Monday 24 July 2017

Gift Aid!

Thank you, supporters! Family, friends, kind strangers. Thanks to all of you for your help, donations and encouragement during the past year (and many years before for most of you :-) )
HMRC have paid out again, accepting this time my handwritten and rather tatty claim form, having failed to master the on-line procedure yet again.
As before, money doesn't linger long in the GOES account. Most is already in The Gambia, working away in hospitals, clinics, and schools. A fair proportion has gone directly ti people who needed urgent medical treatment, fees for exams, and other emergency help. Using Smallworld Financial Services, GOES can receive an appeal for help in the early morning, have the case verified by our local representative and have the money ready for collection in a local bank the same day. And we'll check on the result during one of our visits to the country, later this year, all being well.
Again, thanks - and to those of you who can make the journey  (six hours on a plane ...) you'll be made welcome by the people of this lovely, tiny, poor country.

Saturday 1 July 2017


Free holiday reading!

Hello: while you laze on the beach basking under the warmth and glow of a British holiday sun I offer you four free ebooks set under a hotter, sub-Saharan sun. They will introduce you to the imaginary Gambian village of Malinding, where cultures meet and romance might just possible blossom.
Empty Bananas sets the scene and introduces some of the characters,
Mussukunda explores the strengths and capabilities of a group of women,
Girl on Wheels introduces Jodie, a mixed-race young woman coping with social and physical difficulties,
and Stories for Gambian Children is just that!
Read, then Go - and explore this wonderful tiny country for yourself :-)
Oh, and take some pencils and books for the schools you'll be invited to visit!

The four ebooks mentioned above are on free offer till 04/07/2017, Google Empty Bananas on Amazon.

Fire

DIAPORA—Since last Wednesday, we’ve been learning the stories behind the lives lost in the devastating fire that burned down Grenfell Tower in West London. Among the 79 victims that are dead or presumed dead was Khadija Saye—a 24-year-old British-Gambian photographer whose career was on the cusp of flourishing.
Saye was trapped on the 20th floor, in the apartment she shares with her mother when the fire started. As it progressed, she posted heartbreaking Facebook statuses asking her friends and families for their prayers.
In a cruel twist of fate, the artist died as she was beginning to reap the fruits of her hard work. Her latest collection, Dwelling: in this space we breathe,” a series of photographs exploring traditional Gambian spiritual practices, was on display at the 57th Venice Bienniale.
“In the last few weeks she had been invited to show in all kinds of serious galleries, her dreams were actually beginning to manifest themselves in the most exciting way,” her mentor Nicola Green told the Guardian.