By Momodou Jarju
Founded in 1995 as a community based organization (CBO), ‘Fandema Kafo’ Farmer Organization is pleading to the Government of Adama Barro, Non-Governmental Organizations and philanthropists, for financial support to put the ‘Kafo’ on a firm footing.
The organization which comprises the four Regions namely the North Bank, Upper River, Central River and Lower River Regions, engages in food production and environmental protection.
The organization has membership in two hundred and fifty-four communities in the aforementioned regions with their headquarters in the Upper River Region.
A delegation of fourteen women and a man, visited Foroyaa last Friday to express their concern about their organisation, and to solicit financial support from Government and other stakeholders.
Founder and Secretary General of the organization Ebrima Sorrie Bah, said their mission is to improve food security, water and the environment, for the country, but that they lack finance and capacity building for their executives at the community, village, zonal and regional levels.
The above constraints he said, warranted their visit to Foroyaa, adding that they intend to establish a Credit Union which would help them with microfinance to ameliorate and improve their constraints for the better.
“We lack processing facilities for our vegetables and fruits e.g. mangoes. We lack technical and financial support to carry out our environmental objectives. And we lack institutional support in the form of staff salaries and office equipment and mobility. Due to lack of finance, our women groups are very vulnerable to bad loans from conventional banks,” he said.
Bah explained that they met with the Chief Executive Officer of Qcell Muhammed Jah and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Qodoo Mobile Financial Services, a subsidiary of Qcell; that they also met with several Government officials to discuss their plights.
“The delegation met with the Vice President and Minister for Women Affairs, the Ministers of Trade and Tourism, and the head of the Barrow Youth Movement for Development, who gave pledges to support the organization,” he said; that they will visit the Women’s Bureau today where they will hold a press conference with the media.
