Mandinaba community library (MCL), under Mandinaba youth and sport committee’ s “Nafaa” for all initiative, recently distributed over one thousand, five hundred books of different educational disciplines to ten schools in Western Region.The books were donated to Mandinaba youth and sport committee by donors in the United States through Wings of the Dawn international institute for children, based in the US.

This organisation has a keen interest in the advancement of education and instilling of excellent reading habits in African students, thus they devote themselves to the shipment of books and school supplies to African countries.

In 2006, wings of the dawn signed a memorandum of understanding with mandinaba youth and sport committee for the implementation of a D5 million project called: “Nafaa” for all initiative.

Speaking during the distribution ceremony, Kawsu Sanno, chairperson of Mandinaba youth and sport committee emphasised the need for collaborative efforts for the achievement of advance education in The Gambia. Mr Sanno further noted that the distributed books were very vital to the students, adding that they included books of different educational levels.

He called on students to thrive hard and make the maximum utilization of the library. He noted that Mandinaba community library is the first phase of “Nafaa” for all initiative project, and added that the library was today satisfying students from the village and its environs, in the area of reading and research. He urged the principals and managements of the beneficiary schools to make the best use of the books.

Momodou Samateh, principal of Kinderdorf Bottrop Technical Senior and junior secondary school in Brikama, noted that education was like a river with infinite capacity. Mr Samateh noted that in this twenty first century, students have a lot of opportunities to be educated even where as one does not attend classes.

He thanked Mandinaba youth and sport committee for their goodwill gesture and urged the students to close ranks for their own development.

Lesly Copeland, alias Fatou Jammeh, a peace corps volunteer who is posted in Mandinaba, one of the founders of “Nafaa” for all project, reiterated that the improvement of excellent education in any nation was a sign of hope and expectation. She noted that “Nafaa” for all initiative projects would continue to complement the Gambia government’s efforts in the attainment of vision 2020 and the millennium development goals.

Ousman bah, representative of wings of the dawn in the Gambia and secretary of “Nafaa” for all initiative projects, expressed overwhelming happiness for the distribution of the books. Mr Bah expounded that it was the fervent hope of the donors that the books would yield immeasurable impacts in the education of the students of the beneficiary schools. He urged the students to be steadfast.

Other speakers included the representative of the principal of Brikama Upper Basic School, principal of Faraba Banta basic cycle school, Pirang Basic Cycle school, Kuloro lower basic school, among others.