Friday, 1 July 2016

Back on course!

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.

Friday, 10 June 2016

Every penny counts!

Hi Tom,

Hope all is well with you and Gambian Occasional Emergency Support (GOES). The sun is shining and your supporters are shopping, so I'm here to help you make sure they don't forget to collect donations for Gambian Occasional Emergency Support (GOES).

See how Gambian Occasional Emergency Support (GOES) is getting on:

£159.85 raised so far
£1.13 raised last month
£5.11 raised in the last 3 months
3 supporters
0 supporters signed up last month

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Jodie's hard at work!

That's Jodie, in the bottom right hand corner of the window. She's not best pleased. In fact, she's several miles away from being even slightly pleased. I knew it was a mistake to encourage her to write a book by herself. Just because she features in the opening pages of 'Empty Bananas' (you did get your copy a couple of weeks ago when it was on free offer? Good.) Just because she was pleased to see herself in print she thought she could write a book. Well, to be honest she's had a very interesting life. She's seen some very tough times and she's coped brilliantly. I tried to give her a few hints but, fair enough, she wanted to do it her way. She was busy every day, managed to use Word without too much trouble, wrote and re-wrote, read it aloud - sometimes at half past two in the morning. Then, she 'lost' half her work. Possibly didn't save it, possibly didn't have 'auto-save' on? Who knows? Bear in mind that she's a fictional character herself, it can't be easy working in a factual world!
Well, she's still there, in the shed at the bottom of the garden, tap-tap-tapping away. Honestly? Would I lie to you?
best wishes,
Tom

Monday, 23 May 2016

I deserve cake!

Yes, I do! I've completed the Gift Aid claim and sent it off! Took 37 attempts but good old English imprecations such as "Drat" and "Double Drat" and "Bother" and "Goodness Gracious" and "Trudget" won the day. Joyce, Jodie and the whole population of Malinding village held their breath and crossed their fingers and it worked!
Talking of Malinding there's still a couple of days left to download the free, revised version of Empty Bananas from Amazon eBooks. Jodie wants me to mention that she's the first character you meet when you start to read the book (unless you start at the back!)
I need a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Ah, Jodie has a very guilty look on her face ...
P.S. Not all this post is fiction!
Tom

Sunday, 22 May 2016

Free eBook

Empty Bananas, the first Kindle eBook in the Malinding Village series is, as promised, on free offer for four days from Sunday 22/05/2016. It's the revised, corrected version.
Hope it tempts you to buy the other books and support GOES!
Best wishes,
Tom

Saturday, 21 May 2016

How it works

Every little helps, they say. Well, here's an example. GOES is funding the travel from a small Gambian village to Dakar in Senegal of a young boy. He needs urgent medical treatment that isn't available at home. So, they asked and we agreed to help. The funding came from the sales of a couple of dozen 'Malinding Village' eBooks, an eBay sale of a couple of donated items, part of a regular monthly gift-aided donation (thanks A - you know who you are!) and a bit of topping up from us.
I received a text message from the little boy's father yesterday - they've arrived safely in Dakar (in spite of the Gambian/Senegal border being closed) and the child will be attended to in the hospital today.
Every little helps! (Please keep buying the books - you never know who is going to benefit!)
Best wishes,
Tom