During 2009/10 we are focusing on raising funds to improve the salaries of our teaching staff and provide more training for them.
Sponsoring a child helps that child but supporting a teacher is actually far more effective as it amounts to spionsoring between 30 and 40 children at one of our nurseries wher the children are receiving FREE education.
If you can help with a one off donation or sponsor a teacher even for £10 a month it will greatly improve our ability to provide improvemnts in our schools

Visit our GETSUK site - http://www.getsuk.org/fundraising/fundraising.htm

Clare spent her gap year in Gambia, before going off to university.

She worked near Yundum in a village called Banjul Nding (Little Banjul), she met Lamin Drammeh while there and also met May Rooney, through May we met Lamin who worked at the Bar and Restaurant for a couple of seasons.

Students do mad things at University, especially at Rag Week and Clare decided to take part in a sponsored sky diving jump. She wrote and told me she intended to do it and wanted to give GTS half the money she raised.

Ages went past and then a cheque arrived during October 2002 and just a few weeks before my departure for my 3 month Gambia stint.

I decided to put the money towards two pieces of computer equipment that will help enormously with our sponsorship efforts. A small logitec digital camera, this does away with the need for films and film processing and the problem of having a few more shots left on the roll, holding the processing up sometimes weeks. It gives us the facility to send pictures by email direct to sponsors and back to the UK for the website.

In addition it provided almost all the money needed to buy a scanner. This now does away with the problem of having photocopies done - a nightmare in Gambia as they are so regularly out of order. Both of these pieces of equipment also provide broader training for our GTS staff and through the camera we discovered the natural abilities of Alieu Sanneh - a brilliant and intuitive photographer.

Many many thanks to Claire for her bravery and very generous contribution to GTS funds.

Since this first report - we have had members carrying out sponsored walks from Land's End to John O'Groats, Fire walkers and Marathon walkers, sponsored concerts, pub quiz nights, sponsored reunions and many other fund raisers - many thsnks to all involved.