His
Excellency President Adama Barrow on Tuesday, August 28, 2018, received in
audience the members of the International Association of Ahmadi Architects and
Engineers. The delegation was led to the State House by the Amir of the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Banjul, Baba F. Trawalleh.
The
group was at the State House to discuss plans to expand their humanitarian
services to The Gambia through technical, engineering and technology support.
Mr. Akram Ahmedi, Chairman of the Association said this came on the backdrop of
instructions from their Jamaat leader to help develop Africa further on top of
hospitals and schools already being built.
“We
have tried to bring in water for remote villages of The Gambia and the rest of
Africa. Also, we want to bring electricity so that people can benefit from
these services which Allah has provided through these avenues,” Chairman Ahmedi
explains.
Top
on the group’s scale of preference for The Gambia is to build an international
center of excellence for vocational and technical training to be called Masul
International Technical College. The group leader said they have very good,
highly qualified, African engineers and architects who are ready to transfer
the requisite skills and knowledge needed to empower young people into
meaningful self-reliant ventures.
He
observed that there is a skills gap in the country in the area of architecture,
artistry and technical skills, which he hopes the college would try to address.
Emphasizing that their ultimate goal is skills and knowledge transfer, Chairman
Ahmedi said some of the resource persons would be recruited in-country through
training of trainers.
In
response, President of the Republic Adama Barrow said he was honored to have
received the delegation. He extolled them for creating investment opportunities
in the country with this new venture. President Barrow praised the track
records of the Jamaat for providing quality services in the country, citing the
hospital in Tallinding as an example.
He
expressed the commitment of the government in creating the enabling environment
for all to excel. The president used the opportunity to encourage youth to
learn skills if they are not able to excel academically in schools.
“Failure
in school does not mean failure in life. Not all can be employed in offices.
Hence such ventures go in line with government development objective of
providing a corps of highly trained and skilled youthful population,” he noted.