VISION MAYAMBA SUPPORT FOUNDATION

According to the latest international figures (Bloomberg), The Gambia's unemployment rate appears to be one of the highest of all 98 countries that have been tracked recently. In any case, one of the highest in Africa. And those numbers only seem to be rising for a variety of reasons. Economic conditions are only getting worse because of international competition (fisheries, agriculture), internal (national) lack of financial resources for innovation and developments in migration, where many young people seem to be fleeing to Europe in search of opportunities for themselves and family. Youth unemployment, in particular, seems to be rising because of the lack of opportunities.     

As the Mayamba Support foundation we strongly believe in the talents that young people in The Gambia have. Just as in the rest of the world as many potential doctors, engineers, dancers and entrepreneurs are born in the Gambia. But they need to get possibilities to develop these talents. The Foundation aims to increase the well-being and progress of underprivileged children and young people, more specifically by starting good education in the Mayamba community and the region in The Gambia by realizing its own vocational training on its own land as well as by developing activities so that this school becomes self-reliant. All in a good and sustainable cooperation with the local community. 

We want to guarantee the future of young people through developments on the ground, which we want to tackle together with the Village development committee. We want to secure the future in a multi-year collaboration in which we see the first solution for now in an integrated approach. This consists of the realization of a multi-functional building that we see not only as a sports facility (including changing rooms) but also as a community centre where we can realize training and vocational training. In addition, the building is open to activities from and for the community.

In cooperation with the community and the economic situation of The Gambia, we will look at the vocational training courses with the best chance of a paid job. We are thinking of the construction branch (plumbers, bricklayers, carpenters), but also of health (prevention, daily support), education and tourism. But of course we will tune the final choices with the local community.

We know that this is an ambitious plan, but in collaboration with the community and with the help of sponsors, we think we can make it happen. In doing so, we create education, training, but also paid and unpaid jobs.

As theory of change we are not only focused on the ‘output’ of this project, but also on the ‘outcome’ for the longer term. With our international partnership and multi-stakeholders approach we strongly believe this can be done.   

Vision project “Mayamba Sports & Skills Center” 20240412vs1