Brilliant news!

The last 18-month COVID period has been difficult for us all, but SSS has been beavering away, quietly, trying to get resources to improve conditions in the Gambian schools we work with.

Funding for two of the largest projects we have ever worked on has finally been agreed over the last two weeks, and we are absolutely delighted.

It is a fitting way to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our existence, coming up in January 2022.

Two huge projects

As we have reported on this blog before, we have spent the last two years putting together the finances for completely renovating one of The Gambia's largest Lower Basic (primary) schools - with over 2,000 pupils, in Sukuta.

Piecing together the funding for this has been tricky, but we now have in place the last part of the jigsaw that will allow us to proceed. The project will cost in excess of £30k, and is largely being funded by the Rotary Foundation.

 

We have also been working with our Jersey colleagues in the Jersey Gambia Schools Trust (JGST), and the Jersey Overseas Aid department to put together a £12k project that will completely renovate the only building in Sohm Lower Basic school that we have not already improved over the last decade.

Funding for this has finally been agreed by all parties and construction contracts were signed in early October, with the target of begining work by the end of December.

Sukuta funding

SSS's loyal band of regular supporters will be contributing over £12,000 to this (from money accumulated over the last 2/3 years) and Rotary the rest.

Rotary funding is coming from Redbridge Rotary club (John's own club), which is contributing £5k, with contributions from neighbouring clubs in London (Barkingside and Gants Hill), as well as from international sister clubs in Holland and Slovenia. In addition, the London District of Rotary is contributing $10k and the Rotary Foundation (based in Chicago) a further $8k.

It has been time-consuming and tricky putting the project together, but just yesterday we got the final grant go-ahead and funding agreed.

The project will mean that from early in the new year, our sister Rotary club, Brusubi, in The Gambia, will be able to oversee the construction of:

Double the water tank capacity in the school

Increase the number of water standpipes from one to 11, for the 2,000+ children

 

Completely renovate the unsafe and unhealthy toilets

 Build the school's first sick room

 Bring back into operation the termite-ridden library

From the above to the below

Increase the size of the school's only computer room, so that all pupils will be able to receive weekly computer lessons. 

Reduce overcrowding here, by extending, below

Provide a safe, clean and hygenic food serving area for school meals.

Replace this with a hygenic preparation and serving area

The lives of 2,000 Gambian primary school children will be transformed by these changes.

Last piece in Sohm restoration

Over the years, we have: brought electricty to the Sohm Lower Basic school, improved the teachers' accommodation, brought back to operation an infested library, renovated the school's sick room, improved the toilets, refurbished one of only two teaching blocks and built a new multi-purpose hall.

There is only one building within the school complex that we have not yet upgraded. Eighteen months ago, storm damage ripped off the roof of part of that teaching block. 

Last year's storm damage

Next year's refurbished block!

Together with our Jersey friends, we put together a plan to completely renovate the block, and have been able to identify funding from JGST, Jersey Overseas Aid and ourselves to pay for it. 

Our contribution has been effectively funded by donations and fund-raising events organised by Sohm's twin school Beech Hill Community Primary school, in Luton. We are hugely appreciative of their efforts, without which this six-classroom block renovation could not take place.

We hope construction can begin before the end of the calendar year.

All in all - these have been two great weeks for SSS and for Gambian school children. 

We are delighted, but now, absolutely skint! 

If you would like to help us fund further projects to advance the education of Gambian youngsters, please consider supporting us.

Sohm schools and COVID

It's September and the schools are returning in England, rather gingerly.  So, what, we are often asked, is happening in Sohm?

Like the UK, The Gambia went into lockdown in March, and all schools were closed - but they have yet to open again.

The pandemic seems to have hit the country less badly than most others. Until about a month ago there had only been two recorded deaths, nation-wide and the infection rate seemed to be low.

The government publishes a simple daily summary of the situation with regard to COVID, like today's - below. It is easy to see what is happening, at-a-glance, and we have heard no suggestion from anybody that the government is lying, or making claims and promises it can't keep.

 

 

The Gambian government's simple daily message on COVID - not "World Beating", not "Moonshoting", but simple, honest and clear

A little over a month ago, there was a sudden surge of deaths and the total number shot up rather rapidly, from two to the seventies.  The government responded by extending the lockdown and introducing a dusk til dawn curfew. The death rate began to drop quite dramatically and there have only been two deaths in the last week.

Which is great news!  Because the medical infrastructure in the country is fragile  and it could not cope with a large infection rate.

To put the total Gambian death figure into context, we live in a London borough with one sixth the population of the whole of The Gambia, but we have experienced over three times the total number of deaths - suggesting that things in London have been 18 times worse than The Gambian's situation.

Which brings us back to The Gambian schools. They should be on the point of re-opening, but they will not be doing so.  The government is working on a number of options - one is to open schools six days a week, for extended days, with all pupils attending on alternate days.  There are a number of problems, of course - not the least the impact this would have on the teachers. 

Gambian TV and radio have been used as teaching substitutes over the last six months, but few families - particularly in Sohm have TVs. And, obviously it would be counter-productive if people without TVs crammed into the houses of people with them. The education situation is far from ideal.

When we visited the country, pre-lock-down, in January we took a gift from the wonderfully supportive Redbridge Rotary Club. A fellow Rotarian, from Australia, had developed/invented a simple device called a Spa-Tap, as an aid to personal hygiene. Redbridge Rotary purchased a number of these and we took 30 to The Gambia with us.

 

A Spa Tap device

it's a simple tough plastic valve that can be attached to a 2-litre water bottle, filled with tap water. Easily-applied pressure opens and closes the valve to allow water to flow, which can be used for hand washing and even showers. 

We took them to two schools, so that the bottles could be filled from stand-pumps  and students, on a "monitor" basis, could take them to the toilets - where there is no running water, to enable users to wash their hands after visting the facility.

 

Collecting empty bottles for Spa taps

Little did we know that hand-washing would attract so much attention and exhaltation just a month later, when COVID first entered our conciousness.

 

The regional director of education, headmaster and his deputy and a local Iman giving their backing to the Spa Tap

We hope the Redbrige-Rotary funded 30 taps have done their bit to keep COVID at bay in Sohm! 

 

And the kids get a look in too - including two rather large ones from the UK! 

And finally - the good news!

 

One piece of very good news on the health front concerns Robin Mallet, founder, with his wife Carol, of our Jersey-based partners in The Gambia - The Jersey Gambia Schools Trust. Last November he was diagnosed with tounge and throat cancer. Now - after nine months of surgery and intensive treatment - he has been declared cancer-free. He can't wait to get his sleeves rolled up and to be back in action on bealf of the children of Sohm.  Well done, Robin!