By Arfang M.S. Camara
The Gambia Wrestling Association (GWA) will tomorrow, on Tuesday, commence a 3 day training workshop for practicing wrestlers and regional referees to be held at Janjanbureh Kankurang Center, Central River Region (CRR).
The three day convergence will bring together 30 participants representing a variety of both practicing wrestlers, amateur wrestlers and referees as well as entrepreneurs in traditional sports from the 7 administrative Regions, to work together as stakeholders in a collective process to review strategies and hone their capacities for the implementation of the project’s action plan in the establishment of network of wrestling arenas.
The training will also help to understand IP in sports to foster local policies, culture and economic development as a tool to mitigate youth irregular migration and enhance climate change in rural communities.
The training will also be focusing on traditional wrestling techniques, fair play refereeing, rules and regulations of the game, the sport’s management, it’s intellectual property entrepreneurship (IP), TV and promotional rights, access to finance to promote local wrestlers and sportsmen/women, as actors and tools for promoting local economic development, reducing poverty, enhancing resilience to Climate Change and help reduce irregular migration from the communities.
The Workshop will make use of the expertise of two wrestling technical experts, an Environmentalist and Climate Change official and an IP expert as resource persons to deliver both theory and practical sessions on different modules.
The convergence will be the 3rd Community wrestling training workshop organized by the Gambia Wrestling Association under the EU funded project “Promoting Investments in Culture, Creative Arts and Traditional Sports to Enhance Resilience against Climate Change in Local Communities”.
Tomorrow’s session will serve as follow ups to the ones held in Farafenni (North Bank Region) and Basse (Upper River Region) coupled with the one held at the GCCI Hall.
The Gambia Wrestling Association with the support of the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Gambia Association of Local Government Authorities (GALGA) with the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Gaye Njorro Skills Academy (GNF) as lead and implementing partners respectively is implementing the project which is set to construct 8 to 10 wrestling arenas, conduct a Scoping Study and Capacity Building for wrestling Stakeholders amongst others.