By Isatou Jaiteh
The charity JOYE Foundation has completed its month-long annual summer training camp for junior and senior secondary students.
The charity works to help promote youth excellence in education and other fields, targeting mainly orphans and the less privileged.
About 20 students took part in the training camp, which had a focus on core subject areas such Maths, English language and Science.
Upon completion of the studies, the organisers held a ceremony at New Life School last week to talk about JOYE Foundation and its summer program.
They said the Foundation has been in existence for the past seven years, founded by one Alphonse Mendy, a Gambian based in the United States.
The main purpose of the organisation is to offer scholarships to orphans and less privileged children, provide clean drinking water for rural Gambians and assist disaster victims.
This year’s summer program offered for free, started on the 29th of July.
“…Over the past years, the organisation has sponsored over 250 students from different upper basic and high schools,” said Felix Malu, the Foundations coordinator.
Beneficiaries were drawn from St Thereses Upper Basic, New Life, St Peters, Gambia Senior Secondary and Nusrat High Schools and others.
“After every summer program, an examination is conducted and this year, the sponsored pupils performed extremely well in their examination”, said Mr Kamara, a teacher.
Dr Burang Goree-Ndiaye, a lecturer from the University of The Gambia, taught the students some basic English language skills.
“The most important thing is not what’s in your pocket but what’s in your head,” he told them.
“We were indeed very lucky to be part of this program,” said a beneficiary.
“Education is a fundamental key to freedom and every human being has the right to be educated and JOYE program is a key player in liberating the young generation of Gambian leaders through educational programs,” the young learner said.
