Ceesay Nursery School AGM Minutes

Sunday 30 April, 2017

Present: Diane Fisher, Charles Stobo, Dawn Dobson, Will Marlow, Andrew Mendy on Skype

Apologies: Mala Jallow, Saori Imoto, James Scurry

Last AGM was 22 May 2016

Actions:

School food programme not sustainable, £1241 per year out of other fundraising, ask parents to pay for food.

Speak to others for similar solution – Diane spoke to Oyster Trust, breakfast provided, not lunches

Andrew: assess how many have breakfast before? Porridge? Maybe have the breakfast later in the morning

Become an official charity. No point as we want to stop at December on completion of school building. But will be one year of income exceeding charitable status, which is current status. Action: Diane and Saori to look into avoiding becoming official charity.

None of steering committee want to commit more time beyond school build.

Last year’s minutes accepted.

Steering group roles

Will and Saori for joint Secretary (nom. Diane, 2nd Dawn)

Diane for Chair (nom. Dawn, 2nd Will) (accepted with proviso she steps down in December)

Dawn for Treasurer (nom. Charles, 2nd Andrew)

Dawn happy to continue, processes easier now than have been in the past

Annual Report (AR)

Steering group tried to have AGM in October but unable to find a suitable time for everyone to meet.

As such the AR runs from April 2015 to March 2016 plus 6 months

Diane reads from AR – see Ceesay Nursery and Primary School Annual Report 2015-16 for full text

AR says teachers own the school – Dawn corrects this, it’s actually Mr Ceesay.

Diane talks about the problems she’s had with the school’s builders – they overcharged her for the fence.

Dawn suggests that the onus is on Mr Ceesay to prove to you that the money is being spent properly.

Andrew suggests that if Mr Ceesay is being corrupt, there is no way of assessing whether his proof is accurate

Diane is sending small amounts of money. Andrew suggests she put mechanisms in place to make sure only the smallest amounts get ‘lost’. As the school is built, the relationship with Mr Ceesay will need managing. Andrew unable to involve himself more, he can only advise.

Diane says she is waiting to hear from the lawyer Mr Secca to hear how the work is progressing and how the money is being spent. Photos from Mala’s brother show the work is good, but it’s stopped. The work needs to be completed by the beginning of the rainy season in June.

Gabriel Mendy, who has been employed by the charity to work for the school, has found himself the middle man between Diane and Mr Ceesay and the builders and is finding the situation stressful.

Accounts April 2015-March 2016

Dawn: snapshot of year to previous two years (see Ceesay Accounts 2015-16 for full figures)

Raised more than the previous year

New addition to income – sponsored races

No fundraising from dinner

Similar amount of general donations

Gift Aid – used to be lump sum, now collected at source. We may have missed some. Action: Diane to claim those we’ve missed.

Sponsorship for Adama Ceesay’s teacher training fees came from Charlton Manor School again.

Daz Sim’s first fundraising gig raised £1550

Some money for the school came from Diane’s church

Spending was up 20% on the previous year. Salaries have increased in hiring a school cook.

For Adama’s training there was a slight difference in sponsorship money, but it wasn’t a cost due to the fluctuating exchange rate.

The costs of fundraising events were low

The charity has to pay bank transfer fees. Andrew suggests a new transfer service, lower cost. Action: Diane to change the transfer service to one of Andrew’s suggestion.

Web domain costs £11 per year.

The food programme is costing too much.

Current accounts, and building accounts so far

Paying Gabriel’s salary. School food and building rent has been paid already this year.

We should be able to build school within the current funds we have available, according to advice given by Diane’s contact Lady Keira Dalton.

We discuss whether we’re paying for building work and materials, or if the materials are to be charged separately. Action: we need to establish this before more work starts. Diane said total cost at beginning of process, and she meant including materials, but this needs to be clarified with builders / Mr Ceesay.

Andrew and Dawn suggest that other builders are asked for quotes. This is difficult because Mr Ceesay is keen on the current builders and rejected the help of Lady Keira Dalton and her team. Action: Diane to call Paul (?) for suggestions. Dawn suggests Mala’s brother might know some builders.

The number of builders depends on when it needs to be done by. Diane to agree timescale with the builders, and a contract to pay on certain dates reliant on the work being completed.

It’s also suggested Mala’s brother Momodou Jallow do more work on the school build. He can work with Gabriel and get estimates for the builders – be Diane’s mouthpiece. Get project manager suggestions from Judith (?).

Other actions:

Action: Will to put newsletter together.

ENDS

Ceesay Nursery School Construction Project: Week 4 Report

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!