April soon arrived and it was time to visit the school, once again loaded down with equipment, one Braille machine (always needed) and two computers with screens, keyboards and mouse. These had been donated by the Chief Constable of the Norfolk Constabulary.

The type and talk programme for the visually impaired called Thunder had also been installed thanks to a wonderful philanthropic gesture on the World Wide Web. The large manual of instruction was kindly translated into Braille by The Joseph Clarke, School for the Visually Impaired, London. Once again thanks to the generosity of Thomas Cook waiving the extra luggage fees on over 70 kg a considerable cost was saved in transporting the equipment to The Gambia.

Teacher Jabou Suso and head teacher Sarjo Barjinka with the new Perkins brailler machine.

When we arrived at the school we found that that Lamin Saidy, our Gambian Friends of GOVI member, had organised and overseen several tasks requested in December: the painting in washable paint of the veranda; all class room walls up to half way; and the painting of the opening dedication plaque. This made the whole school look very smart. The toilets had also been renovated. The head teacher Sarjo Bajinka was very proud of the new talking books storage facility which had been built in the adult education room.

All the staff were eagerly awaiting the computers but on our first day there was no electricity. This was due to a faulty circuit breaker, so we went off too buy a new one but once fitted there was still find no power. The reason for this was ‘no cash power’ so a member of staff was quickly sent to purchase a month’s electricity. Another large purchase: the school printer was broken beyond repair but was considered essential.

All the staff eagerly waited their turn on the new computers but the most wonderful was from a teacher, Mariamma who had been a former pupil and had progressed from the school to college and teacher training before returning to the school. “I have used this programme and now I can type the children’s reports,” she said.

The feeding programme agreed by other agencies appeared to be having problems so before leaving money was left to assist in the shortfall.

Unfortunately having given GOVI Board several months notice of the dates of arrival they were unable to convene a meeting but the school’s atmosphere was one of happiness.

Phillip Feller
Chairman/Trustee