Well we returned very late on Friday, 4th December after a very enjoyable trip. The Tabaski celebrations took place in the middle of our stay in the village of Si-Kunda which we all enjoyed, though it meant we had to try to fit everything we needed to do around it which was a bit of a challenge! But we did achieve most of the things we really needed to do. This time there were four of us, Marje, Anne, Richard and myself. I will be writing more later, but just a few highlights.... Richard worked in the Computer Lab which we installed about 3 years ago in Pakalinding Upper Basic School, rebuilding the server and a few pc's that needed attention, also some work was needed on the pc's previously installed in the local hospital - Soma Medical Centre. The headmaster of the school and the medical staff at the hospital were very pleased and happy when Richard had finished his work there. We went to inspect the doors we have had replaced in the hospital, the old wooden ones were in a bad way, so we have replaced them with stong metal doors, and they are fitted with locks to make the hospital more secure.
We have made some changes at Si-Kunda Village School regarding staff, along with the support of the Akilo and elders of the village. We are also starting a PTA at the school which we hope will increase further interest from the parents by involving them more in the school's future. We have been given some land in the rice fields which will be cultivated by the women in the village to supplement the rice we are providing for the children at lunch time and hopefully help the school fund which has been started by the headmaster and our project manager.
We are going to create a library for the village in the Skills Centre we built last year. It will take up half of one of the large storerooms and be completely isolated from the rest of the building. It is in the centre of the village, and we believe it will be well used. The library in the school can then be just used by the school pupils themselves.
The building is going to start very soon on the land purchased earlier this year near the coast. This will be a compound for Sankung and his family (they have no permanent home at the moment), and included in this will be 3 rooms for students who are going to the coast for further education. Sankung is our project manager, so therefore needs to travel very frequently between the coast and Si-Kunda to enable him to do the work he does for the charity.
One of the students who will be staying there is Lamin Njie. We are so proud of him, he is our first sponsored student to be accepted at the University of Gambia. He will be doing Economics and Management. We have quite a few students now in higher education, so we are very grateful to our sponsors!
We will be posting our next newsletter to our sponsors in January, and will also be updating the website with more news of what has been done in 2009. But if you would like to know more, then please just ask, I am always happy to talk about the charity!
Sue
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