Welcome to MEC-SAC (The Gambia)

Human dignity and self-worth are derived, and least in part, from active engagement in productive employment. Once their dreams of becoming professional footballers fade, many young men throughout the world have little access to the kinds of training opportunities that can help them find meaningful professions. In The Gambia, school attendance is relatively high, and increasing, and many young men leave school having achieved a high level of academic education. After school, however, jobs opportunities and vocational training are limited, and many very capable young men find little engagement with the productive workforce, generating both low self esteem and the need to seek other means of making a living, either at home, or overseas.

The Mechanical Skills Acquisition Centre (MEC-SAC) is a charity, registered in The Gambia in 2004 (charity number 318/2004), to provide training in all aspects of the automotive service and repair industry. We realize that each of our students has his own ability level, and we operate differing schemes to cater for this. Currently, our courses range from a demanding four-year Master Mechanic qualification, through a two-year Service Mechanic course and our new one-year Computer Diagnostics Technician course, to a one-year training as a workshop helper.

At the same time as equipping our students with the basic mechanical skills they will need in their chosen profession, we also aim to foster the development of the critical thinking skills that characterize the best mechanics. We also hope that by providing training in an occupation in which our students have a very realistic chance of securing real employment, perhaps one day establishing their own businesses, we contribute in a small way to the personal and social development of The Gambian people themselves.


How Can I Help?

As a non-profit making charity, we rely on donations to supplement the income we generate through our workshop activities.

You can help us in three ways:

• By contributing to MEC-SAC directly, helping us cover workshop overheads such as utility bills, rent, food etc.
• By sponsoring a student, either in full or in part, helping us cover stipends
• By donating old, unwanted (or even new, unwanted) workshop equipment, see our wanted section for our current, most pressing needs