We understand

E-mail and Twitter and Facebook help to keep us in touch with our friends in The Gambia. Sometimes we have contact with them and find that they are in unexpected places - as refugees in Italy, Lampedusa or Tripoli.  We can chat with them but there is, sadly, little else we can do. Our British government seems determined to keep them out. I think Britain has the lowest response rate to accepting people who are trying to escape persecution or famine.
 This is why, on every journey we have made over the years to West Africa, half the people we chat to on the plane are taking some form of help - maybe a few pencils for a school, maybe money to help ex-servicemen and their families, maybe medical supplies to re-stock a village clinic or any other way of helping people on a one-to-one basis. It seems that ordinary people are more humanitarian that the governments that claim to represent them.
We understand also that governments which 'donate' money to needy communities do not always ensure that their donations go to people who are in need of education or health care. Many of these 'donations' are made conditional on the purchase of weapons of war. We guarantee that donations made to GOES end up in the hands of people in need, or as equipment for schools or clinics.
Income from the sale of the Malinding Ebooks generally helps with school fees for children who would not otherwise have an education.

Every little helps!

	Your donations statement is ready! View online version
	Hi Tom, Your wonderful supporters have raised £15.31 for Gambian Occasional Emergency Support (GOES) this quarter! Look out for your cheque in the post, it should be with you in the next two weeks. Easyfundraising uses a search engine which donates 1d for every 2 searches you make using it! The pennies mount up and make pounds and we pay the pounds into the GOES account with the Co-op Bank then we exchange the pounds for dalsis and we send the dalasis to people in The Gambia who are in need! Your Statement Summary Date: January - March 2015 Payment method: Cheque Amount raised: £15.31 Thank your supportersSay thanks to your cause supporters and encourage them to raise more on Facebook and Twitter.

Exchange rate problem

There are a lot of pleasures in running a small charity like GOES. We meet a lot of people who are interested in what we do and why we do it. We have the pleasure of seeing improvements in education and health care.
There are problems, too. Problems, not 'issues')
One problem appeared today - the value of the GBP (Great British Pound) has fallen dramatically in a very short time. Last week we sent some money for medical aid to a family who live near Banjul. The exchange rate was D77 to the £. Today we sent some money to help a young student - the rate now is D55 to the £. This means, sadly, that the student receives less than we hoped. Our money has shrunk - we won't be able to help so many people or to give deserving people less than they need.
The Gift Aid money we received last month has gone to clinics, hospitals, schools and needy people - it has gone! Sadly, it hasn't been replaced yet with donations or sales of the Malinding Kindle Ebooks. We only sold 1 book last month - thank you, kind buyer in Italy - you have some idea where your money might have gone! All money from the sales of books goes straight into the GOES bank account. We take no money at all from the Charity - we pay all the expenses of GOES, we pay all our own expenses and we donate a tithe of our income to the charity. We do it for love, not money!
We need a little help from our friends - hint, hint!
Best wishes to all of you,
Tom.

Sleeping? Of course not - just closed my eyes for a minute to think better ... honestly!