The Community School of Cansamange has started the 2025-26 school year with 136 students enrolled in grades 1-4....and big news, we will be able to add a 5th grade soon this year, as a third classroom is currently being built! For right now, students in 1-4 are studying and watching construction happening just outside. Check out this video to see what this looks like!

There's another new feature at the school this year, as well - a canteen building is also nearly finished (bottom right in photo below), and once that's ready to go, students will have access to free breakfast, with rice, beans and cooking oil all provided by the government of Guinea-Bissau. This will be a huge assist for the families in Cansamange!

In case you are just seeing this GoFundMe for the first time this year, here's the full story. The Community School of Cansamange is the only school for miles around in a rural village in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. The government can't fund this school or provide teachers, so fundraising from friends in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world provide the funds for general operating expenses most of the year; the community takes care of the rest.

And that is a big deal, since this is a community of subsistence farmers, whose only major annual source of income is from the sale of their one cash crop - cashews. The rest of the year, they are working their own rice fields, growing vegetables, and herding cows.

My son and I visited the school this past June 2025 for the first time since its founding in 2017, and we were so impressed to meet the school director, teachers, and students and see how the school is run (check out the full report from last year's GoFundM e). Everyone is enthusiastic and committed, even though they are operating on an absolute shoestring: the students do not have textbooks, and many even share notebooks and pencils. Despite the hardships, students were all in on their education, and even helped out to make and move bricks that were needed for various parts of the school construction.

We came away with the even stronger conviction that this is a school worth supporting. I hope you will join us!

This year's budget includes:

Salaries for three teachers: $3,672 USD

(for 9 months; 1 month of salaries will be paid by the families' registration fees)

Administration: $991 USD

(administrator travel to village 3x/yr, administrator monthly stipend; annual student registration paperwork with Ministry of Education will be paid by the families' registration fees)

One-time expenses:

Outfitting the 3rd classroom by purchasing desks and chairs, and paint for blackboard: $1693

Consumables (chalk, pencils, paper) and registration paperwork with Ministry of Education to be paid by families' registration fee

Total: $6356 USD > $6450 fundraising goal to cover GoFundMe fees, money transfer fees, and unexpected costs

As you can see, your gift goes a long way in Guinea-Bissau! Every student who attends school here learns how to read and write and do math. Older students learn geography and history. These are things we take for granted elsewhere, but are by no means a given in rural villages in Guinea-Bissau. Thank you for considering a gift to this year's campaign, which will benefit many, many children who need your support!