Since December 2003, we are under the spell of the West African country of The Gambia. In 2003 we left for the sun, sea and the beach. These three ingredients were fully present, but we got so many other impressions as well. The Gambia is referred to as ' the Smiling Coast ' and that you will see all over the Gambia. But besides all the joy and kindness of the Gambian people, you just can’t close your eyes for the poverty and the appalling conditions in which the Gambian people often live. It is terrible to see that children do not attend school, sick people cannot be helped and that there is not much hope for improvement of these conditions in the future. During our stay, we wondered several times how we could help these people.

After returning to the Netherlands, Jaap, Trudy, Tjitske and Gerwin started to raise money for a school in the Gambia: The London Corner School. This money was spent on teaching materials, playing equipment, simple furniture, toilets and running water. A single drop in the ocean, but this was also the start of the Yamah working group. Since April 2008, we are officially a foundation.

Education is not free of charge in the Gambia. Because we want to do something, and we know that we cannot change everything, we decided to focus on sponsoring students. In 2007 we also started sponsoring young children attending primary school. These poor children we sponsor by giving them an education are also dependant for food and clothing on the school. We started with sponsoring individual students, but in 2011 we decided we would focus on the whole school and other projects. A drop in the ocean, but;

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." Mother Teresa

I if you would like more information, please call or email us.

Kind regards,

Jaap, Sanne, Tjitske, Joost and Gerwin
The Yamah Foundation