The
Iceland Friendship Association-The Gambia (IFAG), a charitable organization
registered in The Gambia in supporting education, child protection, women
empowerment and community development, has spent D1,543,779 towards the
education of 104 Gambia students.
Speaking
at a media briefing held at the Coco Ocean on Thursday, Fabakary Kalleh,
coordinator of the project, explained that the support was spent on 104
students from upper basic schools, senior secondary schools, tertiary education
(technical and vocational) as well as university.
Mr
Kalleh said the project seeks to provide financial and material support to
needy children in the North Bank Region to contribute to the attainment of
universal access to relevant and quality education.
The
specific objective of the project, he went, are to support about 100 needy
students with financial aid in their educational pursuit and to contribute
towards the improvement of the nutritional standard of needy students as well
as to contribute to the universal access to relevant and quality education.
Since
the launching of the project last year, D1,543,779.00 has been spent on
students, he stated, saying they still have D175,000 to spend before the end of
the academic year.
He
thanked the board members of the association for visiting The Gambia to see how
far they had gone with the project.
Omar
Kristmundsson, Chairman Iceland Friendship Association-The Gambia, said they
had gone a long way in the cooperation, adding that the visit was to gather
information of the association’s operation and how things are going as well as
discuss the next steps.
Running
a programme like this was in many ways difficult, but it was their conclusion
that all the money was delivered to beneficiaries, he said.
They
had also visited many of the beneficiaries and were quite impressed, he said,
adding that they are looking forward to continuing the programme.
Arndis
Jonsdottir, board member of the association, said they need to ensure funds are
spent wisely and get good results from investment.
He
said it was important for them to see what the programme was delivering as they
were looking at it as an investment in human capital.
“We
are supporting Gambian businesses because the beneficiaries will grow up to be
highly skilled workers,” she said, adding that they hope to continue supporting
the programme.
Adama
Thorpe, a first-year student of the University of The Gambia, who is a
beneficiary to the programme, expressed delight for having benefited from the
programme.
Everything
has been going on smoothly as regards her payments, she said, adding that the
project has transformed her life in a very positive way because she would not
have been at the university without the scholarship.
