The Alieu Saja Jallow Charity Foundation

Kerr Mama is a community where all the inhabitants are drawn toward a common goal, education.  The late Alieu Saja Jallow was born and raised in the tiny village in The Gambia. The village was established in 1948 by a great man with the vision for knowledge accumulation. When The Gambia attained its independence from Britain in 1965 there was high demand for western education. Many of the communities in the country benefited from schools built by the government, but Kerr Mama was never part of such an important project.

 

Consequently, the villagers felt the need to have a school in their community, as the nearest school to the village was seven kilometers away. In 1979, they took it upon themselves to build a primary school for their kids. They were able to build three classroom blocks  and paid the teachers that were hired to teach their children. The government commended their efforts and adopted the school in 1980. Thereon, the government was responsible for providing qualified teachers to the school. Taking up such and initiative, shows how much this community values education.  

 

As the population of the community grew, the demand for conventional education rose as a result. Up until 2003, the children were only privileged to attend primary education in the village.  All those who completed primary school were bound to move to the nearest junior secondary school, which is five kilometers away from the village. In the 2004, the village attracted a British philanthropist (Convoy of Mercy) who built two blocks to be used as a junior secondary school. History was written to repeat itself, like what happened in 1980 with the primary school, the government also adopted this new school in 2006 and started providing teachers to the school.  Unfortunately the buildings built by Convoy of Mercy are no longer in use because they have deteriorated and are unsafe.

 

Having the capacity to run both schools separately was proving to be a difficult job. The government thought it wise to bring both schools under one administration and that led to the amalgamation. Currently, the community has what is called a basic cycle, which is a combination of the primary and the junior secondary schools.  

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The basic cycle is only operating within the capacity of the primary school building. In reality the available structures cannot accommodate all the students.  The school administration had to improvise, creating double shifts where some of the students attend in the morning and others in the afternoon. Although, there is an old classroom block in the school, it is now out of use as it has deteriorated and in need of repair. According to the vice principal of the school, his staff are willing to conduct study classes for the kids but unfortunately there is no space available.