SSND Girls Hostel
Bwiam, The Gambia — The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) in addition to formal education run a girls’ hostel. The hostel was built to provide accommodation for girls who were in Fatima Senior School from Bwiam and its surrounding villages. It was to help the girls to have quality time and a safe place to live and to study. The sisters have been a source of great support to students and very attentive to the needs of the students. They encourage and offer various activities to help the young women to build a good relationship with one another. Also, they provide opportunities such as recollections days, praying together, daily participation in Eucharistic celebration, etc. for students to deepen their relationship with God.
The facility enables students who are from various social, cultural and religious backgrounds to interact, to learn from one another and to live harmoniously with each other.
The sisters have accepted the challenge of helping the students to make sound moral choices and to act upon them. Therefore, they teach essential elements of behavior such as honesty, mutual respect, caring, accountability, fairness, responsibility, respecting religion, courage, compassion, etc. We instill these in them hoping that it will help them to live good lives and become productive and contributing members of their community.
Through shalom-oriented activities, the school teaches the students the importance of personal hygiene, how to care for and to protect the natural resources in their environment. They are also encouraged to grow what they eat and eat what they grow by planting vegetables and other crops in their garden.
The sisters are very grateful to have these young women as part of their lives. By sharing their lives with them, they hope that when they leave the hostel they will be able to share their gifts, experiences and that they have received with the wider community.