Saamasang
Federation, an affiliate of ChildFund The Gambia, on Tuesday commenced a 2-day
stakeholder engagement on youth employment.
The
forum was to create space for youth and other stakeholders such as government
authorities, private sector, parents, and community leaders to engage one
another on how to effectively increase youth employment.
Speaking
at the opening ceremony at the Regional Education Directorate in Brikama,
Fabakary Fadera of Saamasang Federation said the Community Reflection Survey
conducted in 2015 by the federation in Kombo Central District revealed low
level of employment among youth.
“Unemployment
came out as a very distinct issue,” he said.
“The issue of unemployment is a national issue and what makes it more
important is that youth contribute a high percentage of our population; it is
therefore important to find solutions to the unemployment problem.”
Mr
Fadera said the high rate of unemployment among youth is due to inadequate
livelihood skills, school dropout, low job opportunities and inadequate
start-up capital for youth with vocational skills, among others.
In
view of this, Saamasang Federation designed a project to increase youth
employment opportunities in Kombo Central District.
As
part of the project and with the support of partners like ChildFund, the
federation has embarked on a number of interventions to address the problem of
unemployment in the district.
Such
interventions include livelihood skills training where selected youth were
trained on skills such as catering, sewing, hairdressing, plumbing, shoe
making, food processing and preservation among others.
It
also includes a programme which targets both in and out of school youth to set
up social and financial enterprises.
The
federation also supports youth through their community associations in setting
up youth and children structures which has proven to be very effective in
preparing children and youth for their own development.
Mamud
Keita, on behalf of the governor of West Coast Region, said youth are the cream
of the nation and as such they have a very important role to play in the
development of the country.
He
said there is a need to find ways and means to engage youth in meaningful socio
economic activities that will ensure their contribution to national
development.
“This
cannot be achieved when youth are not given job opportunities to work and earn
a decent living and thus contribute to national development,” Mr Keita said.
Ousainou
Sarr, technical specialist youth, ChildFund The Gambia, said there is a need to
initiate and create opportunities where youth are able to utilise their
capabilities to discover their hidden talents and apply them.
“We
need to be able to collectively put our resources, knowledge and skills and
create an environment where this knowledge and skills will be a swimming pool
that every youth can swim and enjoy the beauty of the swimming pool,” he said.
Lamin
Darboe, executive director of National Youth Council, said when people are
empowered, they do not only take decisions but they take decisions and
willingness to face and take responsibility of the consequences of the
decisions they make.
The
NYC executive director said decent jobs must be created for the youth, jobs
that are not hazardous to their lives and livelihood, jobs that are able to
cater and provide for young people to meet their fundamental basic needs.
“We
can address the issue of [youth] migration if we are able to create decent jobs
for young people,” he said.
