
Gambia
Background
The West African Gambia with its almost two million inhabitants and 11.295qm² area is one of the smallest countries on the African continent. While Gunjur (approx. 30,000 inhabitants) is rather rural and characterised by fishing, Brikama (approx. 85,000 inhabitants) has urban structures and is the administrative centre for the West Coast region.
VolNet e.V. has been sending volunteers to Gambia for more than 15 years. The project sites are located in several schools as well as in the medical sector and in an art village in various places in the West Coast Region of Gambia. Most of the volunteers have been sent to Gunjur, where the Gambian partner association VolNet Gambia e.V. also maintains its property "Benna Kunda" near the Atlantic coast and is an established institution there. More information: https://www.facebook.com/Volnet-Gambia-ev
In mid-March our three volunteers Philine ((6 months) , Jillian (6 months) and Marlene (3 months) were flown back to Germany ahead of schedule. These measures made it clear to our volunteers, partner organisations and us as an association after a very short time what global effects the Covid 19 pandemic has had. In addition, we present you with reports from our partner organizations, friends we made, host families and the volunteers themselves.
We would like to emphasize that these are subjective reports of experience, which cannot speak for an entire population group and do not reflect the personal opinion of the association and its members. As the Covid-19 situation changes daily, the information given in the reports can of course also be based on subjective and past knowledge.