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FIOH Outlines Commitment to Community Development

Jun 25, 2009, 5:07 AM | Article By: Abdou Rahman Sallah

Alfred Hodel, the Human Resource and Economic Manager of Future in Our Hands (FIOH), a registered Non Governmental Organisation has underlined his office's commitment to rural community developments.

According to him, since the establishment of the NGO 30 years ago, FIOH has been doing everything humanly possible to support communities, particularly in the rural areas.

Mr. Hodel made this statement in an interview with this paper, at his FIOH's office in Manjai Kunda yesterday. He revealed that FIOH has been working with other NGOs, such as UNICEF, WB, and SDF.

According to him, FIOH ultimate aim was to build more classrooms for school children, provide skills centres for women and youths to enable them acquire livelihood skills for better living.

"FIOH is also concerned about the conservation and protection of the environment, and as a result the NGO has formed environmental clubs in their various intervention schools in Region 4, 5 and 6", he stated.

He disclosed that in most instances, the funding is done by the Swedish government. He also stated that there are other donor agencies, which support some of the projects. He cited Tanka Tanka Foundation as an example, which he said, sponsored the construction of Campama.

For his part, Mr. Babucarr Camara FIOH's Project Coordinator said that FIOH is now operating Village Development Projects piloted in two villages, namely Pallol and Tabanani in the CRR South.

According to him, for the past twenty-six years, FIOH were mainly focused on classroom construction, noting that nearly one thousand classrooms blocks were constructed across the country.

Mr. Camara further revealed that FIOH is using participatory development approach, where the communities are involved from the project identification stage to the implementation.