By St Peter’s Alumni Association
The Saint Peter’s Alumni Association (SPAA), was established on August 20, 2017 out of a desire to bring together the ex-students of Saint Peter’s Technical High School (now Saint Peter’s Technical Junior and Senior Secondary School) to support the School in whatever way possible. This is our way of showing appreciation to the School that immensely contributed to making who and what we are today as individuals, and thereby contribute to further improving the standards and performance level of St Peter’s. A WhatsApp group was created on August 23, 2017, to facilitate communication among members.
The SPAA is run by an Executive committee comprised of members who are in-country and abroad, and headed by Francis D. Mendy as President. Other members are Bridget T. Correa, Elina Cole, Hon. Abdou Kolley, Malick Bah, Demba S.M. Yarbo, Fernand Loppy, Fr. Bruno Toupan, Musukebba Jobe-Bojang, Zill JaNa, Dr Pa Lamin Beyai, Fatou Touray-Sey, Lamin Janneh, and Modou Coker.
The Association adopted its Constitution on the 13th day of September 2017 and is legally registered as charitable, not-for-profit and non-partisan. Membership is voluntary and subject to adherence to the SPAA By-laws (Constitution), as may be amended from time to time. The SPAA raises its funds mainly through contributions from its members, with possibility of seeking assistance from philanthropic individuals and organisations. It operates a current account with Ecobank Gambia Limited, where all funds are deposited for the purpose of facilitating its transactions.
To be a registered member of the Association, there is a one-time registration fee currently set at D500 and a monthly membership contribution of D200. From inception to date, SPAA has 43 registered members. Of this, a total of 22 members remain the most active; meaning they have fully paid their 2019 contributions with some having fully or partially paid for 2020 as well. Membership contributions started in September 2017.
After several visits to the School by the Executive Committee and meetings with the school management, it has emerged that the School is in dire need of support in many areas to improve the conditions under which teaching and learning occur. Among all these, the Committee and members of SPAA initially decided to take on the school toilets for a start. In effect with a student population of over 3000 and a few toilet facilities in existence, some of which were in dilapidated conditions, this intervention cannot be more urgent.
As the Association embarked on raising funds to undertake this project, a fire incident occurred at the School in late 2019 burning down the administration building. In response to this emergency, the School received support from MRC Holland Foundation to rebuild the building including providing more toilet facilities, among others.
Consequently, the SPAA Executive decided to use the funds raised for the toilet project together with membership regular contributions to the tune of D345,150 to help in partially furnishing the administration building.
The furniture being handed over today (delivered and installed in July/August) include 3 executive office desks with senior executive chairs, a reception area desk with 2 junior executive chairs, conference table with 18 cushion chairs, and a set of book shelves. Apart from the executive chairs, all the furniture was locally made, with high quality finishing by YOBA Industrial Carpentry Workshop.
The Executive Committee would like to thank all registered and contributing members for the journey thus far. As the SPAA continues its efforts to mobilise more funds to provide further assistance, we call on members to remain steadfast and all ex-students of the School to come and join us in this noble venture.
For more information please call the following numbers on WhatsApp
Francis D. Mendy +220 976 3285
Bridget T. Correa +220 998 1664
Elina Cole +220 798 9353
Hon. Abdou Kolley +220 990 2809