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‘Bio-fortification project targets 18,000 rural households’

Aug 9, 2017, 3:45 PM | Article By: Abdoulie Nyockeh

The project coordinator of BIO-Fortification under the United Purpose formerly known as Concern Universal, Ismalia Bojang, has said the project target to reach out to 18,000 rural beneficiary households across the country.

He said the project funded by the European Union under global inclusive and sustainable value chains and food fortification of which Gambia was one of the ten or so eligible countries facing severe challenges with improving nutritional status of their populations.

He was speaking during the national launching of the Bio-fortification project held at the regional education directorate region 2 in Brikama West Coast Region, recently.

He said the project was aimed at reducing micro-nutrition deficiencies of women and children in The Gambia through sustainable and integrated approaches to food fortification.

According to him, sustainable, access to good food that is nutritious, diverse and well accepted, available all year round is the aim of the project.

Mr Bojang said United Purpose is an international development charity with an innovative community led approach to delivering the sustainable development goals and eradicating global poverty and inequality.

“We work in partnership with donors in this action and EU is the largest donor,” he said, adding that their unique approach combines with high quality intelligent development, innovative and enabling independence.

“Our purpose is to tackle poverty and inequality by enabling people to improve their lives for the longer term,” Mr Bojang noted.

He said they also challenge the dependency culture by providing practical local implementation of the sustainable development goals and placing communities in the leadership of innovative solutions.

He cited that their strategy for the current 5-year period focuses on livelihoods and job creation, resilience and capacity building of civil society organizations to support effective decentralisation.