End of term report - summer 2016

Schools' out for summer - in the Gambia, just as it is here in the U.K. So, it's time for the dreaded end of term report.

Lower Basic - library refurb

As we have mentioned in previous blogs, our main projects as far as the Lower Basic (primary) school in Sohm this year have been to pay for the complete restoration of the school's library and its sick room.

The former has been out of effective use - other than as a store room - for about three years, because it has suffered from termite infestation. With our friends from Jersey, we have paid for the removal of the termites and for new sealed - termite-resistant flooring and treatment for the walls of the room.

Library termites: out! A new refurbed library
 will be up and running from September

This was completed by the end of April and we are pleased to report that the termites have not revisited since! Our grant also paid for a new door and windows, in an effort to resist the forward advance of the little pests. These, too, seem to have done the trick.

So, the room is now being re-equipped with new book cases and chairs.

Having sorted out the books earlier this year, and disposed of the termite infested ones, the school is now re-arranging the them on the shelves, ready for use in the new school year.

The library will be back in full operation from September; with each class in the school having a weekly visit to the library, in an effort to encourage "the reading habit".  

Our initiative last year, in providing electrical wiring for the whole school and donating a number of computers, means that the library will be well-equipped in September for books' study, and perhaps some early computer education.

We will next be in The Gambia in January 2017. It is our intention to discuss paying for the  running an after school 'homework club' in the library, open a couple of hours of each evening - courtesy of the donations we receive from our supporters.  

Accommodation conditions like this make home
 study difficult; so we will discuss paying for
 homework clubs, after school, in the library,next year

Many of the children find it almost impossible to do school work at home, because the poor and over-crowded state of their living accommodation, lack of lighting, privacy, quietness etc.

There is, however, the slightly trickier cultural issue to consider.  Many of the children at this primary school are expected to work at home, or in the fields, as soon as they get back from school in the afternoon.  We will need to have discussions with parents about this and try and find a solution that assists the educational opportunities of their children and not clash with home demands.

Wish us luck!

Lower Basic - refurb sick room

Work is, similarly, at a very advanced stage of rebuilding and re-equipping the school's sick room.  This has been in a bad state for at least three years.  A functioning sick room is essential in a school like this, where children are prone to recurring bouts of malaria and the parents cannot be easily contacted to come and assist them readily.

Inside the out-of-use sick room.
 Now completely refurbished,
 ready for a new school year

So, come the start of the new term, in September, the building work will be finished, complete with re-plastered walls, re-flooring and new windows and doors. There will be a new bed and table and chairs and medicines cabinet.

Although we wish none of the children ill, they will, at least, from September have a comfortable place to relax/recover in the event of any unpleasant bots of sickness.

Senior secondary school - remedial classes

As we have reported before, the senior school has made great strides in most curriculum areas and exam performances since we became involved with it, five years ago.

The most serious area needing attention has been poor performance, across the whole school, in both English and maths.  To address this, earlier this year, with our colleagues from Jersey, we agreed to fund our most expensive and ambitious initiative to date.

We are paying for one additional hour's teaching of both English and maths for all pupils in every class in each year, on a trial basis.

75% plus attendance rates in remedial
 classes across almost the whole school

We have just received the initial results of the trial, and it seems to be progressing well - after a shaky start.

The attendance rates, across the whole school, are above 75% for this voluntary activity for all years, apart from 10 (16 year olds). 

It has been difficult to get meaningful feedback on the impact on the educational standards of the students concerned (no public exam results in yet, no face to face conversations with students or teachers etc).

We are pleased to announce that all students sponsored by our supporters have achieved an 80% plus attendance rate.

Its early days, but the signs look good.  We will need to have further discussions with a number of partners over the coming weeks before deciding whether to extend this (for us) expensive scheme in the new year.  

We will also have to consider how to deal with the poor year 10 attendance - but it is 16 year olds we are talking about!

We need to be convinced we are getting good value for your money, before extending the trial.

We'll keep you informed of progress.

Brexit - unforeseen consequence

It's not the role of this site, or charity, to comment on the recent  referendum decision of the British people to leave the European Union. There has, however, been one unintended consequence that impacts on us, and those we are attempting to support in The Gambia.

The £ - Delasi exchange rate has deteriorated by about 10% since the referendum; meaning we need to raise 10% more, in donations, to compensate and continue with our ambitious plans for the future.
  
You support would be of great assistance!

John and Sandra

April 2016 - huge leaps forward

Our recent post gave details of the achievements at the Sohm Schools over the last year, following our interventions in January 2015.

This time, we are focusing on what we arranged during our annual visit this year, and the progress that is already being made over the last six weeks or so since we have returned from The Gambia.

But first - a huge expression of thanks to Redbridge Rotary club. Following an introduction to the club by a near neighbour last autumn, we gave a presentation to the club in January, a couple of days before our annual trip to west Africa. 

Huge thanks to Redbridge Rotary club
 for generous £250 donation
 - it will be well spent!

It was well received, and the members really seemed to appreciate what working at grass roots level, in international development, can do.  They particularly liked the accountability and regular updates and progress that we are able to provide about our activities in Sohm.

Imagine our delight, when last week we received a £250 donation from the club for future activities in Sohm! Thank you, one and all.  We promise to come back and provide reports on what has happened to your donation - whenever you invite us!

ICT lessons for ALL students at the senior secondary
 school for the first time, this year, thanks to
 donation from SSS and Little Heath school, Redbridge

As we have tried to show on this blog, each year we fund projects at each of the two schools.  These are agreed with the schools' heads (drawing on their priorities) and are usually cleared with the regional director of education and implemented in conjunction with the schools'governors, parents and staff.

Previous interventions have: provided stationery for all students in both schools each year, fully equipped an ICT suite in the senior school, provided sporting equipment to both schools, run school trips for students at the Lower Basic school, provided and repaired bicycles for students who have long journeys to school in searing heat.

Our biggest intervention to date - three years ago - was to provide enough textbooks to the Senior Secondary school to ensure that all students had access to a key text book in all subjects they are taught.

Over the last five years we have also, provided teacher training days for all staff in both schools, refurbed the staff accommodation at the Lower Basic school, provided mains electricity to the Lower Basic school and teachers' quarters. We have re-equipped the cookery classroom at the Senior Secondary school and added stock to the libraries at both schools.

Electricity supply to whole of Lower Basic
 school and teachers accommodation, for the
 first time, thanks to SSS - and your - support
 and donations.
Probably wouldn't satisfy UK electricity regs!

All of this has been done in addition to sponsoring the education of a dozen or so of the most needy pupils in Sohm.

This year we have initiated some of our most dramatic interventions, described below.  They have been more ambitious than some of our previous initiatives, but we have been able to weave a partnership together with our colleagues from Jersey and the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, who between them, have provided over half the funding for the projects we have initiated.

Firstly, at the Senior Secondary school. There has been a gradual rise in public examination performance, and school inspection ratings each year since we have been involved with the Sohm schools. 

However, the glaring omission has been the inability of the students and schools to significantly improve examination results and performance in the key subjects of Maths and English. This is a MAJOR issue. To be frank, it is a problem nation-wide.

The excitement of games lessons will soon
 be enhanced a an hour a week's remedial
classes in both English and Maths for all
 secondary school students!

So, in January we worked long and hard with the staff at the senior school and have arranged for a well monitored and evaluated scheme whereby we - with our colleagues from Jersey - will fund the provision of one hour's remedial English and one hour's maths for ALL students at the secondary school, every week of the school year.

See how delighted some of the
 students are at the prospect!

We have allocated enough funds to pay for this for an academic year - subject to termly break-monitoring clauses. We are hopeful this will have a dramatic impact - over the years.  The early signs, from independent feedback we are getting, are that the scheme is working well.

As far as the Lower Basic school is concerned, we have - with our colleagues from Jersey - initiated a complete refurbishment of the library (it is currently out of use because of severe termite infestation).

The termites will be eradicated with new flooring and appropriate deterrent treatment.  We began the process of re-arranging the library stock when we were at the school, and from September, the school will have a member of staff dedicated to running the facility.  

This termite-ridden and out of commission Lower
 Basic school library will be a valuable education
 resource centre and library to be used by ALL Lower
 Basic school students, from September, thanks to
 SSS - and your - funding and support

New library furniture (including 3 dozen chairs and book cases) will be provided by our initiative and all pupils will have weekly sessions in the library, to encourage the "reading for pleasure" habit.

Early reports suggest that the building work is well under way. If things go according to schedule, we hope to have the library re-opened in September and for a couple of computers to be installed (from a donation from Little Heath school, Redbridge, last year). 

For the future, we are hoping to be able to sponsor a homework club in the library for pupils who do not get sufficient support and encouragement at home.

We are also funding the complete refurbishment of the school's sick room.

This will be a completely refurbished and
 functioning sick room in September, thanks to
 SSS - and your - intervention and funding

This is also currently out of use, as its equipment has been cannibalised over the years to assist with insufficient classroom provision elsewhere within the rapidly expanding school, and the doors and windows are in desperate need of repair.

A sick room is necessary in a school where pupils often suffer bouts of malaria (not pleasant, we can assure you, from personal experience!) and faintness fits due to poor diet, extreme heat and dehydration.  Again, we are being assured that this refurbished room will be ready for September.

These initiatives, aimed at addressing things that we, in the West, take so much for granted are literally life-changing for many Gambian youngsters.

We thank all of you for your support - financial, in kind and even just moral.

We will continue to keep you updated in the progress of these exciting projects.

February 2016 newsletter - Great progress over the last twelve months

We are just back from a few very productive weeks in The Gambia, working with the two schools in Sohm.

We saw pleasing evidence of real progress with projects that we sponsored and paid for last year.

This newsletter provides details of them. Future posts will explain what we are hoping to achieve over the coming months, and what steps we have put in place, to help deliver them.

Sponsorship

We, or more accurately our supporters, continue to sponsor the education of more than a dozen Gambian youngsters. We caught up with each of the students, got a face-to-face statement of progress , received a copy of their latest school report and a letter of thanks written by the pupil to her/his sponsor. 

We also took a photograph of each of them.  We will be sending copies of all of the above to the sponsors over the next week or so, as part of our commitment to be accountable for all donations received.

Musa Jarju -
star sponsored student

Progress of the individual students was, inevitably, mixed, with one being a real "star" of the school and a couple struggling a bit, because of home/work pressures.

As we will show in a future newsletter, we have directly intervened to address poor results and performance and hope to be able to report satisfactory progress this time next year.

Computer technology

Last year Little Heath school in Redbridge donated 30 redundant computers to the charity together with a number of desk top printers.

We had them all cleaned up, reconditioned and had a Windows suite installed on each. Assisted by generous free container space, we transported the equipment to Sohm last year.

PCs at work - thanks to Little
 Heath school, Redbridge

The result: a complete transformation! Previously, the senior school only had three or four ancient, working, computers for the 400+ students to access.

The whole Windows suite being
 accessed by Sohm's youngsters

Today, enthusiastic students lap up ICT lessons with the donated computers and many are becoming computer-friendly and proficient for the first time, as the accompanying photographs indicate.

Electrification of the Lower Basic school

Last year we made a grant of £1,000 to the Lower Basic (primary) school, to connect with mains electricity, for the first time. That sum enabled lighting and a single power point to be installed in each classroom and in each of the two-rooms of the individual teacher accommodation.

The standard of electrical work would not gain too many professional plaudits in the UK, but it works - without mishap! The work was completed on time and on budget last Spring. Not a statement you hear often in The Gambia!

All wired up - of sorts! But, working well!

In addition to the installation of power to teaching and living accommodation, power points were also installed in the head's office.  As the photo shows, this, in conjunction with some PCs we supplied, has enabled the school to become self-sufficient administratively - saving costs and time over a number of key tasks.

Electricity and PCs in the
 head's office - real progress!

The geographical location of Sohm means that the schools can have recruitment and retention issues for teachers.  Supplying electricity to their accommodation helps a little: they can now read in their rooms at night, charge their mobile phones and crowd around TV monitors to watch DVDs, for entertainment and training.

Teachers' sparse accommodation,
 above and below benefiting
 from electrification

Cooking equipment

The cooking equipment we supplied the senior school with last year has had some beneficial effects.

External Domestic Science exam results have improved, with examiners commenting favourably on progress. More students are now moving on to catering college, in order to help gain jobs in the important tourist hospitality industry.

Cookery equipment,
being put to good use

While we were in the country in January some of Sohm Students took part in a regional cookery contest.  Although they didn't win, their output went down well with the judges, apparently. They scoffed the lot!

Future newsletters will explain what we have sponsored this year, to be rolled out over the next twelve months, in our efforts to keep supporters up-to-date with Sohm schools' activities.

Season's Greetings - December 2015

Season's Greetings 

from 

Sandra and John

Students at Sohm Senior school displaying some of the donations we were able to take over earlier this year

We are sending the above as an e.card, instead of sending Christmas cards this year, and are sending the money saved to SSS, for use in Sohm.

We send the accompanying letter with our e.cards:

Season's Greetings from Sohm

Sandra and John are sending this to you instead of posting a Christmas card.  We will be donating the £100+ we spend on cards to the educational charity we run in The Gambia: Sohm Schools Support (www.sohmschoolssupport.org.uk, @GambiaSchools, FB:SohmSchoolsSupport). So, thank you, for your indirect support!

We have run the charity for five years, largely from donations from family and friends, together with a small number of fund-raising events. We have probably collected about £20,000 for the schools and given a similar amount in kind, with goods, generously donated by our supporters.

During our years of running the charity we have supported this Gambian village's two schools (primary and secondary) and their 800+ students.

Specifically we have:

• Provided each student in both schools with a full stationery supply for every school year.

• Completed equipped an ICT classroom in the Upper School, with 30 working PCs, together with printers and memory sticks for each of the school's students.

• Ensured that for the first time, every pupil in the secondary school has access to a key textbook in every national curriculum subject.

• Re-equipped the domestic science classroom in the Upper Basic school, thus supporting pupils who will gain work in the country's major non-agriculture industry: tourism.

• Provided over 100 football kits, and sports equipment to the two schools, most supplied by our friends at KitAid.

• Provided electricity to the primary school for the first time: with lighting and power points in each classroom and every room in the teachers' accommodation block.

• Donated over 1,000 text and library books to the two schools.

• Refurbished the teachers' accommodation block for the Lower Basic (primary) school.

• Refurbished, and brought back into use two classrooms in the primary school.

• Paid for day school trips to major landmarks in the country for all final year Lower Basic pupils - their only visit outside the village for many.

• Supplied a dozen bicycles and paid for the repair of 40 others in schools many of whose pupils would otherwise have to walk upto an hour to and from them each day.

• Supported in the region of 20 specific pupils via sponsorship and hardship-type payments.

Our efforts have been recognised by the country's Education ministry, and the senior school has seen its place in regional league tables from in the bottom half dozen (out of 85) to third place.

 There has been a significant improvement in examination results and a greatly increased flow of pupils to the country's catering college.

We are back to The Gambia in January, equipped with funds, generously donated by our supporters (including the money in lieu of your Christmas card!) and we have plans. 

We will:

• Continue our annual donation of school stationery to all pupils at each school.

• Pay for the refurbishment of the (currently out-of-commission) sick room in the primary school - many of whose pupils are often struck by bouts of malaria.

• Completely cleanse, insect-proof and refurb. the library in the primary school, which is currently out of use due to significant termite infection.

• Provide solar panel power to drive the well pump (and only source of water) at the Lower Basic school.

• After discussions with the senior school head teacher, make a significant contribution towards improving one specific curriculum area (this may be agricultural tools, or equipment and materials for the craft workshops).

• Continue to pay all costs associated with the pupils our supporters sponsor and provide hardship (often medical) support to pupils with particular or special needs.

• Continue to support a small income-generation mothers' project which we seed funded last year. This gives greater independence to women in the village and further assists  self-help and support mechanisms there. The kind of sustainability it offers is the only real long-term future for the alleviation of third world poverty.

Thank you for reading this. If you'd like to support our charity further, you can do so via the channels listed above.

We, and we know, the pupils in Sohm, thank you for your support and forbearance and wish you and your family 'season's greetings' and all the best for 2016.

Sandra  and  John

Fund raising Jumble Trail - September 2015

A new wave of imaginative fund raising is getting a grip of great chunks of England, at these days - Jumble Trails. These are a combination of yard and car boot sales, where, through a bit of co-ordinated effort, neighbours in a locality arrange to have yard sales, simultaneously.

Our are had one on Sunday - when over 100 houses in a small part of our neighbourhood in Forest Gate held one of these events.  We asked for donations of unwanted items from friends and relatives and set our stalls out in a couple of local front gardens/drives.

Some of the goodies on offer, complete
 with bunting, on our drive in Forest Gate

It was great fun, as hundreds of people enjoyed a pleasant sunny day by wandering around their area, chatting to neighbours and snapping up bargains.

Gambian flag on show, indicating
 where all money raised would go

We were delighted to raise over £350 (including Gift Aid) from the day, and cleared a bit of much needed space in a few friends' houses!

No reasonable offer rejected
 for the many items on offer

Attached are some pictures - showing all the fun of the Jumble!

A big mention to Sarah Baylis for the donation of a number of teddy bears, which were snapped up by doting grand parents and other charity organisers, with an eye to great prizes for future raffles.

Sandra and John with some of the
 teddy bears, donated by former
 work colleague, Sarah Baylis

The money we raised will enable us to ensure we can provide most of the stationery needs of either the Lower Basic of Senior Secondary school, when we next visit The Gambia, hopefully in January next year.

Thanks to everyone who donated items for sale, and to those who purchased them!