Abdoulai G. Dibba
Two Civil Society Organisations in the Central River and North Bank Regions have been trained on the techniques and skills in lobbying and advocacy, to protect the environment.
The training of members of Rural Women Assemblies and Rural Forestry Platforms, were held at the Kuntuar Area Council hall and ADAWAC premises on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th respectively.
The training was funded by an EU Project entitled: “Empowering Civil Society Organizations to mobilize Citizen Actions towards a greener economy and environmental sustainability”, for an amount of Euros 500,000, of which Euros 450,000 came from the EU and Euros 50,000 came as co-funding from ActionAid, CRS and United Purpose (UP).
In her statement during the opening session of the training, the Coordinator of the Project Sarjo Camara Jarju, informed participants of the three-year project which is being implemented by ActionAid the Gambia and its partners, CRS and UP in North Bank and Central River Region North and South.
Camara who told participants that she does not want to pre-empt the training, said the facilitator is an expert in his area, adding his task is to equip them with advocacy skills that will enable them get to the causes and heart of problems, in order for them to have an idea of how to solve them; She added the facilitator will train them on lobbying which one needs in advocacy work to achieve ones objective.
Camara further assured participants that they will be trained on the requisite skills to raise their awareness on issues of human-induced climate change and how society can make changes to reduce this risk by protecting their environment and the natural resources of the country.
This, she said, cannot be done individually; thus, the need for the training.
The Chief Executive Officer of Kuntaur Area Council Modou Sambou, commended the project authorities for choosing their Local Government Area which is the poorest in the Gambia, in terms of revenue generation.
He said their responsibility as Council is to address the needs and aspirations of their people. He thanked the project for complementing their efforts towards what they are doing. He said his Council is available to assist the project to ensure its success.
CEO Sambou urged participants to take the training seriously and practise what they learn by sharing the message with other members of their organisations who did not have the privileged to attend.
