The founder of Mariama Mae Pre-School in Gunjur, Ali Calvert, has posted a report on progress at the school, as well as plenty of new photos. Click here to see the latest from this wonderful project.
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By Katy, a supporter

What a pleasure it was to visit The Gambia for the first time, primarily to see the Mariama Mae Pre-School in Gunjur.

In a corner of what we would call a very large primary school, within the branches of two Baoba trees, lay a Gambia pre-school. You can see that this pre-school has been carefully planned and resourced with Gambian children aged four to seven years in mind.

There are two buildings. The first is divided into class one and class two, and also includes an office and two storage rooms. Class three for the older children is in a separate building across the yard. In between is a building decorated with colour paintings of flowers and containing two porcelain toilets. The classrooms are situated on a perfect sized plot which allows the children freedom at play time; it has shade from a mango tree and a raised seating area around which is a mosaic of broken tiles for decoration. New to the playground is a large sand pit, a guaranteed hit with children world wide.

On entering the preschool I find the atmosphere welcoming, and notice the 'preschool buzz' straight away. I feel happy here and I can tell that the children are happy to be at school. They have the correct attitude to assist learning through play and discovery.

Work and projects decorate the rooms from all angles. The resources in the classroom have been carefully chosen and reflect their nationality. Book shelves with reading schemes focused around African life and story books about African animals and people.

The principle teacher is a friendly, warm and approachable lady who has chosen her team well and seems to effortlessly run the school in a calm manner.

Congratulations to everybody involved in making Mariama Mae Pre-School such a wonderful example of a Gambian pre-school. I am sure this school, if not already, will become a model for other developing pre-schools in The Gambia, and I am privelleged to have seen it in action and I am happy to support this school.

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Jephcott Trust 07/25/2009
 

By Alison Calvert, founder of the Mariama Mae Nursery School

Earlier this year, a Mariama Mae School information leaflet was given to Lady Mary Jephcott, who later contacted me and invited Jo and I to meet with her to discuss the possibility of a donation from the Jephcott Charitable Trust.

Thank goodness for Jo, a very dear friend of mine who beavers away on her computer helping me in all sorts of ways towards the school. Our visit was very successful and we came away knowing clearly what we had to do to put together our application to the Trust.  

Again, thank goodness for Jo, because she did it so well that while I was still in Africa in April the news came through from her that we had been successful in our bid.  This enabled me to set in motion the completion of classroom three because the trust had donated £1,700, allowing us to put our strong roof on this classroom.

Thank you Mary for your help and guidance, it was invaluable and very much appreciated.

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Wacky Races 07/04/2009
 

By Alison Calvert, founder of Mariama Mae Nursery School

In East Allington, the village where I live, The Wacky Races is ‘the event’ of the year and, thanks to Louise and all the others involved in this year's races, I was there with a stall.

It was a great day with lots of local people watching the go karts racing down the hill.  In the field were all the stalls and I had set mine up hoping to talk to people about the school and handing out flyers appealing for donations of bric-a-brac to keep me supplied for sales at markets and car boot sales.  

People were lovely and very interested in the Mariama Mae Project.  I had on sale chocolate fridge cake which several people had prepared for me, as I had only arrived back from Africa the evening before this event, so thank you to all of you who made this possible for me to be there selling cake.  

We raised £98 which I think was wonderful and since that day lots of bric-a-brac has been turning up on my door step. Thanks.

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