With the help of donations from our volunteer Tina, we were able to make something happen in our Kids Are The World Nursery School that may seem very simple at first glance – we bought new shoes and socks for all the children. But here we once again learned that even the most ordinary task in The Gambia can turn into a small project that requires a lot of organization, creativity, and above all patience.
It all started with measuring feet. There are 105 children in our Kids Are The World Nursery School, which also means 105 pairs of little feet that needed to be carefully measured. We measured their feet, wrote down the sizes, checked the numbers and later tried on the shoes – yes, there was always something happening. The children participated with great interest, while we carefully made sure the measurements were correct, because we want their steps to be comfortable and carefree. After all, shoes accompany them every day during play, exploration, and new adventures.
Once we had collected all the sizes, the second part of the journey began – finding the right shoes. With a long list of sizes, we headed to Serrekunda to look for sellers who had enough pairs of shoes and models that match the school uniform. But even here things do not always go so smoothly. With some sellers, we first had to arrange to borrow sample pairs so that the children could try them on at the Kids Are The World Nursery School. Only in this way could we truly check whether the selected sizes were correct.
After the children tried on the shoes and we confirmed the sizes, the next step followed – making sure we had enough shoes for every single child. This meant more coordination, conversations with sellers, and repeated trips to the city. During the whole process, we visited Serrekunda three times, and each visit was followed by a return to the Kids Are The World Nursery School, checking the sizes again, making adjustments, and planning the next step.
When the day finally came to give the new shoes and socks to the children – and when we thought the project was successfully completed – another surprise was waiting for us. We were missing two pairs of socks, and for one child the shoes turned out to be too small.
There was nothing else to do but for Anna and us to hop on a tuk-tuk once again and head to Serrekunda for the fourth time. This time with a clear goal: to find the last missing pairs and successfully finish what we had started.
And this time, we succeeded! A Slovenian proverb says, “Third time’s the charm.” Well, in The Gambia we could adapt it a little and say that if it doesn’t work the third time, it will work the fourth. Or the fifth. Or the eighth. In the end, it will work.
Today, every child in our Kids Are The World Nursery School has a new pair of socks and a brand-new pair of shoes.
There was no shortage of excitement when the shoes were handed out. The children immediately showed their new shoes to one another, tried them on, walked back and forth, and proudly checked whether they fit well. Smiles, curious looks, and joyful comparisons filled the entire nursery school.
A heartfelt thank you to our volunteer Tina and to everyone who helps create stories like this.
