The African Oyster Trust Charity | Nursery Education and Healthcare in Gambia

 
 
By Alison Calvert, founder of the Mariama Mae Nursery School

Honor and Roger, two very dear friends of mine, live and work in  Jerez in the south of Spain. Last year they put on a curry evening to raise money for the school with the help of Hansa, and her mum Pushpa, who flew over from London just to bring spices and cook for days.  By popular demand they were doing it all again and in April I flew over to join them due to a ticket that had very kindly been donated to me so that I could be there.

What a team they are!  When I arrived we all sat around their kitchen table to have a ‘kilo meeting’, deciding how many kilos of tomatoes, potatoes and all sorts of other vegetables we needed.  This resulted in a trip to the wonderful local market the next day where boxes of local vegetables were bought and then delivered round the corner to Roger and Honor’s beautiful home that they were opening to over 120 people who had bought tickets for “The Grand Curry Night Fundraiser”.

Before the 8.30pm start on Friday the most beautiful food had been prepared under the guidance of Hansa and Pushpa who calmly made a wide range of mouth watering delicious starters, all had been sampled beforehand just to make sure they were ok of course!  These were then followed by curries to die for with wonderful flavours and extras all authentically made and displayed.  Honor and Roger had also made their speciality to add to the menu, a beef curry and chicken tikka with the most incredible flavours.  For desert they had prepared mango ice cream and gulabjamans which were incredibly popular.

People's comments said it all: “this food is out of this world”, “I’ve never tasted Indian food like this before”, “This is so good, how do they do it and there is so much choice”.

Everyone, including Roger and Honor’s kids, Tom and Alex, and their mates, had worked so hard together as a team to make this fundraiser the wonderful success that it was.  The people who had come to the event had a wonderful evening and were very generous when buying raffle tickets for batiks that I had brought from Africa, and local donated bottles of sherry and brandy.

This was just such a great evening and I felt so lucky to be there, not just for the food, but for the fun of preparing it beforehand, and the opportunity to talk to people who had come last year and then again this year.  It was fantastic to be able to show them photos of what their donations had achieved and talk to them about what we would be able to do with this years £2600 that they had raised, thankyou everyone.  See you all next year!
 
 
By Alison Calvert, founder of the Mariama Mae Nursery School

I travelled to Wadebridge in Cornwall in June to the home of Nigel, Glenda and Noel who had generously organised a magnificent garage sale. 

As I turned the corner I was met with a flurry of wonderful bunting filling their end of the street, and a crowd of people around tables piled high with donated items for sale.  There was a real buzz around the garage entrance where Nigel had displayed photos and information about the school, and people were more than generous when buying items for sale.  People were then tempted into their beautiful garden where more items were for sale along with tea, coffee and cake which most people couldn’t resist.

The sale was due to start at 10am but way before that people were eyeing up a bargain or two and there was a steady stream of customers until about 2.30pm, with people coming back for a second time bringing friends along.  Nigel had invited friends and family to an evening mid summer party and he had worked so hard to prepare food and punch and to create a great atmosphere and they all gave generously which certainly paid off as they raised a total of £440.  

Thank you all for putting on such a fantastic event and helping the school in this way, and thankyou to all the people who came to buy or donate on the day.
 
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.

 
 

The Directors of the African Oyster Trust are pleased to announce that the 2009 AGM will take place on Saturday 15th August at 12 noon in the offices of Leader Communications, 123 High Street, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire.

Donors and any other interested parties are very welcome to attend, but, as space is limited, places will be offered on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to attend, by sending a message via our contact page here.

 
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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Kira Dalton recently had the honour and privelege of being invited to an audience with President Jammeh during his 'Meet the People Tour of the Nation'.

This was in no doubt due to  the excellent effort that Kira has provided in relation to the opening of the Jappineh Clinic.

Kira took the opportunity to explain to his Excellency all the features of the clinic, but also stressed that we still badly needed the help of an additional midwife, as well as the government's support in the anti-malaria campaign.

His Excellency took Kira's counsel on board and within a matter of a few days the additional resources duly arrived - well done Kira, and of course His Excellency.
 
 

We are delighted to have received from Birmingham City Football Club a great selection of football strips and sports gear, courtesy of Mr. Westley, the Academy Director.

Knowing how much the Gambians love their football, these 'goodies' will be well received, and given that Premier League football shirts are like the proverbial gold-dust in the Gambia, no doubt Kira will be swamped when she hands them out later on this year!

Well done the Blues.

 
 

A garage sale and coffee morning are being held in Wadebridge, Cornwall on Saturday 20th June to raise funds for the Mariama Mae nursery school.

The event is being held at the home of the Williams family at 30 Wellington Place, Wadebridge, at 10am. All are welcome.

 
 

Gambian newspaper The Daily Observer has reported on the opening of the health centre at Jappineh, where so much of the work the Trust is supporting has been delivered on the ground by Kira Dalton. See the article here:

http://observer.gm/africa/article/major-medical-boost-for-jarra-jappineh

 
 

By James Holden, African Oyster Trust Founder
Written 18th January 2009

Today has been amazing once again as we visited the village of Jappineh where Kira is helping to build a new hospital in memory of her husband Sir Howard who died just short of his 64th birthday last year. He was a remarkably gifted scientist and the wife of one of his protégé’s is funding the hospital as a kind of ‘in memorium’ for all that Howard did for her family.

There’d been a death at the village last night – the Chief’s daughter I think, so our reception was more muted than usual. We began my meeting with a group of elders who welcomed us and then took us on a tour of the projects we are supporting. First the nursery school, where all was well. We delivered a suitcase of toys and assorted teaching aids and admired a new roof that had just been completed to create a new classroom. Astonishing how they had used mangrove sticks as the support structure for the ‘wriggly tin’ roof covering.

And then we moved on to the new clinic.

A Dutch foundation has paid for the hospital building itself, but we were here to lay the foundation stone of the retaining wall that is so vital to any building in the Gambia. The wall defines ownership and defies general entrance to people or wandering livestock. No home or building is truly secure in Gambia unless a wall makes it a compound.

Kira laid the first stone amids prayers of thanksgiving led by the Imam and his assistant. I laid the second and then made a short speech. I congratulated the people on making all the building blocks for the wall themselves. There were literally hundreds of blocks lying in the dusty yard and a deep perimeter foundation had been dug in readiness. I was more than impressed, a feeling that grew as we inspected the hospital itself which was really well built and had the first double glazed windows units I’ve ever seen in The Gambia!

Note: this is the last of three installments from James' recent trip diary. To read the previous parts, please scroll down.