FAWEGAM Holds 7th AGM

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

Bekai Njie

10 June 2011

The Forum for African Women Educationist (FAWEGAM) Gambia Chapter Thursday held its annual general meeting (AGM) at TANGO Conference Hall in Kanifing.

FAWEGAM is a non-political organisation that has been in existence for the past 19 years and its aims among other things, are to bring together women educationists, policymakers and other prominent women with a view to create avenues to support girls and women to acquire education for a more better development.

Speaking at the meeting, on behalf the minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Fatou Njie-Jallow; director of Human Resources at the said Ministry averred that it is always vital for one to reflect on successful milestones and know challenges encountered and to re-strategise to forge the way forward. She reminded the gathering that the general assembly is the supreme governing body of the organisation and that it meets once in every three years to bring the members in a bid to review its role and the structure and also consider proposals on the policies and objectives among a host of others. She said: “The task of this assembly is therefore a herculean one and it is therefore the responsibility of everyone to ensure that the right decisions are made inline with what we are advocating for as a body. This is [all] about working towards the advancement of women and girls; promoting gender equity in education and the elimination of all forms of discrimination and obstacles to girl education.”

While commenting on the progress made so far, she acknowledged that FAWEGAM in partnership with her Ministry and the gender unit has registered numerous successes. She said the Ministry is pleased with the progress made in enrolment of the girl child to school and also in the area of reducing early marriage through the advocacy mediation and negotiation at family levels. She further stressed that significant efforts have also been made in the area of advocacy on retention and improved quality education for girls, especially in mathematics and the sciences at senior secondary school levels.

While stressing that the challenges are enormous, Njie-Jallow called on members not to relent in their efforts to achieve the vision and objectives of the organisation. “We should continue to work closely and collaboratively with government and other stakeholders in education. We should work with civil society especially grassroots communities; these are the people that need our assistance and interventions the most,” she stated.

Madam Jallow then made it clear that FAWEGAM has a stake in ensuring that The Gambia achieves its MDGs targets, which include gender equality and women empowerment. She added: “We must endeavour to build the capacities of girls so that they can work with both men and boys to produce a competent human resource base for our dear motherland. We must empower them through education to become future women educationists chanting the voice of FAWEGAM.” She assured that her Ministry will always support FAWEGAM in its quest to provide quality education and to ensure that the goals of higher education for girls are accomplished. She finally thanked FAWEGAM’s partners including the US Embassy in Banjul for their support.

In her welcoming remarks, Emily Foon-Sarr, chairperson of FAWEGAM informed the gathering that the forum is an avenue where members sit and discuss issues that are of paramount importance. She said that in the area of education, a lot has been done to intensify the system for the girls, but admitted that series of issues have been hindered by the global economic turmoil. She said FAWEGAM operates in every African country, and that before its existence 19 years back, 24 million young girls were out of school. She then noted that since then, significant efforts have been stepped up to diminish those kind of issues.

Foon-Sarr also said that lots of progress have also been made, and finally thanked the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education for their enormous support in over the years.

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