By Olimatou Coker
ActionAid International the Gambia through amplifying change renewal is set to fight gender-based violence against women and girls.
Fanta Jatta Sowe, the head of programs and policy (AAITG), said the project will mainly concentrate on young people and its countrywide project which will cover all the regions in The Gambia in strengthening the capacity of NGVB in its coordinating role.
“It is also targeting young people and other marginalized people such as people living with HIV\AIDS, especially women, people with disabilities, hotel and domestic workers as in most cases, the domestic workers are left out,” she said.
Mrs Sowe said their concentration is on domestic workers this time as they face a lot of violation and no research or intervention has been done among such people, who are are mostly women.
“We are going to do a lot of information gathering to put the evidence together for more strategic intervention among this category of women and also on the survival of gender-based violence victims.’’
The project will also support grassroots women advocacy groups such as rural women assembly, the women pressure group, gender action group within the communities to equip them in order to serve as watchdogs.
Fallu Sowe thanked the partners for their continued financial and technical support to the network.
“Amplify change entered into a tripartite agreement to address FGM/C and other forms of GBV in The Gambia. Since then, the network’s secretariat and members have benefited from various capacity building programmes”.
He praised the membership of the network including government-affiliated members, the health facilities that host the one-step centers, and care team members for their support and partnership during the course of the last two projects.
“Using the knowledge from our experience and the research conducted to effectively prevent and respond to SGBV and promote SRHR of young people and girls in the next two years of the project”.
Musu Bakoto Sawo, the chair, said the project is not only for the secretariat or ActionAid alone but the collective membership of the network.
