VZW de Gambia Vrienden, an organisation based in Belgium, on Tuesday donated educational materials and other items to Bakoteh Proper Lower Basic School (LBS). The donated materials included: school bags containing learning materials; laptops, desktops, printer and photocopier, bags of rice and clothes.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Patrick De Vos, the director of VZW, disclosed that it is 10 years now his team has been making such donation to different schools in The Gambia. He revealed that his organisation do not only have projects in the educational sector but also in the agriculture and the health sectors. In the educational project, he disclosed, they want to make sure that the poor and needy students finish their education at a higher level and to avoid dropouts.

Vos went on to reveal that in Bakoteh Proper Lower Basic School, 380 students are benefiting from their sponsorship, called the Belgium Family Sponsorship. He explained that a family in Belgium sponsors a student and every year they come with a forty-foot container with school items and clothes to The Gambia for all the sponsored students.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Lena Njie, a parent, expressed delight to the Belgian philanthropists for supporting their children. Momodou Bojang, the headmaster of the school thanked Patrick and his team for equipping his school with a computer lap among others, and urged parents to take good use of the materials given to their children.