Santosu Nursery, Brikama

Santosu Nursery is a registered ECD (Early Childhood Development) school and in my opinion very well run. It has 4 classrooms with 4 teachers and a headteacher. It is a community nursery and was built in 1996 by the local community with some help towards the final stages from a British Company. There are 186 students there aged between 3 & 7. They have water on site and toilets, it is also partly fenced. All the work done on site is by the local community and on my visit there it was very clear to see that the parents are very keen to support the school. However it is in a very poor area of Brikama and although the fees are only 100 dalasis a month many cannot afford to pay. The teachers salaries, water bill and resources are all funded through the fees. If you do the sums you will see this is just not enough to manage the school. On my visit I asked to see the store room and was shocked to see a tiny box with a few felt pens, an old football with the plastic bag that should have been inside, out of the ball and punctured and that was more or less it!! They have no pencils or exercise books and have to rely on parents to provide these items, not all can afford it. In nursery 4, the last level, they are using really old slates for writing on but do not have much chalk.

The staff are very committed and I was very impressed at the standard of the teaching and the education the children are getting. The staff are very resourceful and have made up their own "flash" cards and teaching aids.

We took our visitors there last week and were overwhelmed by the welcome from the children, staff and parents. They were so happy to receive visitors and wanted to male us happy! They certainly did that!

We are happy to announce that we are happy to offer our support to this needy school and will take interested visitors there and do our best to provide them with the items they need. When I asked the Head teacher what they needed this is what he requested:- pencils. colouring pencils, books, exercise books, paper, chalk, sharpeners, rubbers, rulers, wall charts, flash cards, work sheets, reward stickers, footballs, soft balls and play dolls. Simple items but so necessary.

If anyone is interested in visiting this lovely little school or donating items please contact us.