Campaign, volunteer leadership training wraps-up

A weeklong training on campaign and youth leadership to help in the fight against hunger ended on Friday 26 March 2010.

The training, hosted by the Gambia Pastoralist Institute (GPI), was attended by activista from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Denmark and the host The Gambia.

Activista is an action aid international's network of students and young people across different countries that campaign for a hunger-free world.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Simone Hagensen, a trainer from Denmark thanked all the participants for making the seminar a success story. She advised the participants to campaign and share their skills with friends so as to fight against hunger.

Mr. Lamin Nyando, a representative of ActionAid The Gambia (AATG) stated that activista is playing an important role, especially in the fight against hunger. He maintained that activista is an important partner in the hunger-free campaign, noting that mobilising youth workshops is very useful in terms of building capacity.

According to him, such training is the beginning of a regional and sub-regional campaign to fight hunger, noting that more will be endavoured, if ideas and skills are shared out.

He challenged participants that skills acquired during the course are shared out as their slogan "free the billion hungry" is very crucial.

Deputy Permanent Secretary for Youth Mr. Alieu Jammeh made similar remarks.

For his part, the Executive Secretary of the National Youth Council, Mr. Marcel Mendy said that youths are future leaders, but are already leaders in their own hand, describing the training as very important.

In delivery the vote of thanks, Ms Fatima Madaki, a representative from Nigeria thanked their trainers from Denmark, saying that "without them they would not have reached where they are today."

She thanked the Africa Youth Coalition Against Hunger (AYCAH) for organising the forum.