Solidarity projects: Ahoa collaborates with M’bolo in Gambia

Last February I had the good fortune to return to Banjul (Gambia) with my partner, my daughter Lur and my son Kai. Ten years ago my partner and I were already there for tourism, and we met a very special couple, Silvia and Malang. At that time they explained to us that they had in mind to start a solidarity project for the women of their community: They wanted to give them more freedom through education and applicable knowledge.

Ten years later, M’Bolo is a reality.

During this visit we had the joy of seeing that the project is already a reality: It is called M’Bolo Association, which in Wolof means union, an achievement based on constant effort, solidarity and shared work. Its main initiative is Fandema, a training and occupation center for women in Tujereng.

At this community, which currently has more than 200 women, learn during three years to apply their knowledge in the fields of food health, textile (cutting and sewing, and tie&dye), and technology and renewable energies (the heart of the project is to become specialists in installation and maintenance of solar panels).

Our contribution

Our initial intention was simply to go sightseeing. But faced with this immense project, we wondered if we could share some of our knowledge, contribute in some way. And so we did: my partner as a trainer and coach, expert in business organization, and me as a dentist.

So we got down to work. The first thing we did was to carry out dental check-ups for the entire community, some 190 women, 80 children, and even the rest of the workers.

According to the data I collected, the main problem was caries: It had a prevalence of 85% in adulthood and 65% in children. Thirty-five percent of children had four or more cavities. In addition, 55% of adults had missing one or more teeth, and 33% had four or more teeth.

This gave us an idea of the preventive actions that could be carried out, which we transferred to the project managers. In addition, we carried out other actions aimed at improving oral health:

• We gave talks to the kitchen staff, eight women who prepare food daily for 290 people, and who therefore play an essential role in the diet and oral health of the community. We recommend them to reduce added sugar in their recipes, such as baobab juice, for which they use 500 g of sugar per liter of juice.
• We also gave talks to teachers about prevention and hygiene habits. For example, we recommended that the whole community clean their teeth after lunch at school, as the habit until now was that they only cleaned their teeth once a day, in the morning and before breakfast.
• We gave a toothbrush and toothpaste to all members, so that they could leave them in the community and use them daily.

Our idea is, in the future, to be able to follow up preventive actions at in the short term. And who knows? Although more difficult to realize, our dream would be to contribute to open a dental clinic on site.

And this is how a trip for tourism and pleasure turned into an incredibly rewarding experience , which we were able to share as a family -even my daughter Lur helped me with the school children’s check-ups-. A vacation that unexpectedly turned out to be perfect.