Schools' back for winter

Schools in the Gambia returned 10 days ago after a lock-down in the country endured since March. And we, and they, have been very busy since!

First, a bit of bad news - but don't give up, the rest of the newsletter is very positive!

Summer in The Gambia is the rainy season, with torrential rainfall, often lasting many days. So, not surpringly, there are not many tourists (even in a good year) from May till September. This year's season was particularly savage, and it found a victim in the Sohm Lower Basic school. The sick room which many of you generously contributed towards refurbishing three years ago, had its roof blown off one night, and rendered unusable.  Everything in it was destroyed - and the photo below shows why.

 

Storm damage to sick room

We are seeking quotes not just for its refurbishment, but for that of the whole block in which it sits. All being well, we and our partners from Jersey are hoping to find funding for it, so that we can refurb the whole block next summer.

In the meantime, we will be using the deputy head's office (sorry Mamodou!) as an interim measure and we bought a new bed for the room last week - see photo.

Our friends from First Aid 4 Gambia (FA4G) have been good enough to replace the wrecked first aid supplies. So, bad as the storm damage was, we have been able to salvage a temporay solution and hopefully a longer term benefit from the wreckage.

 

New bed in its temporary home 

- the deputy head's former office!

As we said in our last newsletter in September, The Gambia has been relatively lightly hit by COVID (nationally, only 120 registered COVID-related deaths in total over the 8 months). The country has been very strict on preventative measures - schools closed, full lockdowns, night-time curfews etc. The government, nervously, sanctioned the return of schools after what was both the English and  Gambian half term, last week.

Social distancing is strictly adhered to in the country, and is maintained as the children have returned to school - see below. 

 

Pupils observing social distancing on return from lockdown

 

  

Staff observing social distancing on return from lockdown

Our good friends from First Aid 4 Gambia were able to get a consignment of hand sanitiser and visors to the country, and we were able to purchase a small quanity, at cost, for use in the school. Thanks to an anonymous donor for funding this and to FA4G for letting us have the supplies.

 

Pupils modelling visors, masks and hand sanitiser,

 supplied by our friends at First Aid 4 Gambia

 

  

Head and deputy head wearing FA4G-supplied visors

Meanwhile, the Scottish-based FA4G are trialling a new training course, and such is our close relationship with them that they chose Sohm Lower Basic to launch it on Monday.The photos we have been sent are very gratifying. You will note that it took place in the shiny new hall we opened in January, with the chairs that so many of you funded, stacked and moved out of the way for the course!

 

Trainer demonstrating CPR on the course

 

 

Staff practising CPR on the course

 

 

 

Never too young to learn - one of the teachers 

takes her youngster with her to the course! 

The school staff are delighted, all passed the course and they remain the most medically-qualified people in the village!

 

Certificate awarded for passing course

 

 All sixteen attendees displaying thier certificates of First Aid competence

 Huge project on the horizon

Lamin Saidy, the former deputy-head of Sohm Lower Basic school, with whom we have worked so closely to deliver so much at the school was, unsurprisingly, promoted last summer to become deputy head at Sukuta Lower Basic school. This is the largest primary school in the country - with 2,000 pupils. 

Following 40- years of neglect at the school, during most of which time the former president had some difficulty in distinguishing between his back-pocket and the schools' refurbishment budget, precsiely the same issues have emerged at the school as we found when we first got involved with Sohm. He found: a poor water supply, insanitary toilets, lack of a serviceable hall, no first aid room etc.

He, I and the building contractor we used in Sohm put together a detailed spec and estimate for carrying out the necessary work. I was on the point of returning to The Gambia in the first week of April on a fact-finding mission with some key Rotary International officials. 

We had lined up meetings with the permanent secretary at the ministry of education, the regional education director, three Gambian rotary clubs, trips to the schools (Sukuta and Sohm - the latter to see what we had done, at a similar price), with a view to applying for a large Rotary International grant.

The COVID lockdown intervened, just a week before we were due to fly out. The initiative was put on the back burner. It is now being revived and strengthened by the fact that my local Rotary club in London (Redbridge) has twinned with a club in Slovenia, who wish to be involved. So, we are gradually knitting together a truly international team which, hopefully, can do in a year for a school five times larger than Sohm, what it has taken us five years to achieve in Sohm. Watch this space for updates!

Wish us well!  Beware - a begging bowl may come out soon, to help fund the project!

We hope this newsletter finds you as well as it leaves us, as this dreadful pandemic drags on without apparent end in sight.

2019 trip - huge progress, on so many fronts

Our most successful visit to Sohm, to date, will be the feature of a series of articles over the coming months.  The achievements of the trip, however, can be expressed in 10 headlines and photos, below.

1. Given a great welcome by the school.

2. Witnessed transformed classroom block, courtesy of the generosity of pupils from Beech Hill school, Luton and Redbridge Rotary Club.

3. Saw superb delivery of First Aid training to 10 adults and three pupils, plus the delivery of upto date stock of medical supplies, from the ever-excellent First Aid 4 Gambia.



4. Signed off plans for a new 30 metre hall and kitchen block - our biggest project yet - to be built this year.

5. Delivered £1k+ of stationery to meet all needs of 450 pupils and their staff for the next year.

6. Saw delighted pupils and teachers captivated by some Jolly Phonics DVD's, we took over - courtesy of some e.bay bargains in the UK

7. Picked up over 90 letters, drawings and photos from the pupils to take to their pen pals in Luton.

8. Sourced potential furniture - with ideas of how to pay for it - for the new hall, for next year.

9. Spoke to Banjul Rotary Club, about possible future co-operation.

10. Tracked down possible future training packages for the staff at Sohm Lower Basic School.

Future blogs will add flesh to the bones of the above achievements.

As ever, we welcome your comments and donations - to help us continue to change lives in the small Gambian village of Sohm.

Onward to 2018

We have just booked our tickets for our next visit to the Gambia and Sohm - it will be for four weeks during January/February next year .

During that time we will be able to catch up on projects that we have funded since February this year - and report back to you, the donors and other visitors to this website. We will also be able to kick start other projects that we have previously discussed with the schools, as a result of some generous donations we have received from family and supporters recently.

A big thank you 

Most significant among the donations has been one we have received from Redbridge Rotary Club, for £250. The Club has been good friends of this charity, and we are always delighted to return, each year, to give them an update on life in the schools in Sohm, and to be able to show, quite explicitly, what their donations have funded.

Redbridge Rotary, significant
donors to SSS. Thank you!

Progress this year with the Lower Basic school

As far as the Lower Basic (primary) school is concerned, this year we have been delighted - with our partners from Jersey - to fund the complete renovation of the outside toilet blocks of the school. We will publish photos of the completed project when we receive them, but understand from the school that the work has been satisfactorily completed.

Broken outdoor toilets at Sohm LBS
 - now refurbished - thanks to SSS!

We also funded an internet router for the school.  MaLamin Gibba, the school's deputy head wrote to say:

We are learning to use it and in time, we will come to know much about it and be able to use it in the best interest of the school and the pupils.

  

We provided a much needed new printer scanner for the school. This enables them to print their own materials rather than having to travel the 15 miles to the regional office in Brikama to get it done. MaLamin, again:    

Having it eases all the hitches we were encountering in the previous years. This year we not only prepared and printed examination questions but we are also able to prepare materials we use in our administrative works as well as print schemes of work and lesson plans.

Perhaps our largest, on-going commitment to the school has been to fund a "homework club" for what we thought would be two hours a week, after school, for pupils who struggle to get space or quietness at home to study.  So popular has this become, that it is now running three nights a week, and is always packed!

Homework club, in SSS-funded
 refurbished library

Most of the staff live in the village, and they continued to operate the scheme, on a voluntary basis, over the summer holidays, so that the scheme did not lose momentum.  We are obviously delighted by this!

In conclusion, MaLamin says a big than you to all our supporters: 

"Can you just imagine how much you are doing for the school? The great work you are doing for the school cannot easily be forgotten. They are visible more so, everything you do is put in our records and filed. Therefore, the amount spent on cash power (electricity supply, which we also fund - having wired the school up two years ago) is all receipted and filed. At this juncture we have nothing but to say thank you to you and all those who supporting us through you."

Deputy head MaLamin acting as "patient"
 in recent SSS-funded First Aid training day

Secondary school progress

The school has benefitted from a major classroom extension building this year - financed by our Jersey partners. And, splendid it looks too.

New Jersey-funded teaching
block in Senior Secondary school

Our major contribution to the school - apart from our annual stationery donation and the sponsorship of a number of poorer pupils - has been the funding of "additional classes" available for ALL students, of one hour per week in each of the core subjects of English and Maths, at the end of the school day.

As we have previously mentioned, progress in improving public examination results for the school since our involvement, five years ago, has been quite remarkable.  The school has shot up regional league tables and from being very much at the foot of these tables, it is now in the top two or three of performers.

The subjects where least progress has been made, however, has been in English and Maths - arguably the two most important - certainly when it comes to the jobs market.

Eighteen months ago we set out ambitious plans to address this, but funding (jointly with our Jersey partners) the "remedial" classes as they were originally dubbed. They proved very difficult to get off the ground, initially. Then, when they were up and running, the school - like all others in The Gambia - was hit by the country's political instability last December, and effectively closed for a month.

75% attendance at voluntary, extra-curricular,
 SSS-funded additional classes in English and Maths

So, a second start was made this new year, and we are delighted to report on progress. We are provided with monthly attendance sheets and progress records - as part of our conditions for funding the scheme. These are subject to spot checks and independent verification by our Jersey partner's local agent in The Gambia.

The results have been most pleasing. Although the scheme is entirely voluntary and extra-curricular, average attendance at the classes has exceed over 75% in both subjects in every month, bar one, since its re-introduction.

The subject teachers and the school's principal review overall progress with the scheme each month and re-tweak it and set targets to be reached.  Regular reports go to the schools governors, who are delighted with the scheme's effectiveness.

This scheme has taken a while to come to fruition, but perseverance is showing pleasing signs of success.  The acid test, of course, will be in next year's public examination results.  We are crossing our fingers!