Fatou Bah Bah

Fatou is the founder of the Ebou Mala's Children Charitable Foundation, supporting women in the Gambia. She has recently launched The Cinderella Project, with the aim of providing skill training and development opportunities for the women and young girls within the community to identify entrepreneurial skills. This will allow them to become independent, develop commercial opportunities and generate income to support themselves and their families.

Through this work, Fatou hopes to continue to address the inequalities in education, healthcare and many other sectors that the people of the Gambia endure.

What’s your connection to the University?

I am a final year MSc Adult student nurse. I participated in the MSc Midwifery and Midwifery Degree Apprenticeship validation, serving as an ambassador. Presently, I am working with one of the University’s senior lecturers for Adult Nursing to develop clinical and community work experience internationally for student nurses. Last year, I represented the University of Birmingham at the U21 HSG SDG Awareness Week.

Do you have any favourite sports? What do you like about them?

My favourite sport is badminton. I was 15 years of age when I played it for the first time. I found it to be a very intense sport but fun and relaxing at the same time. I like the fact that it doesn’t have many rules and can be played in singles and doubles, so you just need one friend to have fun with.

While growing up, did you follow any particular sports stars?

Growing up, I didn’t follow any sport star. However, I have recently started following a former Liverpool football player, Sadio Mane. Sadio is considered as one of the best players in the world. In recent years he has made a huge donation towards the construction of schools, hospitals and building community centres in his birth town of Bambali, Senegal. In addition to that he is also sponsoring students to access higher education and provides monthly allowance for food to every family in Bambali. Because of my passion for charity work and helping the less privileged in The Gambia, I am very inspired by the support Sadio is giving to his people in Bambali. I strongly believe that the only way we can create peace and achieve equality in the world is by giving the voiceless a greater voice and providing opportunities to the less privileged.

What are you most looking forward to during the Games?

I have already received an invitation to watch the women’s hockey group match, India vs England, and Kenya vs South Africa at the University. This will be an opportunity for me to meet other batonbearers and it will be very exciting to see the sport activities live and not on screen.

How does it feel to know your alma mater is hosting the Games?

To be honest I feel excited to know that I will not only be graduating from one of the top 100 global universities, but also the university that hosted the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

How does it feel to be selected as a batonbearer?

I feel very excited and special to be selected as a batonbearer because it means that my efforts in creating sustainable opportunities for young girls and women in the other part of the world (The Gambia) has been recognised. I was born and raised in The Gambia, and I could have been one of those girls. I feel proud that I am able to create the right contacts and resources for them to have a better future and this nomination motivates me to do even more. I hope my story will inspire and motivate other students to be involved in community projects here in the UK or abroad.