In an attempt to keep issues raised at the Diocesan Assembly alive, the parish priest of Stella Maris parish of Bakau has put in place the Small Christian Community to kick start this tomorrow.

According to Fr. Pius Gidi CSSp, the parish has agreed to start with 3 pilot groups. They will meet every other Friday in the month at 5pm. He says, “We have chosen three people to be on the Central Monitoring Team from the three zones.

According to Fr. Pius, the Small Christian Community will enhance parishioners knowing of each other through prayer and improve their prayer life.  This he said was through the diocesan directives that the SCC is formed ahead of some other parishes of the diocese. Parishioners are looking forward to being part of it come this Friday in the centres suggested for the purpose. Mrs. Lizzy Jallow advised parents to involve their children to be part of the evangelisation not to leave them to go and play football.

The National Council of The Gambia Young Men Christian Association (YMCAs) recently launched a skills training and enterprise development project for disadvantaged and marginalised young people in The Gambia.  The project is funded by the big lottery fund (BLF) and Y’care international, both UK based relief organisations.   According to the YMCA program secretary/BLF project coordinator Joseph Peacock, the program will last for four years; from 2008 until 2012.  “The project,” he added, “is a nationwide project aimed at reducing the twin challenges of poverty and social exclusion among young people in The Gambia.”  It is also geared towards reducing the unemployment rate among young people.  The skills training and enterprise development for marginalised and disadvantaged young people in The Gambia (STED) has a multi-faceted approach in developing the skills potential of young people in The Gambia.  Young people will be trained in viable skills of their choice and be exposed to advocacy skills using the “rights based approach to advocacy” while outstanding trainees/beneficiaries will be eligible to access the available revolving micro credit loans and input support from The Gambia YMCA’s.  This will allow them to start their small-scale business enterprises at a very low interest rate.

In officially launching the project the Honourable Mass Axi Gai, Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, hailed The Gambia YMCAs for empowering the young people of The Gambia.   Secy Gai described the program as, “another milestone in the development of young people of The Gambia.”  He acknowledged with appreciation the efforts made by The Gambia YMCA in contributing towards the socio-economic development of the country.  He went on to encourage YMCA’s to collaborate with Gamjob for the effective implementation of the project.  He noted that the project will create self-employment for young people in the country.  He concluded his remarks by advising the beneficiaries to take the program seriously. 

The ceremony, held at the YMCA head office, was chaired by Mr. Simon P. V. Cole and was attended by several dignitaries, YMCA staff and beneficiary youths.

Paul S. Mendy an ambitious, and yet dignified Accountant whose eagerness to learn more and through honesty dispenses his talent, coupled with his love for God as a devoted Christian, has branded this 39 year old Gambian as one of the finest, hardworking, tenacious and most God fearing accountant. What is needed in dealing with finance especially huge sums that belong to others? It’s only a man with clear hands and total honesty with the love for others like Paul S. Mendy that can handle bigger amounts and positions dealing with money.

Augustine Kanjia talks with Paul S. Mendy of PURA to discover his early beginnings, aspirations and his love for Christ as a Catholic and a true son of the Gambian soil. He confides in me here, please read below.

EIG: Could you please tell me about your humble beginnings?

PS Mendy: I am 39 years old. I am married in Church to Elizabeth; a very supportive young lady and we have three kids. I am a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant and an MBA Finance holder.

EIG: What is your story like about your early job before getting to this position?

PS Mendy: I started my first job with Gamtel in 1991 as an Accounts Clerk, then to Audit Clerk.

EIG: From where did you get your qualification?

PS Mendy: Due to good luck and my performance at the AAT in 1993, two of us were lucky to be awarded scholarship by Gamtel to pursue further studies in London, UK. I did my ACCA for three years. We got distinctions at AAT in The Gambia, which earned us the scholarship to UK by Gamtel. I did my ACCA in London and returned home to work. I worked with Gamtel/Gamcel on my return as Finance Manager for five years. I then moved to the private sector at the First International Bank in 2004 as Head of Finance.

EIG: Were there challenges relating to your AAT studies?

PS Mendy: Yes! But with the help of friends, we bagged distinctions in 1995. In UK, studying was a daunting task especially studying ACCA. My friend finished before me, he went before me though.

EIG: What did you do before going to UK?

PS Mendy: I had clerical job. Coming back I had to prepare budgets, prepared financial statements, treasury management and also financial management and taking key management decisions in financial areas.

EIG: Which schools did you attend that gave you this strong and edifying stance in finance?

PS Mendy: I attended St. Theresa’s Secondary School and St. Augustine’s SeniorSecondary School from Form 1 – 5 and I did Form Six in the same St. Augustine’s Senior Secondary. I further attended MDI, qualifying with MAAT (UK) and FMAAT (UK), AT- Emile Woolf Colleges, UK, ACCA Affiliate, ACCA Body UK, ACCA Fellow member, Manchester Business School-world –wide (Manchester University).

EIG: With all these you gained as a finance man, can the government or other employers trust you in line with your job?

PS Mendy: Yes indeed! I Can boldly say yes to it. The truth and confidence I have gained from where I have worked is very high. Many people including important personnel and the highest body can trust me in terms of finance.

EIG: If you are to be given a more demanding task would you be able to handle it accurately?

PS Mendy: That’s not a problem for me. I know with the help of God and my knowledge, I can execute it diligently with deeper satisfaction. All the areas I have worked can testify to this in sincerity.

EIG: How did you gain your confidence?

PS Mendy: I got my confidence from what I have learnt and from my output. During my early days, my mum pushed me quite hard to study, even when I failed she would force me to. I later realised that with determination one can achieve higher goals.

EIG: What do you intend for The Gambia and how can you help others attain this?

PS Mendy: It is for The Gambia to achieve Vision 2020 as enshrined in The Gambia’s Vision 2020 blue print. Ok, with the determination, integrity and honesty, as a finance guy, you can put your company or organisation to achieve its goals.

EIG: If given a bigger task outside of the present task, would your competence allow you?

PS Mendy: As I said before, I can execute any financial task especially with the co-operation of my colleagues that I would work with.

EIG: If given a bigger task what would you do to help others?

PS Mendy: As I have just said, with co-operation with my colleagues I can help them to manage their finances. I will teach them in finance, which will give them knowledge in their job to handle their jobs with competence.

EIG: Does anybody commend you for your honesty and hard work?

PS Mendy: Yes indeed! Especially Gamtel. Whenever I go there many always cry for me to go back there to work again.

EIG: Are there problems you face as a finance worker?

PS Mendy:The problems are only from the staff. Finance workers with principles are not liked by many. I always talk to them and you follow the regulations set aside and they would like to follow what is said to them.

EIG: Do you have any suggestions for those who want to follow your footsteps as a finance man?

P.S. Mendy: They should stick to their studies, seek assistance from qualified accountants, take them as mentors. I am always available in the accounting world.

EIG: Have you any words of wisdom for your work mates?

P.S. Mendy: For my colleagues at Pura they should keep up the momentum and continue to exchange ideas, work harder together so that we can take PURA and The Gambia forward to make it the best country in Africa and the world at large.

EIG: What experience would you use to achieve your dream of the above?

P.S. Mendy: At Gamtel, I held Financial Accounts, which included stock valuation and reporting, Management information fuel analysis, Postings cash book transactions, Maintaining staff loans ledgers, Management information – vehicle maintenance analysis. Under positions I was Accounts Clerk. As an Internal Auditor, I did Branch auditing and performance reporting with host of other assignments in related field. I later became senior Audit Clerk and Acting Internal Auditor.

I have also held Financial Accounts position, reviewing Bank Reconciliation statements and six other related functions.

I was also Financial Accountant and Acting Senior Financial Accountant. I worked in the finance department and did the preparation of the company’s yearly operational and manpower budgets including seventeen other related jobs. I also served as Finance Manager in the Finance Department and I prepared Management and Financial accounts for Management and I was laison with external auditors with a host of other assignments. I became head of Finance as well.

Well at present at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) I have worked at the Economic and Finance Department and I am the Principal Financial Analyst/Senior Finance Manager with about fifteen functions attached to the position.

I have also attended a good number of conferences and seminars with lots of certificates and diplomas locally and internationally. These and more would help me achieve my dreams.

EIG: Who has been your mentor?

P.S. Mend: My two former Finance Directors, Alieu Ceesay and Foday Ceesay both of Gamtel.

EIG: How did you get into Finance?

P.S. Mendy: O.K.! During my High School days, I did Commerce and I was lucky to get employment at Gamtel that prompted me to continue with the profession.

EIG: Are you involved in any social activities?

P.S. Mendy: Yes! Reading Newspapers, journals, listening to music, watching TV/ Video, visiting family members and friends. I am also a devoted Catholic. I served as Chairperson for Operation Tile the Church; Kanifing and I serve as part-time lecturer at the University of the Gambia.

EIG: Is there any other necessary thing you think we did not talk about?

P.S. Mendy: We have touched on the main points already.

I think those are important.

EIG: Thank you then!

P.S. Mendy: Thank you for taking your time to interview me.

From 1824 to the end of 19 century was marked by intensive missionary activities in The Gambia particularly in Bathurst and MacCarthy Island. The period can justifiably be termed an era of exclusively christian education on the Island and its surrounding mainland. Missioneres, without exception, use the school as a means of converting the benighted African to christianity via education.

The early christian schools were, without doubt, an adjunct of the church. For this reason, education for both children and adults became a primary objective in their evangelical programmed.

The Society of Friends led by the Quaker educationist, Hannah Kilhma, as the first missionary group that preceded the arrival of the Wesleyan Missionaries in The Gambia. Rev. John Morgan of the Wesleyan Mission (later to be called Methodist), arrived in Bathurst on the 8 February 1821. He and Rev Baker opened a missionary station at mandinary in Kombo North.

After abandoning the Mandinari station, Rev. Morgan joined Major Grants survey part to choose a site for the establishment of a Military Outpost in the Upper River. after taking possession of Janjanbureh island in 1823, Grant allocated the Wesleyan Mission a piece of land parallel to Fort George. In 1824, Rev. Morgan opened a station and was in charge of it until 1825 when illness forced him to return to Bathurst.

The station was not fully operative until 1831 when Rev. William Moister arrived to replace him as the new manager. Rev. Moister started the construction of a school - church complex which was not completed up to the time of his departure in 1833. The building was completed by his successor, Rev. William Fox and was opened in 1835. This historic date makes the Georgetown Methodist Church the oldest functional Methodist Church in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Meanwhile, after a decade of hardwork and a devoted pastoral duties, Rev. Fox departed and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Symons, a young englishman from cornwall in the United Kingdom. When he and Rev. Dove took charge of the Mission in 1843, Rev.

Symons opened a second mision near Fort Campbell locate at the eastern end of the Island where he moved and lived. Unfortunately, the young Rev. Symons was suddenly attacked Jellow fever which took his life in 1844 at a youthful of 29 years. his tomb has recently been identified and reconstructed by the Methodist Mission serving as interpretation of the history of the Wesleyan Mission on MacCarthy Island.

The Methodsit Mission should be commended and credited for making the most important contribution to the early development of Western education in Bathurst and Georgetown.

In August 1832, two hundred liberated Africans (170 men and 30 women and children arrived in Georgetown from Freetowan most of whom were transhipped by warsips of the British West African patrol. The creole immigrants were brought in the new British settlement of Georgetown primary to resettle and be trained in order to acquire skills that woudl enable them improve their destitute lives and recover from the trauma of the horrors of slavery and slave trade.

In realization of the necessity to educate and evangelize the new immigrants, the Wesleyan Mission opened an elementary school in 1835 and had also introduced a model farm project where most of them were enlisted for training. The georgetown Methodist school is the oldest school, next to only the one at Lobson Street in Banjul.

As the foundation of the development of Western education in Janjanbureh, the historic school had made a notable contribution to the social and economic advancement of the community. As the touch bearer of the development of Western education in The Gambia, the Methodist school had offered early educational opportunity to many Georgetownians and others from teh surrounding districts.

The Wesleyan Mission model farm project

A contribution of historic signiicance undertaken by the Wesleyan Mission was the establishment of a model farm project.

The project was instituted to provide skills training for liberated Africans and sons of native rulers. In 1836 a 600 acre farm land was allocated by government to Dr Robert Lindoc from Southampton in the United Kingdom. The philanthropist was encouraged by Rev. Morgan in a proposal intended to induce pastoral fulas to stop wandering habits and settle with their herds on MacCarthy Island. Dr Lindoc’s non-sectarian mission failed to achieve its purpose because the pastoral fulas were less attracted to the island as there was not enough pasture for their herds to graze.

Meanwhile, in 1838, the Wesleyans took over the 600 acre land to establish an agricultural project. The energetic Rev. fox became the first suprintendent of the institution. The trainees were instructed in modern techniques of farming, brickmaking and military training. In 1841, Rev. Foxcompleted the construction of a model village where trainees and instructors used as place of residence.

The Lindoe village, is locally called ‘Foday Banku’, (the mission land) was named after Dr Robert Lindoe. The model village had 12 brick houses containing six four-roomed cottages.

The success of the agricultural project did not only help to improve the quality of life of the traumatized creole immigrants, but had also played a significant role in the social and economic development of the entire community. The military training had helped to produce a strong militia readily on call for military service in times of emergency to reinforce the small regular forces at teh garrison.

The training in brick making had introduced new styles and design of permanent buildings which helped to modernize the new British settlement of georgetown. The widespread adoption of groundnuts and rice production on MacCarthy Island had also been speeded up by the training of new technigues offered on the model farm. For almost three decades of its existence, the project made significant successes in shaping a brighter future for the community of Janjanbureh.

But inspite of the achievements, it encountered various types of problems which culminated in its decide and final closure in the 1860s. the with drawals of sons of native rulers as well as the sporadic raids and distrubances from the natures of the mainland were exacerbate by a succession of natural calamities that affected the lives of both the trainees and their instructors.

Before Rev. Fox depature in 1843, sickness and deaths had tremendously reduced the number of instructors leaving his successor, Joseph May, with only three youngmen. In 1844, the island was ravaged by a swarm of locusts causing near famine conditon and damaging what was left of the mission farm. The final closure of the model village and the farm project had coincided with colonial government orders for the withdrawal of the British garrison in Georgetown in 1866.

The descendnts of the liberated Africans and the community of Janjanbureh owe profound debt and gratitude to the pioneering missionaries and those who came after them. These selfless men and their families devotedly sacrificed their lives in spreading the gospel and western education amongst the benighted Africans.

However, the successes of their pastoral duties would certaine role contributed by African preachers, teachers and interpreters whose unremitting efforts facilitated the pastoral duties of early european missionaries. Foremost among these Africans were:

Thomas Joiner (a mandinka griot, sold in Karantaba, bought his freedom in America and traded in Goree in 1810), John Cupidon, Pierre Sallah, Amadi Gum, William Joof and Jack Macumba.

These selfless men, al former slaves, but bought freedom from their masters in Goree were educated and brought in The Gambia by the Wesleyan Missionaries inorder to assist them to educate and evangelize their fellow Africans. As an ex-pupil of the Georgetown Methodist primary school, I cannot end this article without paying special tribute to my teachers and the priest of the church (1949 - 1961), Rev. JC Coker who died in 1975 (God bless him).

The caring headmaster and a devoted priest was the longest serving Methodist Missionary in Georgetown. His devoted pastoral duties had immensurably helped to consolidate the church and the christian community. As an educationist, headmaster JC Coker played a pivotal role in laying a strong foundation in promoting western education in Georgetown. His legacies remain lingering in their minds.

*The author is National Assembly Member for Janjangbureh.