Ousman Camara’s journey from The Gambia to Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), and back again is a testament to his deep faith, resilience, and the power of education to transform lives.
“I memorised the Qur’an, and it shaped my whole life path, opening a way to not only pursue higher education, but to give back to communities across Africa.”
With only a year left of high school, Ousman won a Qur’an recitation competition that landed him a fully paid scholarship to the Institute of Religious Studies for Boys, run by the Ministry of Education, Qatar. It was the beginning of a meaningful journey that prepared him to pursue his life mission of improving education in Africa.
After graduating high school, an encounter while at the Masjid opened the way for him to attend the Academic Bridge Programme at Qatar Foundation, and his eventual acceptance at GU-Q.
Ousman immersed himself in initiatives that aligned with this mission of service to others: mentoring peers, providing emotional support, and advocating for educational equity. His selfless insight into others even earned him a reputation as a matchmaker.
As his own academic dreams came true, his thoughts always returned to how to improve the underfunded schools of his home country. At the end of 2018, he heard that his Qur’an school would not last through the rainy season, and he began his first educational fundraising campaign. “My plan was to raise QR100,000 to build a brand new school.” Through personal donations from friends, he collected QR60,000, more than enough to start construction.
Since graduating from Georgetown in 2019, Ousman founded the Educate a Generation Foundation in The Gambia, and serves as an educational consultant across Africa, leading initiatives like “Kids in Technology” to integrate digital literacy into African schools.
He recently designed and launched a Bridge Programme at Lamin and Kadie Bah Academy in Sierra Leone. “It’s a deeply personal project inspired by my own transformative experience at the Qatar Foundation’s ABP,” shared Ousman. “I understood firsthand how a structured preparatory programme could empower students with the skills, confidence, and knowledge to excel in top universities.”
