Many of you may be wondering what has happened with our work at Basori.  After many discussions with the School Committee there we feel that we have now reached a point where the school is ready to support itself.  We are very proud of what we have achieved in the three years we have been working there and now feel it is time to move to new projects that will benefit from the support we offer.  It was a very hard decision to make but they are well set up now, the school has toilets and is fenced and gated.  They have plenty of school materials as well as play materials.  We are worried that by continuing our support the school and community will become dependent on us and that is not good for their long term future.  Three of the teachers are staying there and at the request of the school committee two of the other teachers are going to be relocated.  I was very disappointed about this but have already placed Mr Camara at a school in Brikama that we are supporting and Mr Njie, the Headteacher will have a choice of several schools.  They are both attending the Gambia College for the their qualifications in Early Childhood Development, Mr Njie is about to start his second year and Mr Camara will begin the course this summer.  Both of them will continue to be paid by the charity and their studies will also be funded by us.  The other teachers at Basori will now be paid by the community and the sponsorship for those teachers will now pass to new teachers in our recent projects with the consent of their sponsors.
For those of you wondering, what about Baba?  Don't worry we will continue to support him in the best way we can and will be talking to his mother in the near future to ensure that he continues his education and remains part of the charity.  He has been a real star for us, he has many friends and fans and we will not be abandoning him.  I know many of you would like to sponsor Baba and if you want to send me a message if you want to do this please do.
Although I feel quite sad about this I am also very excited about our new projects.  Basori have had a huge amount of support over the time we have been there and it is good to have new challenges and help even more children and schools.  If anyone has any questions or concerns about this please send me a message and I will do my best to answer you.

Santosu Nursery is a registered ECD (Early Childhood Development) school and in my opinion very well run. It has 4 classrooms with 4 teachers and a headteacher. It is a community nursery and was built in 1996 by the local community with some help towards the final stages from a British Company. There are 186 students there aged between 3 & 7. They have water on site and toilets, it is also partly fenced. All the work done on site is by the local community and on my visit there it was very clear to see that the parents are very keen to support the school. However it is in a very poor area of Brikama and although the fees are only 100 dalasis a month many cannot afford to pay. The teachers salaries, water bill and resources are all funded through the fees. If you do the sums you will see this is just not enough to manage the school. On my visit I asked to see the store room and was shocked to see a tiny box with a few felt pens, an old football with the plastic bag that should have been inside, out of the ball and punctured and that was more or less it!! They have no pencils or exercise books and have to rely on parents to provide these items, not all can afford it. In nursery 4, the last level, they are using really old slates for writing on but do not have much chalk.

Kitty is a village just outside of Brikama and I have visited the school earlier this year and found they are really in need of a lot of help. They have 3 classroom blocks with a total of 8 classrooms. 2 of the blocks were built about 25 years ago and are in a very poor state of repair. The 3rd block was built by the teachers themselves with mud blocks but plastered with cement. They have hardly any school materials or resources, in fact on my first visit I took 500 pencils and 500 pens as they were about to sit exams and did not have enough to go round. They have hardly any classroom furniture and what they do have is in very poor condition, only two of the classrooms have desks and students sitting 3 to 4 to a desk intended for 2 people. The children range from nursery to grade 8. The children in grade three have exams coming up and no desks to work at. The children in the other classrooms are all learning to write but have to use their laps as desks.

It has been all go here in The Gambia! We have now finished the wall at Basori Nursery, the last of the gates were fitted today. The plastering at the Arabic School is completed, just needs to be painted when we have money and we are finished there. Have looked at a new Arabic School in Kitty, just outside of Brikama. They definitely need some help, took them 500 pencils and 500 pens as they did not have enough for their students to sit their exams. The school is in desperate need of a new classroom block as well as new furniture amongst many things.

We have had a very busy couple of months here with visitors to the schools and sponsored children. We have had some fantastic school donations, a Christmas party with gifts for all from the donated goods, unexpected fund raising and lots of work completed at Basori nursery. We have completed the wall now as far as the brick laying goes, some friends of the charity came last week and painted the entrance wall and did some lovely sign writing. With the new donation we have just received we will be able to complete the wall with gates and doors. You can see pictures on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Goal-For-The-Gambia/181077235260338