By Olimatou Coker
In its quest to promote education of children in The Gambia, ChildFund has donated 1040 bicycles to the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE).
The donated bicycles are expected to ease the burden on children who travel long distances to school.
Procured under the Zero Out Of School Children (ZOOSC) project the bikes are funded by the Education Above All Foundation through UNICEF, who partners with ChildFund, MoBSE and Education For All Campaign Network (EFaNET Gambia) in the implementation of the three-year project.
The bikes will be distributed to children in regions 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Musukuta Komma-Bah, ChildFund country director, said the Zero Out Of School Children (ZOOSC) project targets 66,765 children who are at the age of enrolling but are currently out of school.
She said the goal is to ensure that all the remaining out of school children in The Gambia are enrolled in quality primary education and thus supporting the attainment of the ‘Zero Out of School Children’ goal.
“ChildFund as a partner committed 3000 bicycles towards the project to help support children who are out of school because of lack of transport,” she said.
She said 500 bikes were initially handed over to MoBSE in December 2023, followed by another 1000 in August 2024.
Adama Jimba Jobe, DPS at MoBSE and Momodou Jallow, the regional director of RED 4 LRR, both thanked ChildFund and partners for always supporting and complimenting government’s efforts.
