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

 
 
By Alan Dick

Just in time for Christmas, a consignment of boxes arrved in the Gambia marked for the attention of Kira Dalton. They contained a whole load of 'goodies' which were the result of generous donations of clothes, books and so on from various people and organisations.
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Photo One:

Birmingham City Football Club kindly donated football strips, tracksuits and training gear.

Expect a Banjul branch of the Birmingham City Supporters Club to open soon!
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Photos Two and Three (right and below): Children of Bothwell Primary School near Glasgow, and Berkswell Primary School near Coventry rallied round last year to support young Gambian children less fortunate than themselves, by donating t-shirts and football strips.

All were greatly appreciated as you can see right and below.
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Photo Four (below): Last year, Eleanor Elcock, a student from Lichfield and former part-time worker at Woolworths, managed to persuade her local store, prior to its final closure, to donate childrens clothes and gym shoes to the African Oyster Trust.

The photo shows just some of the many happy recipients.
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By Kira Dalton

On arrival at Jappineh Clinic last Friday, a young woman had just been admitted who had been gored by a bull and brought in by donkey cart (this was certainly not a minor wound - it had entered her left buttock, perforated her intestine and come out the front).

The three trainee Dutch doctors who were fortunately visiting with me immediately set to helping Anmsumana putting her on a drip and pumping her full of antibiotics and fluids as she was losing a lot of blood. As she clearly would need surgery, we then commandeered a rental car and driver and sent her, her newborn baby and mother - acccompanied by two of the doctors, to Soma. They were met by an ambulance which transferred her to Farafenni hospital. The Dutch doctor's did not rate her chances as very good.

We later learned she had been transferred to Banjul for surgery since Farafeni could not cope and had no blood supplies.

Today the Dutch doctor's report that she is recovering well at RVTH. If ever there were a case of extremely good luck this must be it. Also, it justifies exactly why we need an ambulance. Had we not all been there, she would never have made it by donkey cart!
 
Jappineh update 01/01/2010
 
By Kira Dalton

A brief update following a very productive three days up in Jappineh.

Firstly, the clinic building and environment looks terrific. All the painting is done. The Cuban doctor's house is now fully refurbished (where Ansumana and his family are living) as are the other staff quarters. There is even working running water in all three buildings and solar light! The compound is clean and they have planted cassava, bananas, eggplants, peppers etc. Fanding now plans to add flower beds near the main entrance.

Inside, every bed was occupied. Three cases of complicated malaria admitted on drips, one woman with pneumonia, a young boy admitted with convulsions and a dog bite victim. Ansumana has, so far, delivered around 20 babies there and been complimented on the high birth weights which reflect well on the good ante natal care he is giving.

Second morning we visited the newly completed two rooms at nursery - which look great. We presented posters for the walls to them and Lower Basic School and then gave out presents to each of the 75 nursery kids. Mostly the shoes and t shirts which came in the last Goodies for Gambia consignment.

Afternoon, we held a village meeting (attended by over 100 including Alkalos and Elders, talking about the need for them to help with funding next year. I have suggested that if they collect 5 dalasis each (around 10p) from every one
of the 20,000 local population, that will help tremendously with costs. Most agreed!

Other projects doing very well. Yesterday took Fatou from Jappineh, Abdulie and Fatou from Kunta Kinteh and Natoma from Talinding to visit Gunjur nursery. A sort of mini teachers conference. Went down very well so will arrange for
other teachers to visit each other in the New Year when school resumes after Brikama.
 
 
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.