The King's Kid Academy (KKA) is located in Temasu, near Lamin, to the south west of Banjul. [MAP] It was founded in about 1996 by a Nigerian missionary to provide nursery education. There is no state provision for nursery education in The Gambia, so the school relied entirely on private funding. The school has expanded year by year, with the first batch of seven children moving up a grade each year, into primary grades. Children will remain at KKA until they complete their primary education in Grade 6.  This page covers the story of Pageant's projects at the school from 2008. See the first Kings Kid page for projects during 2006 and 2007 or go straight to selected topics from the table below.

Plymouth-Banjul Challenge 2008 - Transplant Titans Visit

Team Transplant Titans in the 2008 Challenge consisted of Hany Riad and Titus Augustine, both transplant surgeons at Manchester Royal Infirmary. They left Manchester on 11 January 2008, arriving in Banjul on 28 January. The money they have raised through sponsorship is being split evenly between transplant research projects in Manchester and the Kings Kid Academy. On 29 January, they visited Kings Kid to meet the staff and children.

Kings Kid Academy Entrance	Hany talking to headmaster Jacob Amadi
A class presentation	School Assembly
Shaking hands with the Nursery kids	Some nursery kids

The headmaster, Mr Jacob Amadi, took them around the different classes, which all put on welcome performances and songs. The visit culminated with an assembly at which the headmaster and the children gave thanks to Pageant and to Transplant Titans for their support. They then said a prayer of thanks for Titus and Hany's safe journey from the UK, and sang both the Kings Kid Anthem and the Gambian National Anthem. Read more about Transplant Titans

Toilets and textbooks

A group of students from Oakham School and Copenhagen International School have raised funds to provide textbooks for Kings Kid Academy, and to get some new toilets built. (see details)

Progress of building work - June 2008

Update April 2009 - Building progress & Pageant visit

King’s Kid Academy has received funding via Pageant over several years, and the management team has used this money extremely well. They have completed a large new classroom block (single storey at present but with foundations capable of extending to two storeys in the future), a new toilet block and they have acquired classroom and office furniture, textbooks, science and art equipment. All the work has been carried out to a high standard, as seen in the photos below.

In April 2009 the visiting Pageant team of Tina, Pippa, Frances and Claire ran an Art & English morning for the top two classes, which was greeted with great enthusiasm by the children - and the staff.