Jointly funded by the World Bank and The Gambia government, beneficiaries of the new Nafa project, are expected to benefit from the cash disbursement programme in eighteen payment cycles in the next three years.
It will go along with Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) activities. Besides, new beneficiaries of this project are engaged through SBCC activities with basic information of the Gambia RISE project.
The ongoing disbursement programme in rural communities, is targeting additional 15,000 extreme-poor and vulnerable households in the remaining 16 districts of the country.
Under the Resilience, Inclusion, Skills and Equity (RISE) project, the Nafa Program, a key subcomponent of the RISE Project, is designed to alleviate poverty and empower extreme poor households through regular bi-monthly cash transfers of D3000 to individual beneficiaries.
Speaking to reporters recently during cash disbursement at Barrow Kunda, Jarra East, Hamadi Jobe, Regional Social Welfare officer for Lower River Region (LRR), said the expansion project targets three districts in the LRR, which include Jarra-West, Jarra East and Jarra Central.
He revealed that it is from that sensitisation program that they generated data from the National Social Protection Agency, which he said was validated and followed the successful enrollment of beneficiaries for the new phase of the cash disbursement.
Elsewhere, at a similar disbursement held at Keneba village, North Bank Region, Bakary Jallow, Deputy Director General of the National Nutrition Agency, reminded that the project has helped beneficiaries to smoothen their food consumptions by improving access to availability to food in the household.
That, he said, has also helped improve their knowledge to better guide them on how to mix different types of food for healthy diets.
Further, Jallow said they have seen a massive improvement in the number of beneficiaries, whom he added, have joined some forms of saving mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the new initiative includes; Pakaliba with 72 beneficiaries; 26 beneficiaries in Jarra Sukuta and 89 beneficiaries in Barrow Kunda.
Similarly, 24 beneficiaries are from Jarra Madina and 56 from Darsilami village.
