Over 30 young people from across the country Friday took part in a three-day workshop on youth entrepreneurship development held at the B.O. Semega Janneh Hall in Tallinding.
The capacity-building workshop, which aimed at empowering the youths with entrepreneurship skills, was organised by the Vision Development Foundation (VDF), in collaboration with Child at Venture, a Dutch-based non-governmental organisation.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Momodou Manta Jallow, administrator of VDF, gave a brief background of the foundation, saying it seeks to complement the government’s efforts to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Vision 2020 and the Silicon Valley of Africa project.
According to him, the main areas of intervention of the foundation include financial and material support to community-based projects, education, support for health and nutrition activities, environmental sanitation, development and protection, skills capacity building for women and youths, and assistance to disaster victims.
Lamin B. Dibba, executive director of NGO Affairs Agency, described the training as very important for youth development, noting that the youth should involve themselves in entrepreneurship skills development for their future advancement.
He stated that the youth of every generation are the hope of a country, adding that youth empowerment requires entrepreneurship skills development to enable them become self-employed and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.
"This is the current thinking and policy of the Government of The Gambia as initiated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)," he said. "The
For his part, Momodou Turo Darboe, founder and chief executive officer of VDF, who spoke in an interview with our reporter shortly after the ceremony, reiterated his foundation’s commitment in contributing to nation building.
He commended Child at Venture for "the trust and confidence they have" in his foundation, saying that the training was phase one of a longstanding relationship between the two NGOs.
Darboe said: "The vision of our foundation is for the realization of the existence of a cohesive, united, cooperative, conscious and peaceful society that can articulate opportunities and mobilize resources, as well as implement our own development priorities geared towards the country’s socio-economic advancement."
While appealing to the authorities for his foundation to be provided with a plot of land for the construction of its office complex, Darboe added that more than 500 community organisations located in different parts of the country are affiliated to VDF and are direct or indirect beneficiaries of VDF's assistance.
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