In May 2006 the founder of 2BaB and his family visited a number of projects in The Gambia he had supported in the past on a small scale. Their guide, Omar Mammeh, invited them to visit the island Jinack, which is situated in the delta of the Gambia River.

Omar, who had become lightly handicapped by polio as a child, came directly to the point: he was looking for help, mainly to obtain medical facilities in the village where he was born.

After a marvellous ride covering about 20 km of dirt road through the mainland, we crossed a branch of the river by canoe to the village of Kayateh. This was quite an adventure for us. We realized the less attractive aspects of it when Omar told us the story about his birth, which took place next to the dirt road. His mother -heavily pregnant- was on her way on foot to the hospital near the capital when she gave birth to Omar there; a situation many pregnant women are still facing if there are complications.

Upon our arrival in the village, Omar introduced us to his family. Then they showed us the small building on the village square that is visited by a nurse from the mainland once a month. The building looked very colourful from the outside. It had two small and unpaved rooms and it was very hot inside. The equipment consisted of a ramshackle massage table and some very old cast-iron emalled baby scales that were lying in the sand. There is no staff on Jinack; a government healthworker pays a monthly visit to the island.

This was all healthcare had to offer for the 1700 inhabitants of the island, nothing more. Hard to imagine for us as citizens from the Western World; or 2BaBs, as we call ourselves nowadays.

With the spirit of true 2BaBs we immediately decided to do something about this. Back home, we talked over our plans with two friends: one is active in healthcare and the other, suitably, in development aid. The 2BaB Foundation was born.

Gerd Hoffmann, Chairman

This project is (and was) carried out with the cooperation of the National Commission for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development; The NCDO, Wilde Ganzen, ASN Foundation and many other foundations, businesses, organizations and individuals.