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“My daughter will not go to school. There is no value in these western teachings. She will stay at home, do the cooking and find a husband.” He stamps his foot; the audience laughs.

The performance in Sare Samba, a village in the Gambia’s Lower River Division, depicts a familiar scene in surrounding rural farming communities, where girls are raised to work in the home or fields and prepare for early marriage.

“I didn’t know how to read or write because I never went to school,” says Satou. “When I saw my daughter practising how to write, I didn’t understand but I wanted to learn.”

Satou is one of many illiterate and formerly illiterate women in the Mamudfana village Mothers’ Club in The Gambia. They are coming together, with the support of UNICEF, to break down the barriers to education, including poverty, traditional customs such as early marriage and a resistance to educating girls. They are tearing down these obstacles for themselves and their daughters, to the benefit of their families, communities and the overall development in The Gambia.