The Gambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. More than half of its population (53.4%) lives below the national poverty line, with an additional 41.7% classified as multidimensionally poor and a further 28% considered vulnerable, meaning that for the vast majority of Gambian families, covering even modest educational costs is simply out of reach.

This matters because the years from birth to five are among the most consequential of a person’s life. In the first few years of life, more than one million neural connections are formed each second; a pace never repeated again. The quality of a child’s early experiences makes a critical difference as their brains develop, providing either strong or weak foundations for learning, health, and behaviour throughout life. For children from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular, high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) has been shown to improve cognitive development and academic skills, and long-term, to lead to higher educational qualifications and higher job earnings.

Yet in The Gambia, nursery education (ages 3–5), unlike primary and secondary school, is not government-funded. It is entirely private. For most families, the fee is an insurmountable barrier, and the consequences compound quickly: only one in four children aged three to five attend ECE in The Gambia. According to an analysis by IIEP-UNESCO, only 4% of pre-schoolers in The Gambia are ready for primary school; a stark reflection of how severely limited access to quality ECE has shaped the country’s foundational learning outcomes.

UNICEF’s work in The Gambia identifies this readiness gap as one of the root causes of poor school performance and dropout rates in the years that follow. That is the gap we are trying to bridge:

We are raising funds to cover nursery school fees for 35 children between the ages of 3 and 5, enabling them to enroll at Kids Are the World Nursery run by Volunteer Trails starting September 2026. The funds will support teacher and staff salaries, school materials, infrastructure maintenance, and help provide a more stable and supportive learning environment for the children throughout the school year.

With over 15 years of on-the-ground experience in The Gambia, Volunteer Trails is a trusted local actor committed to sustainable, community-driven change.

Once you donate, you can follow the progress of these 35 children in real time through Volunteer Trails’ Instagram page, where they regularly share photos, stories, and updates from their active projects.

Follow updates: @volunteertrails

If you’d like to keep contributing beyond this campaign, consider following Volunteer Trails on Instagram to stay connected with their ongoing work in The Gambia.