On Sunday 7th August our chair Diane Fisher and her team of volunteers hosted a fundraising open mic-style gig at the famous Water Rats pub in central London. Between entry money and the raffle and auction, we raised nearly £450, bringing us another step closer to generating the £20,000 needed to build a permanent building for Ceesay School.
The evening was opened by the astonishingly talented Kadialy Kouyate from Senegal, who treated us to some original West African music in the form of his kora playing. The kora instrument is a 21-string lute-bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa, and its beautiful sound brought a welcome element of the Gambia and Senegal to London for the evening.
Kouyate was followed by the acoustic pop and good humour of Jenny Stevens and Richard Suchet. The duo powered through covers of well-known chart hits such as Rather Be and Sexy And I Know It, eliciting some excited reaction from the crowd.
Joss Ewert was next on stage, using his incredible voice to play us some original songs, plus his own beautiful take on Bob Marley’s Waiting In Vain.
Indian dancer Pooja followed the interval with a solo performance of some Bollywood fusion – a modern take on traditional Bollywood dance. You can watch video of her performance on our Facebook page.
The show was closed by Seb Tiley and Ben Halton, who left the crowd baying for more after an entertaining three-song set. But we had to get on with the raffle and auction, which included a number of popular prizes such as bottles of booze and tickets for Historic Royal Palaces.
The evening was closed by a speech from Andrew Mendy, a Gambian UK resident who campaigns against female genital mutilation, raising awareness both in the UK and the Gambia. He spoke about the incredibly positive impact help from charities such as Diane’s have on children in the Gambia, giving them different and positive opportunities as they start out on their lives.
All together a fun and valuable evening, which brought us very close to the half way mark of our fundraising goal. If you’d like to donate to our building project for Ceesay Nursery School, please visit our dedicated MyDonate page.
Ceesay Nursery School 