CLMSD trains Sankwia Women on Leadership skills

(Monday 21 October 2019 Issue)

 Various Women groups in Lower River Region village of Jarra Sankwia, have been trained on leadership skills by the Center for Leadership and Management for Sustainable Development (CLMSD).

This is CLMSD’s first leadership training for grassroots women associations. It was held at the Sankwia Village Multi-purpose Center.

 Founder of CLMSD, Jobarteh Fofana, who is a native of Sankwia village, said the training is part of his organisation’s core mandates to develop and enhance leadership skills and competence of emerging leaders, especially women at grassroots level and Civic Society Organisations.

Mr Fofana said the principal objective of the training is to train various women groups within the village on basic leadership with a view to equip them with essential leadership skills and qualities that will enable them to effectively lead their groups to achieve their common goals.

He said there is need to shift attention and invest more resources in the empowerment of women by creating and expanding opportunities to develop their leadership capabilities to help them meaningfully contribute to national development. 

Chairperson of Sankwia Village Development Committee, Nyabou Saine-Sanneh said they are excited about the training, noting that this is the first time the village women leaders are experiencing such an important training.

Mba Wonto Saidykhan, president of Sankwia Nematoulie Kafo, the umbrella Women Association of the village, said the one-time very powerful women association was seriously paralyzed by deep political division that existed during the second republic.

She appealed to the leaders of the various women groups in the village to unite and come together to advance the welfare of the women and productively contribute to the development of the village. 

The training culminated in the restructuring and reorganisation of the defunct Nematoulie Kafo, which is now named Sankwia Women Development Association.

At the end of training, participants elected a new central executive committee for the entire women of Sankwia village, in which they unanimously elected Mary Sabally as the new president, with Lamin Jobe Ceesay, a veteran community volunteer as the executive secretary.

Delivering the vote of thanks, Dobally Kanyi-Fofana commended CLMSD for the laudable initiative and thanked participants for their invaluable contributions during the training.