Nyodema - Fighting Poverty with Music

Nyodema, which means ‘Helping each other’ in Mandinka, a West African language, is a community group based in Bognor Regis, West Sussex set up in 2007 with the following aims…

• Celebrating world music and arts
• Promoting multi-cultural awareness
• Raising funds for health and education projects in The Gambia, West Africa

Baraka at Nyodemas Festival 2009

Our first fund-raising event was held in August 2007 which since then has grown to become an annual Festival and we have organised a variety of evening gigs and workshops. We meet every Tuesday at The Royal Hotel for our African drumming workshop with ‘Hands on Skin’ and our choir meets every Thursday at the Regis School of Music – see tabs above for more info.

As of May 2011 the total amount raised is £16,107.20.

This has been used for a variety of projects in The Gambia including…

• Building a school in Dairuharu, a district of Brikama*
  
• Purchasing and distributing 577 mosquito nets to children in the Jeddah district of Brikama
  
• Training some 40 teachers in ”Jolly Phonics”, a method of teaching English widely used throughout the UK (Some of these teachers are now training other teachers.)
  
• Organising a first-aid and a dental hygiene course for teachers
• Supplying medical equipment to the hospital in Brikama including a wheelchair, stethoscopes and blood pressure monitors
• Supporting one teacher through her last two years of teacher training
• Purchasing desks and chairs for a classroom at Jeddah Progress Nursery School and also at the school in Dairuharu
  
• Starting a vegetable garden at Jeddah Progress Nursery School

*For the latest up dates on the school in Dairuharu please visit our ‘Gambia Updates‘ page. You can also read how this project started on Kathryn’s blog. 

For more photographs in The Gambia, see the Nyodema Flickr stream.

For more photographs of our events  Nyodema Flickr stream.

Contact us at nyodema07@yahoo.co.uk

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