Since the Rotary Club of Fajara was chartered in 2000, we have achieved a great deal across the Gambia.

Our approach is one of delivering the basics so that Gambians can help themselves out of poverty, ill health and poor educational achievement.

The Rotary Club of Fajara has identified the following key service areas to deliver sustainable development for the people of the Gambia, West Africa.

  • Village development projects;
  • Hospital development projects;
  • School development projects;
  • Educational grants; and
  • Microfinancing.

From these service areas we identify and prioritise individual projects through Community Assessments, using internationally recognised best practice from Rotary International.

Through this process, we work with the communities in villages, hospitals and schools to identify the need and how the communities can use their skills and energy to improve their own lives in the long term.

Our projects aim to set the communities on the path to a more prosperous and fulfilling life so they can be independent, but released from some of the basic blocks to their development, such as poor health, lack of access to education and low economic activity.

Our success so far includes:

  • Immunising children against polio;
  • Distributing medical equipment and supplies to hospitals;
  • Providing clean water to villages through boreholes and piping work;
  • Providing minibuses, motorbikes and bicycles for schools, outreach programmes and as ambulances;
  • Providing equipment for schools including solar lighting, computers, furniture and books;
  • Providing scholarships;

Our current projects include health, educational and water projects. We have projects developed by ourselves, but also facilitate projects developed by others as a local partner.

However, we have great ambition to make a difference to the people of the Gambia, so we are actively planning projects we would like to undertake. Our work involves partnering with government, communities, other Rotary Clubs and a wide variety of other funders and stakeholders.

As a small club in a poor country, we are not able to generate sufficient funds for these projects locally but our passion for service drives us to spread the word of what could be achieved here in the Gambia and facilitate help from others.