Youth leaders trained on decentralisation, planning

A two-day sensitisation training of youth leaders on decentralisation and planning was recently held at Sami district in the Central River Region.

The training, which was organised by RAID The Gambia, was funded by the Community Driven Development Project (CDDP)

Speaking at the meeting, the Executive Director of RAID The Gambia Mr. Sambujang Konteh said RAID is a French acronyms, meaning African Network for Information and Action Against Drugs, adding that RAID The Gambia is a local NGO founded in September 1993, as a result of the Dakar conference in the same year.

According to Mr. Konteh, the ultimate objective of RAID is to ensure that youths do not engage themselves in drugs and any substance abuse.

He revealed that research was conducted in 18 West African states in three key areas, namely drugs production, trafficking and consumption, funded by the European Commission.

Konteh noted that when the final report was presented to the European Commission, they invited 18 people from different countries, including journalists, social workers, politicians and high court judges, who met in Dakar.

For him, since RAID is a youth organisation, it does not only look into drug issues alone but also HIV/Aids, teenage pregnancy, urbanisation, environmental promotion and good governance.

Highlighting some of their achievements, Mr Konteh said since the inception of RAID, they were able to create National Youth Development Parliament, National Network for Youth Development, and trained over 10,000 youths across the country on various issues, such as drugs HIV/Aids, among others.

For his part, the Programme Co-ordinator Mr. Sarjo Komma said that this particular training targets 20 youth leaders, who were trained on decentralisation and planning. He urged the participants to filter the knowledge and skills learnt in the programme.

Other speakers included Mrs Amie Komma of Manna village.