By: Sulayman Ceesay
View The Reality Foundation (VTRF) a local based foundation established in 2015 in Lower Saloum District, Central River Region North is sets to established center of excellence in between Balangar and Kaur to discourage irregular migration.
The establishment of the center is meant to discourage irregular, rural-urban migration and to ensure that people in that part of the country have access to skills and other facilities.
The center according to officials will focus on skills training in the area of agriculture, ecotourism, culture, home science, tourism and hospitality and technical skills (Carpentry, electrical installation, others).
Musa Mbye, managing director, View The Reality Foundation said the foundation’s focus is to encourage domestic and educational tours in the country targeting young people and women.
“We also sees the need to empower young people by providing or supporting them acquire the necessary and relevant skills to enhance their development needs,” he told reporters at the Banjul International Airport while receiving the partners of the foundation from Walls, United Kingdom.
He said this is very critical and as such they give it a priority and to that end they are working on establishing a centre of excellence to be located in between Balangar and Kaur, Lower Saloum District, Central River Region North.
“We all know the biggest challenge in the Gambia currently is migration and looking at the demographic watt of the youth population, majority of them migrating are coming from the rural communities and to address that issue we thought that it will be very important to locate the centre at that part of the country,” he said.
According to him the establishment of the centre will not only serve to discourage the migration trend but also to ensure that people in that part of the country have access to skills and other facilities.
He said: “The centre will make a great impact, because that part of the country is one of the most deprived in term of access to skills training facilities and there is no skill centre in that part of the country.
He said having this centre with multiple different kind of skills area that will help greatly in term of addressing the skill gap and unskilled of the young people in that area.
He challenged young people to take ownership of their own development and that of the country, saying government cannot do it alone.
“There are development partners coming to support government development agenda and young people need to take ownership of their own development and that of the country,” he said.
Latifah Charles, partners to View The Reality Foundation from Walls, United Kingdom, said she is in the Gambia to visit and see what the foundation is doing and see how best she can support them.
“I am introduced to a lot of things that the foundation is involved with which interested me. I am here to see how much I can help and how much impact I can made in supporting the initiatives of the foundation,” she told reports after her arrival at the Banjul International Airport.
She said as part of effort to raise fund to support the foundation, she is working on bring in artists to do concert in the country and later donate the proceeds to the foundation.
“I will also want to raise awareness through the concert about the foundation and also donate the proceeds to help the foundation to implement their projects. This is what I plan,” she said.
She said she have similar project back home and developed a school for African heritage children to teach them about their history, and culture. “We have similar ideas so I decided to see how I could help the foundation.”
She said: “The foundation intended to build skill centre which is very good and a need. You need to have infrastructure and people with the required skills to develop and then go out and earn a living in the community. Is all about developing skills and knowledge to enable young people have chance to work in their country.”
“I will like to do more if I can to help the foundation change lives in the rural communities,” she said.