Your day begins with a pick-up from your accommodation and a scenic drive to a local nursery school in Brufut village. Spend a day immersed in community life, education, and local cuisine in The Gambia. This experience allows you to volunteer at a nursery school, engage with young children, and participate in a home-cooking session with the headmistress, offering an authentic taste of Gambian hospitality.
Your day begins with a pick-up from your accommodation and a scenic drive to a local nursery school in a Gambian village. Enjoy the passing landscapes of rural life as you head towards your volunteering experience.
Upon arrival, you will be welcomed by the school’s headmistress and teachers, who will introduce you to the students and explain the daily routine. Gain insight into the Gambian education system and how local nursery schools operate with limited resources.
Get involved in interactive classroom activities such as:
During the school’s break time, you’ll have a chance to interact with the teachers and discuss Gambian education, culture, and traditions.
After your school volunteering session, take a short walk to the headmistress’s home, where you will be welcomed into a traditional Gambian household.
Experience authentic Gambian home cooking as you prepare a traditional dish together with the headmistress. Learn how to cook one of the classic meal such as:
As you cook, enjoy storytelling and insights into Gambian family life, food traditions, and cultural customs.
Sit down for a communal lunch and enjoy the delicious meal you helped prepare. Share stories, discuss the importance of food in Gambian culture, and deepen your understanding of local traditions.
After lunch, unwind with Ataya (traditional Gambian tea ceremony) and reflect on your experiences of the day. This is also a time to ask questions and engage in meaningful conversations about education, women’s roles, and community life.
Bid farewell to your host and head back to your accommodation with newfound knowledge, connections, and unforgettable memories.
Accommodation after the volunteering experience can be arranged for an additional cost.
We will arrange transport to drop you off at the airport.
The optimal period is three weeks, but the volunteering experience should not go for less than one week. It takes time to adjust to the school and children and way of work. You can stay for as long as you want, provided there is the availability of the room. If a week-long experience is too much, you can also join us for a day.
This trip is suitable for families with kids older than 5 years. We have very positive experiences with families coming for this type of travel. The kids were the ones who enjoyed the most.
The volunteering experience in school can be quite exhaustive, depending on the energy you are willing to put in. You will, however have enough time to recover your strength.
With the heritage of making a change in The Gambia for the past 12 years, Volunteer Trails is the creation of a new vision that will improve the quality of lives of Gambians in a sustainable and self-sufficient way.
We are the voice for responsible volunteering and eco-, rural- and community-based travel in The Gambia.
Everyone involved in our projects is fairly paid and encouraged. Hand in hand with communities, we create job opportunities as we don’t believe that (just) giving is beneficial to the people and their future. Our mission is to minimize or completely remove dependency on instant cash donations. Instead, we believe there must be an exchange of services and/or products for earnings.
Education, exchange, sharing, accepting and making an impact is our mission. And we invite like-minded people to join us.
We do believe it's time for another adventure. Don't spend all of your time in The Gambia in one place. Go out and explore! There are so many beautiful experiences waiting for you. Let us help you pick one - and take care of all the rest.
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