Established 2003

  • 24 female students
  • 42 male students
  • 6 teachers

2009

  • 70 female students
  • 54  male students
  • 1 female teacher
  • 7 male teachers

Challenges

  • Poverty
  • Rural, isolated community
  • Cultural practices and attitudes

COE components

  • Bursaries for underprivileged
  • Gender-Responsive Pedagogy training for teachers
  • Science, Mathematics&Technology programme
  • Tuseme youth empowerment programme
  • Girls’ Club
  • Counselling
  • HIV/AIDS programme
  • Mothers Club

Outcomes since creation

  • 40 – 70% improvement in performance in national exams
  • 60 – 81% improvement in performance in end-of-year school exams
  •  66 – 81% improvement in academic performance throughout the year
  • 61% improvement in enrolment rates for girls
  • 99% improvement in retention rates for girls
  • 75% improvement in completion rates for girls
  • 66% improvement in transition rates for girls (transition to next level of education)
  • 99% reduction in schoolgirl pregnancy rates
  • 99% reduction in sexual harassment
  • 70% of girls in school committees and other leadership roles

Girls are empowered to

  • Be assertive
  • Solve problems autonomously
  • Participate well in class

Boys are empowered to

  • Have positive attitudes towards girls
  • Be self-confident

“If it were not for FAWEGAM I would have been at home waiting to be married.”

Mariama Njie
Grade 8

“I took part in the ‘Take Our Daughters to Work’.  I was taken to Banjul and stayed with the Head Teacher of Sanchaba Sulay Jobe Lower Basic School. We were taken to our mothers’ work places and saw the essence of education. We also went on a field trip to the University of the Gambia and FAWEGAM office. This enabled me to see great educated women to look up to as role models. I learnt a lot and am now empowered to be a doctor.”

Fatoumatta Saidy
Grade 8

“I am fortunate to be in the Centre of Excellence where we get a lot assistance like stationery, footballs and bicycles. In Sambang, transportation is mainly on horse and donkey carts and we have lost our lone horse, so having a bicycle makes transportation to and from school easy.  We have been trained in Tuseme and we are now empowered and know how to resist peer pressure and the bad effects of teenage pregnancy and early marriage.”

Layen Gagigo
16 years
Grade 8

“This is my first year in Sambang School. I was lucky to receive uniform, school bags, stationery and shoes from FAWEGAM. This helped my parents to use their little money to buy other things for my brothers and sisters. FAWEGAM also trained us in Tuseme where I have learnt a lot about teenage pregnancy, early marriage and girls’ empowerment which helps us to make informed decisions.”

Adama Sowe
17 years
Grade 7