SPONSORSHIP SUPPORT

From December 2000 to 2004, GTS handled the limited number of individually sponsored students we dealt with. As GTS started rebuilding a Nursery school in Bakoteh and administering the London Corner school for a charity based in Dumbarton, it became obvious that a specialist charity was going to be required - In 2005 that came into being with the registration of GETSuk as a UK charity No 1110998.

All sponsorship work is now administered in the UK, donations through GETS are now GiftAided, The GETS charity has an annuanl general meeting in August and produces two Newsletters each year, these are emailed as PDF files to all GETS members, and are visible on the website and at GTS/GETS office, GTS Bar & Restaurant and GTS Kololi Accommodation.

Sponsorship management in Gambia is dealt with by the administrative staff of GETS from our office in Kololi - Senegambia

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LAND & PROPERTY RESEARCH

GTS Kololi has spent months purchasing a plot of land. We finally completed the deal in the middle of June, but it has provided us with a lot of experience and local know how.

We have been asked by site visitors what they need to do, how much to pay, who to contact, cost of building, mains services, how to let property and so on. In the past we have communicated at length with people who have not joined and not even sent a donation to the GTS cause.

We have reluctantly had to make the decision that we can only provide this sort of help to full paid up members, but can extend the service to provide very detailed information, which we have decided to charge for.

The money is specifically used for the research and the cost of providing the report and any left over will go into the GTS account.

The amount charged will depend on the specific enquiry, the nature of the investment and the size of the proposed project and the level of detail of the information required.

GTS is not currently in the position to manage such projects to completion but we can certainly provide ALL the pre project data on locations, costs of materials, labour, local taxes, connection charges with names and numbers of the relevant people.

General enquiries of this nature from members will still be dealt with as part of the support we give to GTS members.

Again through an enquiry GTS has now made itself available to deal on behalf of members who own property in The Gambia, to get services and maintenance carried out as well as undertaking some building work and garden maintenance. As soon as this area grows to a sustainable size we will be employing a full time worker to carry out these services.

We are currently training a young man to provide general maintenance services suppoort by myself as I now spend 10 months in Gambia.

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We do not see a time that GTS will carry out the booking of flights for people. But we have had one request from a party of 8, who have never travelled to Africa before, to meet them at Manchester and accompany them and co-ordinate their visit to The Gambia.

After a lot of thought we have decided that we will offer such a service trips of this sort needs plenty of forward planning and could include a visit to Dakar, a Safari up country combined with a river cruise and bird watching as well as visits to GTS and GETS projects.

Your time to and from The Gambia would be with a GTS UK host and out in the Gambia you would have members of GTS and UK ensuring that your holiday went according to plan.

VISA APPLICATIONS

Having gone through the nightmare and expense of applying for a substantial number of visas for our employees and a few good friends - we do feel we are in a good position to advise members who are thinking of inviting a Gambian friend over to the UK.

We can help with a discussion of do's and don't and warnings about the problems - at the end of the day we can not predict the result but we can certainly help with the forms and support documents you will need.

This is only available to UK members - but if there are other nationalities who are prepared to offer this help to their countrymen - we would welcome it enormously.

In 2006 and 2007 we had employees of GTS and GETS who were invited by UK supporters to visit the UK, the one in 2006 we believe is staying illegally in the UK, the 2007 employee failed to return after the planned 4 week stay, but is currently covered by the UK Visa that runs for 6 months so is not technically illegal at present.

Although neither were invited directly by GTS - as employees their actions reflect on GTS and from 2008 we will be issuing guidelines to sponsors and any of our employees who are invited.

CONTAINER SHIPMENTS (see pictures above left)

GTS has now sent two containers to Gambia, the UK side prooved to be no problem in both cases - but the Gambia side has caused problems on both occasions., not only from customs and port officials but also from the transport operatives delivering the full containers.