Another year gone and the work has continued. I must say thank you to several people: Lamin Saidy who, as ever, has given his time and effort unstintingly and unselfishly to keep the Gambian side operating smoothly and monitoring our interests extremely well; Phil and Joan Feller for their tireless efforts in all the charity’s activities; Frank Whitfield for keeping our bank balance healthy and sorting out the money; Carol Haynes for providing us with and maintaining our superb website; and last but not least Pip Land for her help and support.

All those involved with the charity make it effective in fulfilling our aims and objectives which are primarily supporting the blind children and young people in the Gambia. So on their behalf I add my thanks to you all.

A special thank you to Ali Sallah and his colleagues for all their work and devotion to the children which makes the Resource Centre such a special place; and to the GOVI Board for its continued support. I also want to thank the Rotary Club of Wensleydale for their support of the overland trip in January 2010 (see http://www.fgvi.co.uk/news/88-memories-a-gallery) and the Great Yarmouth Police cycle team led by Inspector Nick Cheshire who in June 2010 completed a 100 mile cycle ride. They exceeded their target of £1,000 for the breakfast programme by £150.

At the Annual General Meeting of the Friends in August, 2010, it was decided to change the name of the charity to the Friends of Visually Impaired Children in the Gambia and slightly alter its aims as the trustees agreed it was time to reach out to more blind, visually impaired children and young people in the Gambia. The Friends will continue to support the Resource Centre run by the Gambian Organisation of the Visually Impaired (GOVI) as it has done since 1998. This, the only school for the blind in the Gambia, has about 32 students. But it is estimated that there are 3,200 blind and partially sighted children in the Gambia.

The Gambian Government is seeking, through its Integrated Education Programme (IEP) to train teachers who can help such children and young people who attend mainstream schools. The Friends want to co-operate with the Government and other agencies, including GOVI, by supporting the education of visually impaired children and young people in the Gambia through raising funds to provide materials, equipment, training and facilities. This year the GOVI Resource centre has become a government assisted/aided school and the Ministry of Education has asked the IEP to pay for the electricity supply. The Friends have started discussions with the IEP about supporting teacher training both specialist and mainstream.

For the Resource Centre, besides having the exterior of the school re-painted; the refurbishment of the kitchen; and other repair work (see http://www.fgvi.co.uk/news/99-school-repainted) the Friends:

Continue to meet the cost of the breakfast programme and supplement school lunches.

Have supplied some general office supplies and for the pupils and graduates now integrated into mainstream schools small cassette players, batteries, blank cassette tapes, first aid items and daily living skills equipment.

Continue to supply two uniforms with badges and a pair of shoes for each pupil annually.

Continue to maintain the photocopier (which the Friends own) at the school and provides the cartridges.

Continue to deliver Perkins Braille machines, and Braille paper is sent each month. This has enabled a second young man to attend university to study law, the first having successfully graduated.

We also receive Braille books, large print books, toys, talking books etc which Joan repacks into boxes weighing less than 7kg so they can be sent through the blind post system free of charge. We are very grateful to those who supply these and all other people who donate equipment to the school.Trustees continue to visit regularly to support, liaise with GOVI and the Government.

On behalf of all the children and young people we support and myself, many, many thanks to all those who help this charity, in whatever way, to perform its works in the Gambia.

David G Pointon

Chairman, FGVI