#National News

EPAA to implement two-year Rights of Child project

Nov 24, 2021, 12:44 PM | Article By: Yusuph Ismail

Ebunja Performing Arts Association (EPAA) is on course in implementing the first phase of a two-year project on Rights of the Child in The Gambia from 2021to 2023.

At a recent presser, Janet Badjan Young, a renowned author, said the project funded by the Netherland government seeks to provide playwriting and directing skills to twelve graduates from the Department of English in the School of Arts and Science at the University of The Gambia, who are currently teachers at the Upper and Lower Basic Schools in the Greater Banjul Area.

The training, she added, would also bring to the fore the importance of human rights and culture.

This, she believes, would encourage more teachers and even students to participate and embrace cultural studies and narrating factual events on human rights violations within their communities.

She indicated that the first collection of twelve edited short plays to be written and directed by the teachers will be performed at a planned Human Rights Festival slated for November 2022.

Mrs. Badjan Young therefore extended invitation to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in providing vital information on current human rights violations which has negative impacts on children.

The partnership, she added, reflects their mission statement which requires them to inform the public of human rights.

The renowned author stated that the project would include target schools from rural Gambia, as it will invite teachers from different schools and train them on playwriting to enable them teach their students.

Emmanuel Joof, chairman of National Human Rights Commission called on all to do away with discrimination, saying children have rights to go to school and be educated for the betterment of their societies and the country at large.