
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Child Sponsor Gambia: Gambia Country Profile
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