Been rather busy for a while. Slow progress for a while, trying to get funds to a student teacher. We use a money transfer that used to be called Bayba. Normally it's been excellent, beneficiaries frequently receiving money on the day we send it. In all the years we've been supporting West Africans things have never gone wrong. Until a couple of weeks ago. We'd promised help to a young trainee teacher that we've known for a while. The system is that a trainee works full time in a school, hopefully with the support of the rest of the staff, and is paid a small wage. He or she saves as much as possible and attends Training College during the summer vacation. There are charges for books, uniform (a T-shirt) and travel expenses. Three weeks ago H reminded me, very politely, of our promise. I immediately paid the money into the Bayba account, they sent me the transfer code and I passed that on to H. All she had to do was turn up at the collection point, quote the code and show her ID card and walk away with the money. Not so this time: code not recognised, call again tomorrow. H did this three times without success then WhatsApped me. I checked: code correct - try again. I emailed her copies of my documents, H tried again. Code not recognised. Somehow H managed to mislay her ID card.
Cutting a long story a bit shorter, I cancelled that transaction, Bayba refunded the money and I asked K (GOES agent) to receive the money and pass it onto H. That took one day, worked perfectly. H has the funds for her course and all she has to do now is to find or replace her ID card. No problem!
Now problems either for young S - the child who needed an operation on his eye a couple of years ago. GOES funded his trip to Senegal for the operation and subsequent visits for after-care. We can now report his complete cure.
J's wheelchair needed a small repair and this has been attended to.
Thanks, friends. You know who you are!
Best wishes,
Tom & Joyce.
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