The GTS story so far

When GTS started it's aim was to help an individual Gambian to provide for himself and his family - as with so many trusting do gooding ventures that ended up with him helping himself to the tune of over £8000 of our personal money.

The second hopeful start ended in a similar situation, but as GTS matured we were lucky to engage the services of our current Director in Gambia Kabirou Jabang.

By 2000 GTS had broadened its scope to creating sustainable employment and providing educational support.

GTS grew from the highly dangerous one man band to an organisation employing a number of staff. In 2000 GTS opened it's first Bar & Restaurant and was sponsoring a handfull of children.

Registered Charity Status

By 2002 GTS was applying for Gambian registered Charity Status which we obtained in 2003. We were deeply concerned that many of the sponsored children were in schools providing an education very different to the UK or Europe. Poorly educated teachers, almost no teaching resources and little idea of how to use the resources available, very variable school buildings and very little year on year progress - like so much in Gambia - it was a hand to mouth existance.

The Nursery Schools

With total funding support from a church community in Dumbarton a nursery school was opened.

GTS funded a community nursery school in Bakoteh.

GTS members John & Kaye Skingsley started a Christian school in Essau.

Low Educational Attainment

Even with GTS administering the schools, the education was still far below the level we wanted - the children could chant series of letters, colours, days of the week and months of the year, etc. in very poorly pronounced English (the official administrative language of the country)

Education as we know it was simply not going on - this lack of early learning hampers these children right through their school - at the end of which they emerge with poor speaking skills, and very low levels of comprehension in their official language.

As the colonial rulers of Gambia, the British did little to help, education for all but a few local people was non existant, most was provided by charities and religious missions & more recently by private local individuals more interested in their business profits than the childrens education.

Charity involvement

Charities like GTS (and there are dozens of them in Gambia) - operate in non co-ordinated way, with few controls on their resources as soon as they leave the UK. Money and resources leak out on the journey from container to school and often leak from the schools to local markets - the money accrued often ending up in individuals pockets rather than paying the teachers or improving the standards of education.

Many charities are providing money to build more classrooms, pay more teacher salaries and then year on year continue that support funding but little work is going on to improve the level of education.

In 2003 a GTS member Julie Limbrick, appeared and not only wondered why GTS was not charity registered in the UK - but also recognised the lack of real voluntary support and offered to steer GTS through UK registration.

GES is born in 2004

During 2004 GES was born and this year after our 2nd AGM and changes to our constitution GES will receive its UK registration number.

BUT GES is more than just another registered charity helping in Gambia.
We administer 3 nursery schools, support the education of 450 children BUT for all the hard work, for all the money raised, it is totally worthless unless those Gambian children are really being educated.

An Effective Nursery Curriculum, Resourced & Delivered

In 2005 the GES executive agreed that unless Gambian teachers are effective at delivering a standard curriculum for Gambian children, based on a through grounding in language and numeracy then we provide nothing more than a means for people to believe that by making their donations they are helping this tiny ex British Colony, but infact wasting their money.

GES will not close the schools that GTS has implemented and administers, it will carry on all the sponsorships of existing children continue to take more BUT it will now focus on the nursery curriculum, providing the teachers with the teaching resources and the skills to use those resources to deliver a proper education to the children in all the GTS/GES schools.

GES has refocused GTS which will no longer simply monitor that funds are being spent as they should but will now provide the means for teachers to be supported and trained how to deliver the ciurriculum and monitor each childs progress GTS with GES support will run workshops to sho how schools can produce the resources they need as well as inservice training for teachers.

Gap and Working Holiday Volunteers.

In addition to our core team we will use volunteers in a far more productive and effective way :-
First - helping in our skills centre where we will teach the skills needed to produce all the resources needed in a nursery school. This will familiarise volunteers with the resource materials used and with the curriculum that they support.
Second - Working in the schools supporting the Gambian teachers and delivering the curriculum as well as coming up with ideas and additiuonal resources to extend the resource materials.
Third - after in class experience helping to provide in service training to teachers in the use of the resources to deliver the curriculum.