Rural
youth form the bulk of returnees and potential migrants in The Gambia. One of
the underlying causes of irregular migration in the country is the lack of job
opportunities, especially in rural regions. While job availability is without a
doubt, scarce in the country, the absence of a clear tool to access job
information hinders youths’ access to jobs.
Based
on these reasons, Gamjobs in partnership with International Trade Center (ITC)
through the Returnees’ Integration Enhancing through coaching and job placement
(RESTART) project, recently organized a two-day campaign and awareness-raising
on job information for returnees in Farafenni and Soma, dubbed: tour4jobs. The
events were held on 26th and 27th February respectively.
Both
events brought together returnees, employers and local government institutions,
NGOs and parastatals to deliberate on how to increase access to jobs especially
for returnees in rural Gambia, notably in NBR and LRR regions, which of recent
have experience lot movement of young people through the back –way.
Chief
executive officer of Gamjobs, Ebrima Dem delved on the important role Gamjobs
plays in enhancing and ensuring easy access to job and job information. He
informed the gathering that even though over 1000 people got jobs through
Gamjobs platform, many people who lacked access to the internet and knowledge
on how to write a good CV continue to find it difficult to make best use of the
platform.
He
said as a social responsibility, Gamjobs deemed it necessary to support
returnees in rural Gambia to access job information through the RESTART
project, saying through the project, over 48 returnees are able to get jobs
which without the project intervention, they may likely still be unemployed.
“Access
to decent jobs is a right that every citizen has to have, irrespective of their
social status or education level, Gamjobs found is relevant to support these
people in their job search efforts.”
Dembo
Kambi, chairperson of the National Youth Council said youth constitute a
proportional percentage of The Gambia’s population and yet most of them remain
unemployed, stressing the concern of the National Youth Centre on youth
unemployment.
He
said they are ready to partner with anyone to provide meaningful employment to
youth. He thanked Gamjobs for creating such a worthy platform and emulating
initiative.
Chairman
of Kerewan Area Council and the Governor of Lower River Region both dilated on
the importance of youth employment and its socio-economic implication.
The
influx of returnees into the country without providing or assisting to have any
meaningful employment may result in high crime rate in the country. Skills
development they said is crucial to the returnee reintegration process
The
event was coupled with a presentation session by the RESTART team on CV writing
and job searching techniques while the COOPI team presented on self-motivation
and counseling.
Returnees
showed great interest in the sessions which they say was very essential in
preparing them to take advantage of employment opportunities.
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