It was on that day that the last piece of funding fell into place and we were able to sign off the cost schedule and timeline for building the new hall and kitchen for the Lower Basic school. This was a project that we had labelled Sohm 2020, two years ago, as we set about raising £20,000 by 2020 for the project.
We are ahead of schedule and hope to be present for the opening of the new facility in January next year!
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| Architect's plans for the new hall - to be complete by the end of this year! |
The building will be our most significant contribution to the village of Sohm - by some distance - since we established the charity eight years ago. It will replace an old school dining hall, which had to be demolished, because it was dangerous two years ago, with a brand new facility. The previous building - over 35 years old - was inflexible. Its "furniture" consisted of immovable concrete blocks, which children perched on to eat from other concrete blocks. The school kitchen had no modern equipment.
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| Village elders and school governors, after a session planning the layout and location of the new school hall, in January 2019 |
The new building - 30 metres long - will be multi-functional. In addition to being a dining hall - , because we are acquiring flexible, portable furniture - it can also be used as a gym, an assembly hall, a prayer room, and the village's first community village hall. Village leaders have played a significant role in helping to design and decide the location for the hall, as shown by the photographs. They have been overwhelmed with gratitude at the generosity of our supporters.
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| Above: the decrepit (and now demolished) building the new school hall will replace. Below: its roof, that was in danger of collapse |
Our charity has been assisted by a number of individual donors, whose efforts have helped us reach our funding targets so rapidly. We thank them all - you know who you are!
In addition, we have received huge support and assistance from two major organisational donors: Beech Hill community primary school, in Luton and Redbridge Rotary club. Sohm Lower Basic school has shown its recognition of their efforts on the freshly painted walls (funded by these donors!) in the main teaching block (see photo).
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| Redbridge Rotary and Beech Hill's logos, outside Sohm LBS head's office, by way of appreciation for their fund-raising efforts. |
We have covered the activities of Beech Hill school in a number of posts (see above) notably for their splendid and highly successful Gambia Days.
Tuesday 2 July, however, was - in addition to our signing off the contract for the new build - a big day in our relationship with Redbridge Rotary Club. It was the hand-over day from one president to another.
Outgoing president, and friend of our charity, Tony Betts, presented two awards to SSS in his farewell address. One was a cheque of £1,000 to us - as one of his nominated charities for the year. The second was a prestigious Certificate of Appreciation from Rotary International for charitable work we undertake in The Gambia, putting some of the funds that they have raised to such good purposes. We were greatly humbled by both awards.
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| John and Sandra (centre) from SSS, receiving the Rotary International Certificate of Appreciation from Tony Betts (left), immediate past president, and Mike Bell, incoming president of Redbridge Rotary |
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| The Rotary International Certificate of Appreciation |
We would, very publicly, like to put on record our immense gratitude to Redbridge Rotary for its generous support to us over each of the last four years - and we look forward to its continuation.
We promised the club, in return for their support, to return next February with a short video of the opening of the new hall, for which they have contributed so much, to support.
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| The old kitchen's cooking stoves |
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| "Furniture" in the old building, which made it unfit for multi-purpose use. |
They, like Beech Hill, and all of our generous sponsors really have helped transform young African lives, in ways in which it is difficult to appreciate from the comfort of our homes in the UK.
Thanks, one and all - onward to 2020 and the opening of the new hall!
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