Local Ownership - all together

Everything we do with the schools in Sohm is done with the up-front, explicit, support of the school principals, the Parent Teachers' Associations and the Regional Director of Education.

We have an improvement and involvement plan, agreed with the Senior Secondary School Principal. This is a twelve point plan of specific, costed and timetabled projects that we will work towards funding. Everything in this is based on an analysis of what the school and Regional Director - through an Ofsted-type inspection report - have identified as being required for the school.  Copies of this are available from us, on request.

Parent Teachers' Association enthusiastically endorsing charity's involvement with their school

• The Jersey Start - early beginnings
• Our Involvement - progress, to date
• All Above Board - our legal status
• Local Ownership - all together

All Above Board - our legal status

UK Sohm Secondary School (The Gambia) Support Trust is a small charity registered with HM Revenue and Customs for UK Gift  Aid (ref: XT31271). This means that for the vast majority of donations made to us, we are able to claim 25% more income from the British government, if the donor signs a simple consent form.

We bank with Santander, who assist us in administering the charity, for the benefit of the children in Sohm - at no administrative cost.

Our constitution and accounts are freely available to all who seek them, from us, at the contact addresses on this site.

There are currently three trustees: Rose Phillips (chair), Sandra Walker (secretary) and John Walker (treasurer).

ALL money donated to the trust is spent directly on identified projects, for the benefit of students in Sohm.  We undertake to provide photographic evidence of the use made of all donations sent, if required. We will be happy to share these photos with donors.

• The Jersey Start - early beginnings
• Our Involvement - progress, to date
• All Above Board - our legal status
• Local Ownership - all together

The Jersey Start - early beginnings

In 1996, following a holiday visit to The Gambia, Robin and Carol Mallet decided to establish a technical training school for older students, to learn wood work and metal work, and so help them into employment within the local economy.

They decided upon Sohm village, as a place that needed secondary education and where the village elders were prepared to give land and support for their efforts.  They set about fund raising in Jersey and within a couple of years had raised enough money to build teaching workshops for the students.

The one-time skills centre now a fully functioning secondary school

The Gambian government were keen to see this resource develop and wanted a wider ranging curriculum, aimed at a broader range of students. A secondary school, in fact!

Since 2006, the government has paid teachers' wages and the Jersey charity does all it can to raise money for more classrooms, to accommodate the rising school roll. The relationship works well, to the benefit of the village and its youngsters.

• The Jersey Start - early beginnings
• Our Involvement - progress, to date
• All Above Board - our legal status
• Local Ownership - all together

Sohm - where we're at

Sohm is an agricultural village, with a population around 3,000,  in the south of The Gambia, about 2 miles from the Senegal border.

It is about a mile and a half from a major road, and almost 15 miles from Brikama, the second largest town in the country.  The village is an hour and a half's journey, by reasonable roads, from the Greater Banjul area - the country's capital.

Domestic scene in Sohm village

Map reproduced courtesy of geospatial Data Solutions

• Introduction - about us
• Supported Projects - recent achievemetns
• Sohm - where we're at

Introduction

Sohm School Support is the short title for the UK Sohm Secondary School (The Gambia) Support Trust, established in November 2011. It was set up by Sandra and John Walker, following a visit to The Gambia earlier that year.

We were impressed with the work undertaken by a Jersey couple, Robin and Carol Mallet, in establishing a secondary technical school in the village of Sohm, close to the Gambia's borders with Senegal. Robin and Carol, for over a decade, raised money to build the school in Sohm, where there had been none.

School buildings built by our Jersey colleagues, now they need equipping - our job!

Recently, as it has become a more general secondary school, Robin and Carol continue to find money for developing the school's buildings and The Gambian education department pays the salaries and running costs of the school.

Our charity has been established, in the UK, for the sole purpose of improving the quality of education in the school, and its local feeder school - Sohm Lower Basic School.

• Introduction - about us
• Supported Projects - recent achievements
• Sohm - where we're at