The Deputy Officer-in-Charge of Basse Health Centre, Mr Ebrima Baldeh, has revealed to a team of journalists who are currently on a visit to MRC project sites in Upper River Region that plans are underway to transform Basse Health Centre into a District hospital.  He expressed optimism that if Basse Health Centre is transformed into a district hospital, the number of referrals to Bansang would decrease drastically.

He stated that the catchment area alone for Basse has a total of 137,577 inhabitants, noting that the sheer number of inhabitants necessitates the upgrading of the Health Centre to District, whose completion, he said, would reduce cost for treatment while the ambulance would also be in good condition. Mr Baldeh also pointed out that the existence of a District Hospital would ease the economic burden.

Alhagi Samba Tunkara, a commitee member of the health centre, said that there is a close working relationship between MRC and the health centre, adding that their committee sometimes organise fundraising activities for the health centre.

He also reiterated his committee’s support for the expansion of the health facility, noting that major developments have taken place in the health centre in recent times.

The St. Martha’s Skill Centre and Nursery, owned by the Cluny Sisters, recently held their graduation ceremony in the presence of parents, students and well wishers at Barra.

Sister Christiana Fefegula, the head of the nursery department of the institution, said her school was outstanding in their area and has always excelled when they go to the Lower Basic School. “I am delighted that today parents are gathered here to celebrate another step in their children’s lives. “Education is certainly the highest thing one can give to his or her child. When these children grow tomorrow, they bring honour, fame and joy to their parents. This stage is a symbol of what is to come in the future,” she said.

In her speech, Sr. Christiana Fefegula said nursery is a transition from one stage to the other and this will go on and on until they complete and become independent. Parents need to give them support at all stages. This will not only make them self-sufficient but will also empower them to strive hard to develop The Gambia to greater heights. “The government is working assiduously to get every child going to school so that no one will be left behind. I am encouraging parents to bring their children to school to be part of this drive to success,” she stated.

Sr. Ellen Tholley, in charge of the Skills Centre, said they had constraints. She said young girls find it difficult to come to register to train and be productive. She urged young girls and women to come forward, for learning is better than silver than gold. The day ended with music and dancing and prizes were given to deserving students and children

Conteh make these remarks recently during the closing ceremony of a week-long internal training course for NEA inspectors, documentalists, Accountants, etc on data base management at the NEA’s documentation centre in Banjul. He called on the participants to be very practical in what they have learnt during the training

The trainers, Alieu Touray and Malick Sarr from the Ecological Monitoring Centre for the Natural Resources Management and Technical staff from Dakar, Senegal said training on data bases is a key instrument in this generation. They said that information technology is a vital component that cannot be left behind in our development endeavours, and therefore needs to be harnessed for the young workers. He further took the opportunity and call on the trainees to disseminate the knowledge learnt to others who did not have the opportunity to attend the training.

The training co-ordinator Dodou Trawally, Senior Programme Officer at the Geographical Information Systems of the NEA, said the success behind every institution is the training and capacity building of its staff.

Two youngsters were last Monday sent to a remand centre after being charged with conspiracy and theft.

Lamin Manneh and Buba Sowe appeared before magistrate John Njie of the Brikama Magistrates’ Court for conspiring to commit a felony.

One of the boys will now go on trial after pleading ‘not guilty’ to charges of conspiring to steal two sets of bed, three tables and four benches. The pieces of furniture, allegedly stolen from the Kafuta forest park in 2007, were valued at D8,000.

When the charge sheet was read out to Lamin and Buba, Lamin refuted the accusation whilst Buba admitted guilt.

The matter was at that juncture stood down for the conviction of Buba as well as the beginning of Lamin’s trial.

The Media Agenda and Insight Training Centre will be offering certificate and diploma courses in journalism as of September this year.

This was revealed to journalists at a press briefing held at the Media Agenda offices in Churchill’s Town on Wednesday.

According to Mr. Madi Ceesay, Director of Media Agenda, the syllabus for the courses, which they have been working on for six months, has been validated with the National Training Authority and was seen as very relevant. The certificate and diploma courses will be offered side by side in 9 months he said.

According to him the syllabus includes newsgathering, feature writing, public relations, photojournalism and advertising among other subjects. He further revealed that the fees for the certificate level is D12, 000 while the diploma is D15, 000 respectively.

On enrolment eligibility, Mr. Ceesay said that journalism certificate holders would be given the enrolment in diploma courses. Those in the who have been practicing journalism for ten years in the country will admitted for the diploma while Grade 12 students who score a credit in English are also catered for and Grade 9 graduates who have been in the profession for five years can also be considered as mature candidates.

For his part, Mr. Ismaila Ceesay CEO/principal of Insight Training Centre said, “this is an opportunity for Gambian journalists and those who want to become journalists. He added that the courses are not only limited to journalists but also for those in the advertising industry and public relations departments. The course lectures include veteran journalists like Suwaibou Conateh, Amie Bojang Sussoho and Cherno Jallow.

Women’s conditions and empowerment can now be described as a continental issue, as almost every African leader has realized that women’s issues should be addressed positively since the development of any nation lies in the hands of its women. Though women have not got all the rights they are supposed to have, one can say now we are already near the end of the race. There is a saying that if you empower a woman you empower the whole nation, which I guess is the priority of every head of state. Recently our vice president and Secretary of State for women’s affairs and the National Women’s Council, hosted the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre meeting for member countries’ ministers of women’s affairs on the strategic plans of ECOWAS at Jerma Beach Hotel Banjul, which shows the clear manifestation of the struggle our leaders are performing in order to empower and enlighten every woman, down to the grassroots level, the meeting which was attended by various women across The Gambia and the other African countries was one of its kind, and very interesting and important issues were discussed, and exchange of ideas was done on how the government of ECOWAS member states can adopt the strategic plan. After the meeting SHE SHE SHE anchor was lucky to talk to some of the participants from different countries on their individual opinions about the meeting and how it will help the women if adopted. Please read:

Fatou Y Kargbo - Sierra Leone Acting Director Gender and Children’s Affairs.

It’s very worthy, good work and timely, because we have been praying for it to happen, as a gender ECOWAS focal point, we have been debating it on several occasions, and we are praying for opportunities, for us to assemble the member state ministers, in the sub region. It will be adopted if we take it to the governments; I’m sure the ministers will lobby, which is good, because it helps the message to go faster, because even when we say ‘gender’, many think it is about women, but gender stands for both men and women, and gender is a definition for any mortal, it’s part of roles and responsibilities ascribed to us as individual beings. When you talk of gender they think it is a cut-across issue. The meeting is very interesting, and the agenda on gender mainstreaming is sort of to break the iceberg at least for the people to know that when we say gender it is not let me do 50% and you do 50%. No, it’s responsibility matching. If this is a bridge, you take it from here and I take from there, it comes to the middle.

SSS: How do you think women may be able to help if the document is adopted?

FYK:Well it will help women greatly; it will serve as eye opener, enlightening women in all spheres of life economically, morally, socially, and culturally, they will know their rights as human beings.

Honorable Daniel C. Dugan, Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs - Ghana.

I think we had a successful meeting and I believe its success is not that everything went on well, but it is because what is set out to do I believe the ECOWAS and ministers of women’s affairs will both do it. The adoption of the document is left with member states because if you take it to a country, you want to adopt they will push it aside because we are Africans. We pay a little service or attention to women’s affairs, so I would say that if only our ministers who came here push the document in cabinet and make sure that it is adopted, then it will go a long way and will help to advance the women in the African sub-region.

Aji Fatou Njie – United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Dakar.

It is a very good initiative to convey this kind of high level meeting where we can discuss with gender ministers about the financing gender equality. We think that is the best way to get ECOWAS to be more sensitive to the issue of influencing micro economic development, and this meeting is of high quality, very good documents were given out to participants, and I’m sure it will make a great impact.

Sheikh Omar Fye – Head of Gender and Development Unit (Management Development Institute) The Gambia.

This meeting is a landmark achievement in the annals of The Gambia’s gender history; we are able to achieve this because of the help of God and the leadership and all stakeholders’ commitments. This is a regional opportunity to achieve integration among ECOWAS member states. The Gambia is no stranger in making a lot of advances in ensuring that women take centre stage in development activities. One great achievement is that The Gambia is a force to reckon with in setting very good examples in ensuring that we are in top management positions both in public and private sector levels.

Georgiana Kamara, Deputy Permanent Secretary to Minister of Women’s Affairs Sierra Leone.

The meeting is very much educative. In terms of mainstreaming gender and women empowerment, another high point of the meeting was the training although it was not in-depth training but we were given ideas and copies of manuals on gender mainstreaming, which too is very much in place, in that we can give focus in terms of training,  and a training need for gender and women’s empowerment’. The ideas will not be scattered this time around because we have something to look back to, we are taking back the document to different countries so that we can give focus when we want to train people on gender mainstreaming.

The National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) last Saturday ended a two-day national workshop on Kankurang traditions of The Gambia.

Held at GAMSPADD Skills Training Centre in Janjangbureh, Central River Region, the workshop was geared towards gathering custodians of the Kankurang tradition in their communities and individuals with special knowledge on local cultural manifestations.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Momodou Joof, Director General of the NCAC, dwelled on the important roles played by UNESCO in the preservation of Gambian culture.

Mr. Joof pointed out that the specific objective of the workshop was to document the significance of the kankurang to the communities that continue to maintain the preservation and transmission of the tradition to the future generation.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Baba Ceesay, Director of Cultural Heritage, underscored the important roles that kankurang traditions play in societies particularly during initiation ceremonies.

He revealed that The Gambia and Senegal have developed a project and action plan for the preservation of kankurang traditions with the ultimate aim of safeguarding our tradition.

He noted that The Gambia has for the past years registered significant improvements on tangible and intangible heritage of humanity.

The National Assembly member of Janjangbureh constituency, also speaking earlier, emphasised the need for the retention and revival of the kankurang tradition for the future generation.

Other speakers at the occasion included Seyfo Bakary Jam Jawo, Chief of the district and Mr. Ebrima Janko Sanneh from the Regional Education Office, region five.

The community of Manjai Kunda has a cause to celebrate as the area is now blessed with a modern body building centre, which is unprecedented in the history of the town.

The Centre, Sky High Fitness, is the brainchild of three youths, Lamin Keita, Amadou Njie and Maka Velly.

Located a few meters away from Manjai Lodge, Sky High Fitness has all it takes to be called a first class gym. 

Speaking to Point Sport, Lamin Keita, head of the Centre said that Sky High Fitness is a neighbourhood fitness centre established to bring youths together, adding that they have highly qualified trainers who are there to coach new members.

He said that at present they have a total of 200 registered members, adding that every day people are coming to register with them.

Justifying the formation of Sky High Fitness, Mr Keita said that the area around Manjai Kunda is popular with tourists hence they need a recreational centre where youths and tourists can go to train

He said: “It is medically proven that body building is good for the health.  

“When you come to the gym to train you reduce stress and you also make new friends. So the centre promotes not only good health but also a spirit of oneness and unity. ”

He said that they spent more than D 25, 000 to get the place done, adding that their plan is to develop the gym into a world class fitness centre.

“We built it locally but in a very creative manner. This is the best gym in the surrounding area and it’s affordable,” he noted. 

As part of the drive to promote and develop arts and culture as well as music in the country, a Gambian-born music impresario on Wednesday inaugurated a new cultural centre, Teranga Arts, Roots, Culture and Music Centre in the coastal town of Bakau.  

Speaking at the official opening of  the cultural centre, Mr Saikou Sillah, a native of Bakau explained the aim of establishing Teranga Arts, Roots, Culture and Music Centre is to promote and develop Gambian arts and culture as well as to provide music aficionados with quality musical products such as DVD, VCD and audio cassettes. He revealed that plans are underway to establish another cultural centre in Niumi, North Bank Region. He also expressed optimism that Teranga Arts would continue to provide Gambian with quality materials at pocket-friendly rates at all time. He called on other Gambians to invest in the music industry for the betterment of all and sundry.

He finally thanked the Gambian public for patronising his cultural centre, saying that they should keep up with the momentum as he is out to serve them.

Meanwhile, Teranga Arts, Roots, Culture and Music Centre which is  located along the Garba Jahumpa Road also sells T-shirts, long trousers as well as tie and dye clothes.

Dr Tamsir Mbowe, Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare has said that both the civil works and the equipment phase of the construction of Kuntaur Health Centre will be completed by the end of the year.

He was responding to a question from Ebrima Manneh, NAM for Niani, last Tuesday, during the question and answer session during the third meeting of the National Assembly in the third legislative session 2007.
Commenting on the issue of Operation Clean the Nation, SoS Mbowe said that his department uses a combination of different strategies such as malaria case management, malaria in pregnancy (IPT), ITN, Vector control (ie larviciding, thermal fogging, environmental management), etc, which complement each other in the fight and control of malaria in the country.

SoS Mbowe went on, “The monthly cleansing of the environment entails measures aimed at discouraging the breeding of the malaria vector”.
According to him, every year his Department of State embarks on a mass application of bio-larvicide in rice fields throughout the country to kill the larval stage of mosquitoes adding that this mass spraying of Banjul and the rice fields will start on the 10th of September and continue for a period of two weeks and will cover the whole country.

Responding to a question from Kebba Touray, National Assembly member for Lower Saloum, on whether there are plans to construct staff quarters for the Balanghar Sub-Dispensary, SoS Mbowe said that the Balanghar Sub-Dispensary is a wing of the Kaur Health Centre adding that this facility was constructed through community efforts and that it was the responsibility of the community to provide accomodation for the staff.
Responding to Lamin Ceesay, NAM for Sami as to when the community would have their health care rights, SoS Mbowe said Sami Pachonki is not a health centre adding that it is a PHC key village clinic run by a Cuban doctor and the facility has always, as in all similar facilities been overseen by a trained community health nurse.

Responding to question from Bora Mass, NAM for Kiang East about plans to upgrade the dispensaries in the provinces to minor health centres, especially Kiang East with its population of about eight to nine thousand inhabitants, with a only dispensary located at Kiaf, SoS Mbowe revealed that Kiaf is a key PHC Villlage, adding that the CHN en Poste attends to patients and is also responsible for other public health concerns.
“The process of upgrading dispensaries to health centres is ongoing. The latest example of this is the Kerr Cherno Health Facility. The facility at Kiaf will be upgraded in due course,” he said.