After Bronx Fire, a Tiny Gambian Nonprofit Deals With an Avalanche of Donations

Photo: Matt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock Here are some things the Gambian Youth Organization, on 181st Street in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx, had plenty of this weekend: glittery puff jackets; codfish-fritter mix; I Can Read! Level 1 children’s books; Kellogg’s Bran Flakes; aux cables, all sizes; “Patriotic”-branded red-white-and-blue paper tablecloths; clipboards with the names of displaced families from the Twin Parks North West building just blocks away; hand sanitizer, extra-strength...

“It’s going to take people a long time to recover,” said Momodou Sawaneh. “We’re trying to get it all organized so that, once this runs out, we can bring in more.” The founder and former president of the GYO, Sawaneh started the group in 2002, just a few years after he arrived in the United States from Gambia and completed his B.A. at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “I felt like a lot of folks coming to this country, especially youths, were not exposed to the system,” he said.

Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock Within hours of the incident, the GYO launched a pitched effort to provide aid to victims and their loved ones. For an all-volunteer organization with a typical annual operating budget of less than $100,000, the logistics have been fairly overwhelming. “We’ve gotten donations from all around the country. People FedEx things,” said Sawaneh.

The GYO’s current windfall is not confined to castoffs and hand-me-downs. Only four days after the fire at Twin Parks, the group shut down its official GoFundMe campaign after donations shot past the $1 million mark. Aminata Sillah, a lifelong Bronx resident employed at the Gambian Consulate in Manhattan, has been busy trying to expedite visa applications for victims who had indicated their wish to be buried abroad.

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