A new African nursery school is close to completion thanks to a West Cumbrian charity.

Siiboo Charity is run by Sharon and Colin Fox of Egremont and was set up by them following their honeymoon in West Africa.

Since then they’ve raised money to support children and young people in villages in The Gambia, sending shoes and clothing by the container load.

Since May they’ve been building a school in the village of Bakindik.

The charity was running the original school but the landowner closed it down in the summer.

Siiboo has been planning a new school for the past four years but the change in circumstances has brought the development forward.

Colin says there is still work to be done but they’re optimistic the Gambian Department for Education will let them open before it has been completed.

He said: “We still need to build the boundary wall and install a toilet which should only take a day. Then we need to put in running water.

“We have a team over there who are doing the work and they’re fantastic. I’m in contact with them every day on Whatsapp and tell them what needs to be done.

“They’re currently doing the last of the plastering and tiling the floor”.

Following a successful Christmas sale in Egremont the charity has enough money to ship desks out to Bakindik which have been donated by Seascale School.

A New Year’s Eve Party at the The Queens Hotel in St Bees is expected to raise £2,500 which is sufficient to complete enough work by the end of January to allow the school to open.

When it is finally opened the school will cater for 120 pupils from nursery age up to year three.

The charity asks donors to sponsor a chair, rather than a child, which will pay for school uniforms, which every child is given, and teachers’ salaries.

The children, their parents and teachers have recently celebrated Siiboo Day with dances and gifts and a meal.

Colin Fox says: “As the majority are of the children are Muslim it would have been wrong to celebrate Christmas with a party or similar but we wanted the children to have their day and so Siiboo Day was created.

“Siiboo Day is a day of celebration not just for the children at the Siiboo school but the teaching staff and any other associated to the project too. It’s a celebration of our journey, thanking everyone for their continuing support, celebrating successes and above all else letting the kids have a day of fun.

“The day is celebrated with traditional drumming and dance, the kids playing games, the mothers and kids dancing and food and gifts.

“Each child will be given a shoe box which contains sweets, small toys, some stationery items and personal hygiene items too. It will be the only gift the child will get that year and for some it will be the first time they have had a toy they can call their own.”