June 2017 - curriculum area investment reaps rewards

Each year we try to improve the equipment in under-resourced areas of the Senior school's curriculum, in Sohm.

As a result of generous donations in previous years, we have, for example, established a fully functioning ICT suite there, added significantly to the science laboratory equipment and provided key text books in all curriculum areas.

This year, we extended the process by purchasing technical drawing equipment for the school, including a number of Tee squares and set boxes, as well as specialist drawing paper - some of which can be seen in the accompanying photograph.

Senior school principal, Mamadou Manneh,
with some of the technical drawing equipment
donated.  We look forward to improved exam
performance in that subject in future years

It is most heartening, therefore, to see the longer term benefits that these investments bring, years after the initial intervention.

Three years ago, our friends at Football Gambia and Kit Aid supplied over 60 sets of football kit to the school.  These are being well used.

Successful girls football team,
kitted out thanks to Football Gambia
and Kit Aid, two great UK charities

We are delighted to report that the girls' senior football team at the school made it through to the quarter finals of the national schools' football championship.  The photo above illustrates them wearing donated kit. 

It is unlikely they would have entered the competition without the donation of the kit, and they certainly would not have looked so ready for action as the photo shows them to be.

Similarly, two years ago, we re-equipped the schools' domestic science kitchen with new cooking utensils - a priority determined by the school. This is important for the pupils as it gives them a grounding that help gain them access to the national catering college - and into important tourist industry jobs.

Ready, Steady Cook - Sohm girls
at regional cooking finals

This year the Senior school got to the final of the regional schools' cooking competition. Unfortunately, they were disqualified from the final, for adding a Maggi cube (similar to Oxo etc) to the stock in their entry for "Preparing a National Dish".

A delicious dish - too much Maggi, however!

It was done in good faith, for as one of the girls said "Well, that's what we do at home!".

Great to see that small seeds sown in curriculum areas can bring such rich rewards two or three years afterwards, once the investment has had a chance to percolate through to the students learning, and wider performance and experience.

Quite apart from the skills enhancement these initiatives have brought, they have encouraged (in this case, all girls) to broaden their horizons and to participate in events beyond the confines of the village.  These social experiences are, in themselves, important for students living in relatively remote communities.

So, once again, many thanks to our donors and supporters for enabling us to facilitate these small, but important steps to improve the education and experience of the young people of Sohm

End of term report - July 2014 newsletter

 
As the school year comes to an end, in The Gambia and back home, it seems a good time to review progress of our support to the schools Sohm, over recent months.

It has been a very productive year, as far as the charity is concerned.  Sandra and John spent a month in The Gambia, in January and set in trail a number of initiatives that have now come to fruition.

Buildings refurbishment

Our latest, and most ambitious, project was to restore two derelict classrooms at the Lower Basic school, and bring them back into use - thus relieving over-crowding in a school, where 60 pupils in a class is the norm.



Derelict classroom, now refurbished
and restored to full use!

Because Sohm is so remote, the school and Education department provides residential accommodation for Lower Basic teachers in the village.  This is now over 30 years old, and has not been properly maintained.  So, we have been able to refurbish all of this accommodation: providing new roofs, doors, and windows, repairing broken walls and plumbing systems, over the last four months.  As a result, teachers now have decent housing, by local standards, which improves their well-being and comfort, from which the students will indirectly benefit.




Teachers' accommodation,
prior to repair



... and after!

 Examinations support

We now provide support to the Lower Basic school, each year, as they approach their external examinations. So, we pay for duplication of past papers, to help with preparation, and other teacher support, for this year's.  Last year this resulted in a significant improvement in the final examination results the pupils sat.  We are hopeful that our support this year will have a similar impact.

School trip

We have just funded the annual school trip for 180 years 6 and 7 students at the Lower Basic school.  This has meant a visit to the country's capital, its only airport and the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, for many of these 10 and 11 year olds.  This is truly a mind broadening and enjoyable event for these youngsters, as they leave their primary school.  The letters we received from last year's attendees were detailed and fascinating (and available for all the charity's supporters to see).  They confirmed our view of the value of this trip for the youngsters.



Essays and letters of thanks,
following last year's school trip

Sports support

Working with our good friends at Football Gambia and Kit Aid, we have been able to give considerable quatities of sports kit and equipment to the pupils of both senior and junior schools in the village this year.  We have provided the junior school with sports equipment, which will help with their physical development and education.  Football Gambia enabled us to supply over 60 full football strips to the senior school - and they were given a pride of place demonstration at the school's recent sports day.



Over 60 football strips donated,
thanks to our good friends at
Football Gambia and Kit Aid

Continued sponsorship

As a result of the support we are given by a dozen or so supporters, we continue to directly sponsor students at both the Lower Basic and Senior Secondary schools.  We equalise the payments over the expected school life of each pupil; so we can provide sponsorship for a standard flat rate of £60 per year (£5 per month, preferably by standing order).  This, with the Gift Aid we can claim, provides the fees (school and examination) to enable youngsters to attend school, throughout their school lives. Sponsors are sent a letter of thanks, school report and recent photo of the pupil, each year.



Amie Jarju - one of the dozen pupils
whose education we fund, for a donation
of just £5 per month from the sponsor

Stationery

In January we supplied every pupil in both the Senior and Lower Basic schools with a selection of appropriate stationery equipment - relevant to their specific age and needs.  So, there were a couple of exercise books per pupil, a range of graph and drawing paper books, pens, crayons and pencils for each school. These were greatly appreciated by all - as the photos illustrates!



Thanks for the excercise books!!

Computer and ICT studies support

As a result of generous donations of surplus laptop computers in previous years, we have been able to supply the Senior school with equipment to assist with ICT studies, where there is no mains electricity.  Almost inevitably, however, many of the donated laptops had batteries with short power storage capacities.  This year we have been able to source a number of cheap battery replacements for them.  This has increased battery lives of the laptops, from about 20 minutes to over two hours, on average.  It has greatly assisted with ICT teaching. 



ICT resources and capacity greatly improved

Additionally, a good friend recently gave us 120 memory sticks, so that most of the ICT students can now have their own work on their own device, for use on any PC where they do their work.  A great, and much appreciated advantage for the Sohm youngsters.

Books and bikes

Last year we established a book fund, so that every senior student in the Upper school had shared access to a relevant textbook for all subjects.  We were able to top this up,this year, and the government is now offering a similar arrangements for the youngest age group pupils!  A real victory in the pursuit of raising educational improvement.



Book fund - supplemented!

Transport improvements

As many as 50 students walk at least 3 miles to and from the Senior school each day.  It has been given bikes, in the past, from Jole Riders, to help with pupils' travel arrangements who live furthest from the school.  Many of the bikes, however, have fallen into disrepair.  Last year we were able to fund an overhaul of many of them. This year we supplemented this with the provision of a number of cheap puncture repair kits, pumps and replacement saddles, to encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own bikes.



Bike repair kits, to help students take
responsibility for their own vehicles

Big thanks

Our good friends at Derwentwater Primary school in Acton have continued to assist us in raising funds for the charity - and thus for the students in Sohm.  We have recently raised £100 from a raffle at the school's summer fair, which when added to the money raised at the Christmas fair, and associated Gift Aid, means that we will be able to take over £300 form our Acton friends to Sohm next January.  This will, for example, pay for the much needed and appreciated schools trips, or the annual stationery donation to the Lower Basic school.



Sohm Lower Basic school,
friends with Derwentwater Primary
school, Acton

Our friends north of the border

Thanks to a generous donation by our friends at Auchmuty High school in Glenrothes, in Fife, we were able to considerably equip a science laboratory in the Sohm Senior school this year, where previously there was none.



Science equipment, generously
donated by Auchmuty High school, Fife

How to help

We aim to raise about £5,000 per year.  Our friends and relatives who sponsor students contribute about £1,000 of that, and Derwentwater Primary school has provided as similar sum, over recent years.  We have, additionally, been able to raise another £1,000 via a presence at jumble and car boot sales and the odd sale of unwanted gifts via e.bay etc.  Very generous one-off contributions from good friends has usually ensured that similar sums are given to the charity each year.  Now - that missing £1,000? Well, odd cash earnings from bits of paid for work contribute to that.  But .. we are always open to all offers of cash, or goods that can be sent to Sohm, or sold to raise funds for the schools there.

So, anything you can offer, to continue what we believe is a good value-for-money project in this remote African village, for the educational benefit of literally hundreds of deprived young people would be much appreciated.

John and Sandra Walker

Who's Who - Partners

We work with a range of partner bodies and organisations in Africa and Europe, in helping to improve education matters in Sohm.

First and foremost is the Jersey Gambia Schools Trust, whose principals, Robin and Carol Mallet, were the inspiration in establishing the Senior Secondary School, a decade ago.

Partners, Football Gambia

We are also working with Football Gambia and Kit Aid to deliver an exciting football training projects in the village.

For the future, we hope to be working with Jole Rider to help acquire additional bikes, as school transport for the expanding school.

• Sohm
• UK
• Partners
• Contact us

August 2012 Newsletter - Number 1

The charity has been established for less than a year, but has achieved a great deal in a short time.  We hope you have a chance to look at this newsletter  and to see what use we have put to the support  we have been given by dozens, or possibly hundreds of people backing us.

Establishment

We obtained formal recognition from HMRC for the charity last November - which means we can get Gift Ad (an additional 25%, from the exchequer) for every £1 that people give the charity.

Since that time, we have established a presence on
Facebook (UkSohmSchoolsSupportTeamTheGambia),

Twitter (@GambiaSchools) and a

website (www.sohmschoolssupport.org.uk)

Links

We have extremely close relationships with the heads of the two schools in Sohm (the Lower Basic (primary) and Senior Secondary Schools) and their respective PTAs.  We have good relationships with the country's regional director of education and a number of Gambian based NGOs.

We already had close ties with the Jersey Gambia Schools Trust, who inspired us to get involved in Sohm.  Since that time we have established links with two UK charities, Football Gambia and Kit Aid, who have helped and will offer great support to the schools in Sohm, in the future (see below).

We are extremely fortunate to have encouraged a twinning/friendship relationship between the Lower Basic School in Sohm and the Derwentwater Primary School, in Acton (see below).

Garden Party and Fundraising

We held a very successful fund-raising party, in early July; where, despite the alternative attraction of Mr Murray on the Centre Court and the pretty grim weather, we raised almost £3,000.  With the assistance of Mr Osborne and one more push, we are confident we can make that £4k, gross.  Fantastic, and it really did feel like a fun - raising party!

In addition, we have a dozen people sponsoring individual students' education in Sohm (fees, books, uniforms etc) and have regular monthly direct payments to the charity of more than £100 per month.
So, we are pretty happy - but not complacent!  All offers of support, suggestions for income generation, for the future, most welcome!

Twinning

The twinning arrangement between Derwentwater Primary School and the Sohm Lower Basic school has resulted in a flurry of exciting initiatives.  These include: us presenting to a number of year assemblies in Acton, and the school  raising several hundred of pounds through a school fair,  a "dress down" day, raffle ticket sales etc.

The Derwentwater pupils held a very  successful International Week at the end of the summer term, which resulted in some very creative work by the Acton pupils, including a song contest, production of scrap books and diaries, dancework and poster creation (see below).

Children in both Acton and Sohm are enthusiastic about this link and will be exchanging course work, exhibitions, scrapbooks and letters, over the coming months.  We will actively promote this excellent initiative, that benefits so many youngsters.

We are now on the look-out for a secondary school link.  All offers or suggestions most welcome!
These links will be among the most exciting outcomes of our charity, benefiting pupils in both countries and extending the hand of international friendship and understanding.

Progress

Even with the Olympics as a massive preoccupation, we haven't been complacent over the last month!  Our friends at Football Gambia will be sending a container to The Gambia in September and have given us some space in it.  So, we've been busy putting some of the funds raised to good use. People have generously donated laptops that they have upgraded and we have bought 10 litres of blackboard paint, brushes - so vital for an education system that is so dependent on "talk and chalk", where blackboards quickly get worn out and become almost impossible to see and use.

In addition, we've raided every Poundshop for miles, for stationery supplies.  So, yesterday we dropped off seven well-packed cases to the container depot, ready for despatch to The Gambia.  In addition to the laptops and paint this included:

• 1,000 ball point pens, 1,000 pencils, 1,000 crayons (enough to give every pupil in both schools two of each), 500 document wallets/folders
• Fully equipped pencil cases (geometry sets, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers , pencil sharpeners, bundles of colour pencils/crayons etc.) for each of the 12 students sponsored by the charity
• 30 textbooks for the primary school, which can be photocopied locally, for all pupils to gain access, 33 educational wall posters, 40 sets of geometry sets for use by whole classes
• A dozen tennis balls, rackets and Frisbees

Much needed help, packed,
and ready to go to The Gambia!

All of this, for less than a quarter of the funds we have raised to date!

We will work with the schools to ensure that all of the above is well cared-for, and is put to good and proper use. And, rest assured, every penny of the money spent - under our supervision - in The Gambia will be used to directly benefit the education and life chances of the young people of Sohm.

The Future

Sandra and I will be going to The Gambia for six weeks in January (well, somebody has to do it!), totally at our own cost, I should add.  And it will be a busy time.

Our good friends at Football Gambia will be in the country at the time and will be visiting Sohm for a day's activity.  The party of 40 will be leading some education and leadership games, offer 2 hours football skills training and run a match, between themselves and the village.  They, together with our friends at Kit Aid, will be donating new/nearly new football kits to all those involved.

The school are already preparing a pitch, our charity will pay for woodwork and metalwork teachers to build posts etc.  It really will be like a mini-Olympics coming to the village: international friendship, skills transference, a generation inspired, legacy for the future etc. And a good time, and feel good factor will be shared by everyone involved!

A couple of weeks later, Sandra's primary teacher-daughter, Natalie and a work colleague will go to the Gambia for their half term break and spend time working with teachers and pupils alike, in both the lower basic and senior secondary schools, upgrading skills, and hopefully inspiring teachers and pupils alike.

That's enough from us, for now.  Until the next time,

John and Sandra Walker
(Trustees, Sohm Schools Support)