Hadigala International College founder Dr. Haggi KT Drammeh wants to produce world-class nurses and midwives who combine cutting-edge skills with genuine empathy.
By Sainabou Sambou
When Dr. Haggi KT Drammeh returned to The Gambia after years of working abroad, he saw the same problems he had witnessed in other countries: long queues, overstretched staff, and preventable mistakes caused by gaps in training.
His response was to build an institution from the ground up that he believes can help fix the system – one highly skilled, compassionate healthcare professional at a time.
“I specialise in healthcare quality improvement,” Dr. Drammeh, a practising medical doctor who is also pursuing a law degree at the International Open University, told this reporter. “Real improvement has to start with training. If you train people well, they deliver quality service. If you don’t, no amount of equipment or medicine will make up for it.”
In 2019, he founded what will officially become Hadigala International College in January 2026. The institution is already turning heads as the only school in The Gambia fully implementing the modern West Africa Health Organization (WAHO) curriculum – a standard that other training centres are now rushing to adopt.
What sets Hadigala apart goes beyond the syllabus. The campus boasts digital classrooms, a state-of-the-art skills laboratory, and partnerships with 11 universities worldwide. Students start hands-on practice within months, moving from simulation mannequins to supervised work in hospitals and clinics nationwide, thanks to a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health.
“Nursing is 50 per cent theory and 50 per cent practice,” Dr. Drammeh said. “Here, students learn procedures in the lab, then apply them to real patients under supervision. By the time they graduate, they are ready to work anywhere.”
The college’s results speak for themselves: 458 community health nurses and 50 district nurses have graduated with a 100 per cent pass rate in national licensing examinations, many achieving the highest individual scores in the country. Both public and private health facilities quickly snap up graduates.
Dr. Drammeh is particularly proud that Hadigala is the only nursing school in The Gambia that formally teaches customer care and patient empathy as core subjects.
“We train our students to see people not just as patients but as clients who deserve respect, clear communication, and kindness,” he said. “Professionalism and empathy are not extras – they are essential.”
Beyond academic excellence, the college offers a counselling department, mentorship programmes, and a dedicated Student Affairs team to support learners emotionally and professionally throughout their studies.
Looking to the future, Dr. Drammeh has ambitious plans. Lecturers are already being sent abroad – one is currently in Malaysia studying the latest nursing education methods – to master artificial intelligence applications in healthcare and modern teaching technology.
The institution is expanding its footprint into Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry, with further partnerships under discussion in Australia.
“Our ultimate goal,” he said, “is to upgrade Hadigala into a fully-fledged health sciences university within the next five years and produce global-standard professionals who can work in any country.”
For a nation working to strengthen its healthcare system, Dr. Drammeh’s vision is clear: train better, treat better, and ultimately save more lives.
