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On this page |
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Objectives |
Provide textbooks, refurbish toilets &
long term aims |
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Team |
Teams at Oakham & Copenhagen |
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Plans |
Planning of the project and estimating costs |
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Fundraising |
How money is being raised for the project |
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Update May 2008 |
Change of plans |
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Update Oct 2008 |
Possible visit in late 2008 |
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Links |
More information and associated websites |
Background
Many schools are now offering the
International Baccalaureate. This
qualification is roughly equivalent to four AS levels, but covers a
broad range of subjects. As its name suggests, the diploma is
international, and it is currently offered by 2,293 schools in 127
countries. The Creativity, Action and Service (CAS) requirement is a
fundamental part of the IB programme.
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Creativity includes a wide range of arts
activities as well as the creativity students demonstrate in
designing and implementing service projects.
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Action can include not only participation in individual and team
sports but also taking part in expeditions and in local or
international projects.
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Service encompasses a host of community and
social service activities. Some examples include helping children
with special needs, visiting hospitals and working with refugees or
homeless people.
Students are expected to be involved in CAS activities for the
equivalent of at least three hours each week during the two years of
the programme. One of the CAS projects at
Oakham School
in Rutland, UK is Toilets and Textbooks. This aims to provide a
school in The Gambia with textbooks and a new toilet block. The
project is being undertaken by 16 students from Oakham School and
the
Copenhagen
International School, (CIS) in
Denmark. The school chosen by the project team is
Kings Kid Academy
in Lamin. Pageant has been helping this school in many ways since
February 2006. KKA initially provided just nursery education,
relying entirely on private funding. The school is expanding year by
year, so that children will remain there to complete their primary
education in Grade 6. In 2006, the school was in a poor state of
repair, with inadequate facilities. Through Pageant, various donors
have since provided new floors, windows and furniture. More
information is available on the
Toilets & Textbooks Website
and on the Oakham School
CAS web pages.
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the existing toilets |
Long Term Aims
Make a sustainable contribution to the
community
Provide long term solutions to the community
Create a link between Oakham School and
King's Kid Academy, providing future opportunities for other
students at Oakham School
The Team
From Oakham: Andrew Rees, Catherine Kent,
Carina Jandt, Cornelius Kürten, Gemma McNeil-Walsh, Jacob Unna,
Kenneth Ng, Melory Mitbø, Natasha Ley, Richard Neate.
From Copenhagen: Aria Shahzadi, Alexandra
Bush, Andreas Liljeberg, Emma Scholz, Ola Rønning, Tinna
Benediktsdottir, Mette Nørkjær.
In September 2007, the IB group at Oakham School
joined with Copenhagen International School to develop three
projects for each school. After presentations of candidate projects,
the 'Toilets and Textbooks' project and two others were selected for implementation.
In November, the groups worked on finalizing
their projects, investigating contacts in the different countries,
checking for any problems, such as Malaria, and looking at
accommodation, flight costs and exactly what they were going to do
on the project.
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students from Oakham
(left) and Copenhagen (right) at the conference in January |
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On January 18th to 21st, the Copenhagen
students arrived at Oakham School for the final presentations.
The Copenhagen students proposed a project helping refugees in
Thailand, but the Toilets and Textbooks Project was chosen by a
jury.
group photo - Oakham &
Copenhagen students >> |
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In February, an Open Day was held for the
younger students at Oakham School. A toilet was used as a collecting
box, and £50 was raised.
On March 20th to 23rd, Oakham students
visited Copenhagen to discuss final dates of travel,
accommodation, fundraising and things that needed doing before the
trip to The Gambia in summer 2008. The dates selected were from 8th
to 25th July, with a possible 'phase 2' at the end of July -
beginning of August, if sufficient people could travel then.
The conversions from Dalasis to Pound
Sterling below have been calculated using an exchange rate of 38
Dalasis to the Pound. These amounts could change as exchange rates
vary.
Check the latest rates here.
The estimate for the materials costs in
constructing the new toilets amounts to 40,565 Dalasis (about £1,070). The students will be carrying out the
construction work themselves, but will require the services of a
local workman at 150 Dalasis (£4) per day, to show them what is
needed and how to do the work. The team will also be decorating some
classrooms and working in the garden if they have time.
Textbooks will be provided for about 80
children in the primary (Lower Basic) part of the school. Mr Jacob
Amadi, the headmaster, has selected five textbooks; The Gambia Basic
Education Mathematics, The Gambia Basic Education English, The
Gambia Basic Education Integrated Studies, Quantitative Reasoning,
Verbal Reasoning. These will be purchased locally at 120 Dalasis
each (about £3.15) giving a total of around 48,000 Dalasis (about
£1260).
Team members will also have
to pay for their flights, vaccinations, accommodation, food and
transport. As far as possible they are planning to stay with local
families or in guest houses.
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Fundraising
All members of the team, both in Oakham and Copenhagen, engaged in active fundraising, with ideas such as a 'money toilet',
'money pots' by the cash register in local shops, contacting
companies for help and selling wristbands and other merchandise.
They had raised a total of £4781.87 for Pageant by the end of
September. £1500 has already been sent to Kings Kid Academy
for the toilet project,
leaving £3281.87 in the bank. Pageant are still receiving
occasional donations through CAF. The T&T team will decide
later how they wish the remaining money to be spent. Carina,
Gemma and others are hoping to visit The Gambia later this
year to see the progress at KKA.
Donation box for a
local shop >>
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Sponsored runs in
support of TandT
On 25th May, Graham Ley took part in the Edinburgh marathon.
He completed the race in 4 hours 11 minutes. Sponsorship money
is currently being collected. On 15th June, Nigel Walsh (Gemma's dad)
ran the 2008 Comrades
Ultra-Marathon (56 miles)
in South Africa. He finished the gruelling race in 11 hours, 16
minutes and 15 seconds. (more
information)
Donations
We have now closed the online donation
facility for Toilets & Textbooks, and for sponsoring Nigel.
For a number of reasons, it won't now be
possible for the team to fly out to The Gambia in July to construct
the new toilets at Kings Kid Academy. However, the project is still
continuing and extra money will be made available to pay for local
tradesmen to build the toilets. Provision of textbooks is largely
unaffected. The team are of course very disappointed and the village
community will be sorry that the team are not be coming to see them
in July.
Update October 2008
At the end of September, the total raised had
reached £4781.87, of which £1500 has already been used to build the
toilet block at Kings Kid Academy. Pippa and Ian will be checking on
progress during their October visit, and some of the T&T team hope to make a visit
later in the year
to see the work and decide how the rest of the money will be spent.
Links
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