The main aim of this visit was to formerly introduce Modou Bah to the school and teachers as new head master. In addition we were to re-inaugurate our previously agreed contract with ABBA following a one year cessation due to funds availability. Certain other matters took place during the visit as set out in the report below.

Gambia Day 1  Wednesday 18th July

Modou, Drammeh and myself went to ABBA and formally introduced Modou our new headmaster to the board members there, we then discussed various requirements and reports from ABBA going forward which Modou would administer and oversee then report back to the BASIG board.

OD and I proceeded to sign a new contract addendum to extend our agreement with ABBA that would see BASIG complete build of 6 classrooms. The original agreement was for 6 years which would have seen our pupils graduating from Sukuta receiving 50% off fees for that period. The contract extension means the agreement period now becomes 7 years.

OD obtained list of new students graduating from Sukuta to ABBA which was passed to Samuel Gomez a copy of the list was also collected by AS for records in UK.

Day 2 Thursday 19th July 

Met OD and MB travelled to school at Sukuta where we introduced Modou to other teachers as headmaster.

Long discussions took place regarding MB role which eventually everyone understood. Given this was Modou’s first visit to the school we went through everything with him, in particular the administration and how we see that developing to include all pupil and teacher data, records and exam results. MB was also reminded of his role regarding same aspects of admin for the three years of pupils attending ABBA. Bakerering Ceesay had already passed us a list of pupils graduating to ABBA yesterday and today passed a list of proposed new pupils to attend Sukuta in September, MB would collate all new pupil information when final and pass this back to the UK board.

Modou’s first day in his new role would be Monday 23 July at which point he would be placed on the payroll. He would use summer holidays to become familiar with day to day running of both ABBA and Sukuta schools the former obviously our graduated pupils only.

From time to time MB would call meeting with the staff to discuss implementation of the new processes moving forward, particular importance would be placed in ensuring pupil data was up to date and reporting this to the trustees and members.

With duties complete at Sukuta we went to the Trustbank and paid in the £5,000 brought from England, this was exchanged at a Ds rate of Ds62 per £ resulting in Ds310,000 being deposited into the account. AS confirmed with bank manager in future we may require to transfer funds electronically to The Gambia where the manager confirmed would be no local charges. AS would ask ME to do a test transfer of £100 at some point in the near future.

During a further meeting with TBL relationship manager Jainaba Jobe various matters were discussed including again transfer of funds electronically. More importantly higher interest rate savings whereby money is locked up in a bond type product for 12 months, JJ would obtain more information and forward to me. Almost certainly the interest rate would be much higher than funds currently held  in UK current account therefore it may be more effective to have majority of funds on deposit in Gambia as opposed to UK. The board of trustees and members must consider this at the next charity review meeting.

Day 3 Friday 20th July 

This morning AS held a meeting with OD and MB the new head teacher regarding an approach to the teacher year end appraisals. We also discussed again UK board requirements in terms of teacher/pupil personal data recording and also providing the board with timely exam results and performance. It was agreed a further meeting would take place regarding the latter before AS returned to UK.

AS conducted teacher appraisals all of which were satisfactory each teacher achieving the required targets set during last years appraisals. AS OD and MB perceived that although the teamwork ethic seem to have improved there was still an underlying problem between Bakering and Philomen. Following further discussion it was agreed MB and OD would monitor the situation very carefully and report back to AS on a regular basis. Next July 18 MB would carry out teacher appraisals with the assistance of OD who himself would appraise MB following his first full year in employment.

AS hosted and end of year Team lunch as a get to know you exercise for all concerned in particular for MB to get to know the rest of the team – cost Ds 3100 between 6 persons.

Day 6 Monday   23 July 

Another meeting with MB to go through specific requirements in terms of his job role, to include in the main preparing database of all pupils (Abba & Sukuta) their performance and reporting back all of that information to the board of trustees and members in a timely fashion, as a minimum following the end of each term.

After this meeting with OD and MB we then had a meeting with Ebou Drammeh to discuss the local bank reconciliation, cross referencing  with bank statements and receipts, the latter AS would return copies to the UK.

Day 7 Tuesday

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