Many of you will know SOL (Sharing One Language) as an organisation that was set up in 1991 to support the teaching of English in the countries in eastern Europe, where English had been very restricted under communist rule.

We are based in Barnstaple where we function as a language school, but we also run supportive programmes abroad for teachers of English, whose access to the language often remains limited for financial or visa reasons.

Each year we bring more than 2,000 students to North Devon plus several hundred teachers for short intensive immersion courses in English language and culture, with students staying with host families. The experience is often their first in England and has a big impact on their confidence in using English, which is such an important asset to have these days. We also bring in close to £2million to the North Devon economy each year as well as constant advertising abroad of the area!

Since March 2020, we have received no students because of the pandemic and with no income from them, our reserves have been exhausted and we have been forced to take out the Government bounce-back loan. Despite extreme cutbacks in staff salaries and our outgoing commitments, we are close to having no cash flow and closing for good.

Our bookshop and some on-line work bring in a trickle but unlike others in the hospitality and tourism sector, we have had no Government grants to help us - other than the furlough scheme which has enabled us to keep the team together.

We are searching for support to keep us going through the next 5 months because we believe that with the Covid situation improving that we would be able to return to normal working by 2023 and based on teachers wanting to come, that even in the second half of this year, we could welcome back some groups to Devon.

The problem is that without support we won't make it to the summer and hence this appeal to friends of SOL, to local businesses and other that may know us. We hope that if you know what we do and bring, to both our visitors as well as to the community here, that you might be able to support us in bridging this gap which we cannot do on our own!

For 30 years we have shown how successful we have been, and the demand is not going to go away. We are confident about our future viability so any support you can give will be appreciated, by not only us, but by many others as well.