What comes first – planting trees or planting ideas?
Children at the Gambia’s Sajuka Lower Basic School felt excited to take on the identity of Climate Change Agents this semester. They considered local environmental challenges before determining how their skills and actions could help reduce climate change impacts in the future.
They appealed to Full-Circle Learning (FCL) for help in creating a more sustainable environment with a tree planting project. The collaboration enabled the students to extend their learning from the classroom to the community and expand the carbon sink. To prevent erosion and flooding, students planted over 50 seedlings along the riverbanks, including coconut palms and endangered mahogany trees. In the image below, the team gather under the insect net to tend the new trees.
Gambia’s lead facilitator, Alagie NDow, said, “Parents, teachers and students are all part of the project, and it’s a great moment to see the joy in the students as they begin their first service project in their own community.”
FCL’s school grants nurture each generation to address climate change, poverty, hunger, health disparities, gender inequities and conflict—and to become well-schooled in the understanding that “to serve is to lead and to lead is to serve.”
Many thanks for following our summer series about the various ways schools use their FCL grants to improve lives in vulnerable communities.
As always, we extend a special thanks to those who contribute.
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World peace begins with the leaders of the future. This spring, a determined group of students in Zambia and the Gambia worked together across borders to bring peaceful change to their countries.
In both countries, political leaders have been using tribalist language to pit ethnic groups against each other. In Zambia, this rhetoric amplifies the tensions between the nation's 72 tribes, and similar divisions are growing among the 8 tribes that call the Gambia home.
Students at FCL schools in the two countries independently recognized the growing problem, setting a course towards peace by organizing marches, conflict resolution demonstrations, and celebrations of cultural diversity.
When the two groups of students realized their goals were the same, their schools began to study the habit-of-heart “Appreciation of Diversity.” They connected internationally, sharing global ideas to create local change.
In both nations, students walked in the streets and gave bold speeches, advocating for unity. In the Gambia, an open mic allowed passersby to give their own speeches in the marketplace, which meant the whole community could contribute to the spirit of togetherness illuminating the gathering of hundreds. In Zambia, some said they would take the messages back to their villages.
The schools in both countries held cultural festivals to celebrate the diverse heritage of the many tribal groups living side by side. While enjoying the poetry, drama, songs, and traditional dances, students and guests expressed gratitude that they finally felt they had a place where they all belonged. In Zambia, the 50 students’ performances reached a wide TV and radio audience, in addition to bringing joy to the guests physically in attendance.
One Zambian grandmother, Mrs. Museteka, said in praise of the students’ work:
“We are one people. One nation. One human family.”
Help FCL’s students bring peace to our human family.
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Schools in the Gambia have taken their Full-Circle Learning training to heart. In 2020-2021, Bakotech School students planned a tire recycling project. Wellingara learners began building a veranda at a marketplace, where children could find a clean place to eat. Sjauka School began planting trees along the riverbank. Royal Seeds students set out to teach nutrition to mothers and malnourished children at a convent.
At least twenty schools, from preschool through college, had received Full-Circle Learning training by 2020. Resulting projects left a transformational impact on community life.
For example, keyhole farming helped children learn to feed their whole neighborhood beginning in 2015, inspiring wisdom exchanges with two other countries. This project was planned by Alagie Ndow at an NGO called MyFarm. Students at SolidFoundation School also took field trips to learn from the older students.
In 2018, the Our Place in Time project brought tree plantings and climate change discussions at Bakotech, while Inspiring Stars sponsored a health clinic where 350 people attended to receive glasses from physicians.
Another school, by 2019, had electrified its library with lampshades made by students. They were the first to adapt the region’s reed-basket making traditions for this purpose.
Gambia’s Inspiring Stars sponsored a health fair in 2018, inviting eye specialists from major hospitals, who gave 85 exams and free eyeglasses to community members. At least 320 people attended the fair. The Kanifing Health Clinic, said, “Today there has been significant increase in attendance as a result of the intervention oft he service project completed by Inspiring Young Stars, an organization that builds most of its pillars from the concepts ofFull-Circle Learning."
Another school, by 2019, had electrified its library and decorated it with lamp shades made by students. They were the first to adapt the region’s reed-basket making traditions for this purpose.
When the pandemic ensued, Gambian students contributed to and participated in global distance learning programs. Public schools, as well as MyFarm, Solid Foundation Academy, andStarfish International, collaborated on joint projects during the pandemic.
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