By Yunus S Saliu
The National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) in collaboration with International Coalition of Sites of Conscience Sunday ended a weeklong training on skills acquisition, development, community outreach and peer exchange program.
The eight-day training program held in Juffureh and Albreda villages was meant to combat illegal youth migration in Niumi, North Bank Region.
The training program which began 30th December 2019 and ended on 5th January 2020 was fully sponsored by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. The program packages included training of twenty tour guides and training of thirty women on batik, ties and dye production for self employment.
Participants were selected indigenes of Juffureh and Albreda and suburb this with the aim of helping them to earn a better livelihood from their communities.
Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of NCAC explained that the idea “is to encourage the youths to have hope in their communities and stay in their communities and avoid the ‘backway’ adventure.”
He noted that during the course of the training the women produced some hundreds pieces of batik, tie and dye textile materials for sale and “the proceeds from the sale will be plough back to the groups to enable them to develop and sustain their production.”
DG Hassoum said the tour guides were also trained on the significant of the culture behind the sites to enable them give accurate information of the heritage and related sites to the visitors.
More tour guides, he noted, will be trained in the nearest future hence the NCAC is having intention to develop a nature training “because Juffureh/Albreda has a lot of beautiful bushes for bird watching, nature trail walk among other things.”
“Heritage is just one gold mine in the communities, the island and the other related sites in Juffureh and Albreda have other opportunities for the youths such as garden, fishing, farming, river cruising, horticulture, crafts – making of instrument, Kora, smith among others.”
DG Hassoum thanked International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and encouraged the trained tour guides and community women to make their livelihood a sustainable to avoid repeat of slave trade and traveling through the sea whereby some of the youths died inside Atlantic Ocean.
Ebrima Jammeh, Destination Manager NCAC disclosed that during the selection of participants for the training, the center make sure that participants were selected from each of the ethnic group in the two communities and suburb areas.
He expressed their satisfaction over the performance of the trainees and said NCAC is optimistic that they can still do more and better they (trainees) have further opportunities.
However, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience is the only global network of historic sites, museums and memory initiatives that connects past struggles to today’s movements for human rights.
The trainees expressed delight on the program and described it a pathway to self-employment. Both the trained tour guides and community women for the skills acquisition were certificated for attending the course.