On October 27th of 2002 at around 2 am, one of the worst accidents in Senegambian history occurred. A Senegalese ferry carrying well over 1,000 passengers to the Senegalese capital Dakar, capsized a few miles off the southern coast of The Gambia. Its passengers were of various nationalities: Senegalese, Gambian, French, Swiss, and other nationalities. There was an overwhelming loss of life due to the fact that most of the passengers did not know how to swim and the sea was extremely rough, and many people were trapped inside of the cabins. Reports were later circulated of passengers using their cell phones to call loved ones on the mainland for help. In the end, only seventy people were rescued and approximately three hundred bodies were recovered.
Rescue teams were set up at the port as well as the beach area where bodies were washing up on a daily basis. Many of the rescuers worked day and night without food or protection, to collect the bodies and bury them properly. We teamed up with ALCOWA, The Astu Foundation for Children & Orphans Living With AIDS to go to the beach site and help out, bringing biscuits & nutritional supplement drinks for the rescuers, and distributing masks for protection against diseases from the decaying bodies.

Most needed, we also lent a listening ear. Our main emphasis was to encourage the rescue workers and motivate them to help overcome the circumstances. It was heart-breaking for us to hear the stories told by the rescuers, of mothers and babies washing up on the beach. We did our best to encourage these rescue workers, some of whom were so stressed from the whole ordeal that they could hardly hold the food that we gave them because their bodies were shaking so much! Two English men who live in The Gambia and have diving experience were the ones going into the water & pulling the bodies out one after the other. We stopped & spent some time to talk to them, hear their stories, and commend them for their dedicated work.