By: NyimaSillah
Awa Ceesay, a Farmer from Kololi Farm has pleaded to the government of The Gambia to help them with farmland for cultivation.
Speaking at YVE event on Wednesday, Awa said “We are pleading to the government to help us with farmland. We have a lot of water in the Swamps but we are scared to get inside and cultivate because they (the government) said we shouldn’t touch the place.
“We don’t have a place to farm anywhere we touch, the government will take it from us. We started cultivating in these areas since Jawara’s regime. But today anywhere we select for farming, they take it from us and build hotels,” she emotionally revealed.
She also said the small space that is left for them, the government came back and took it from them. Adding even the trees they planted were uprooted by them saying no one should farm or cultivate anything on that land.
“Kololi women are suffering. We don’t have a place to farm and we use proceeds from these gardens to feed our families and pay our children’s school fees. We are helpless, we are not doing anything.
“We are worried and devastated and we cannot sit like that without feeding our families. What we gain from the garden is useful for us and it assists us a lot.”
She went further saying the people that came over to drive them away took their names. “We don’t need that because it has no benefits for us. We don’t need the small change they will give us. We want to work and earn for ourselves. We believe in hard work and self-dependent but there is no place to make our dreams come true, especially places like Kololi,” she lamented.