The uncertain handover of power in the Gambia meant our chair Diane Fisher stayed another week in the country, enabling her to oversee the start of work on the permanent school building for Ceesay Nursery School.
Due to my original flight being rescheduled for a week later, I was able to personally oversee the start of the school building project. I wanted to make the most of my time and paid a visit to someone that Mr Secka, our lawyer, had strongly encouraged me to meet. His name was Mr Saidykhan, a Gambian who had lived for a number of years in Germany before returning with a commitment to raising educational standards in his home country and providing better opportunities for young Gambians. He now teaches adults in the well-respected Gambian Technical Training Institute, and has also built and is running a successful nursery school with his own money.
Mr Ceesay, Gabriel and I arranged to meet Mr Saidykhan at his three-classroom nursery, named the Humanity School of Learning. It was built over time, and cost about the same amount as we have budgeted for Ceesay Nursery School (a maximum of D 600,000 or £10,500 to complete the build). He gave us a lot of useful, practical advice and also got his Head of Construction, Mr Joof, from GTTI, to advise us on how many bags of cement, loads of sand, etc., we would need to purchase for the first phase of the building project – building the boundary fence. This was invaluable – if we bought either too little or too much material, it would increase the overall cost.
The rest of the week was also busy. We met again our the lawyer Mr Secka, who agreed to stay involved for the rest of the project, advising Mr Ceesay and helping out with permits, certificates, formal applications to the Ministry, and other legalities, once the school is completed. He also took responsibility for quality control and visiting the school at the end of each building phase to ensure things were being done properly, before I release funds for the next phase. I paid him a one-off retainer fee to do this work.
We also visited the rest of the sponsored children who had returned to Serrekunda. The schools had reopened and so I was able to see the children in class and talk to their teachers. I can now report in full to sponsors about the childrens’ classroom performance and commitment.
We paid another visit to Ceesay School in its current venue. By this week about two thirds of the class were attending. Adama, the classroom teacher, was doing well, teaching confidently and with authority. She had kept up the hand-washing practice before lunch and everything was in order.
My only concern was that the cook was not using Moringa powder in the food to provide daily micro-nutrients to the children, as I had instructed. She said she “forgot” it that morning, but I will keep encouraging the school to do this, especially when the new school opens with a much larger intake of poor children.
I spent some time with Gabriel setting up his laptop and internet access. This investment is necessary to enable Gabriel to send us weekly accounts and construction reports. In Gambia the electricity supply is unreliable and functioning internet cafes are few and far between. Without a laptop and prepaid internet connection, sending even an email can take days to organise.
Finally, Mr Ceesay, Gabriel and I went to the builder’s merchant and purchased the building materials for the first phase. The morning before I flew out, it was an exciting moment to visit the site and see 300 bags of cement neatly stowed away witness the dumper truck unloading all our sand!
The building of the new Ceesay Nursery School has officially begun!
Ceesay Nursery School 