Chancellor of American International University West Africa (AIUWA), Saturday visited The Rural Child (RC) office in Mandinaba, Kombo East, where he addressed the organisation’s children members and donated health kit packages to them.
This was Dinesh Shukla’s first visit to the child protection and empowerment organisation as part of their partnership to bring health education and development in rural Gambia.
The Rural Child is a registered child protection and development, youth and women empowerment, community development and human rights promotion organisation based in Mandinaba.
American International University West Africa (AIUWA) is a registered and approved institution of higher education by Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of The Gambia.
It provides cost effective and world-class education to qualified and motivated students directly after high school.
In the coming months and years, the two partners will introduce their health education package to rural Gambia with the coming of visiting lecturers from the United States to provide free health check ups on people and sensitisations.
Mr Shukla addressed the children and encouraged them to be consistent in their education to help them attain the high grade of success.
He congratulated RC for its smart initiative, saying he found the organisation and the life saying the life-changing initiatives of the organization are commendable.
“I did not regret my cost at all. The first priority of our partnership will focus on health and education,” he said.
He challenged the children to remain resolute in their education, reminding them that they are the future leaders of the organization.
He said RC needs to have a mentorship initiative to sensitize children, women and girls on personal health and pledged to provide scholarship to three performing and deserving children to pursue higher education at AIUW and to conduct free routine health checkups in Mandinaba as a pilot in rural communities.
The RC coordinator, Amadou Jallow welcomed the AIUWA Chancellor and updated him on the operations and achievements of organisation.
He said The RC was established following the need to provide a level playing field of access to opportunities for rural children and communities.
Mr Jallow said the idea of forming The RC emanated from a community library initiative that him and many other youth started in Mandinaba some fifteen years ago.
He said since the establishment of The RC, they have been conducting Library reading sessions and extra classes with students which scaled up their performance in examination.
“Our mentorshop program also guides children on how to chose their different careers and we have distributed face-masks in Mandinaba and other rural communities in our effort to stem down the rate of coronavirus community transmission,” he said.
According to him, the Organization has supported some needy families, including single mothers with food items during covid-19 pandemic.
Advocacy officer Biram Bah highlighted that through the mentorship program, he was able to build self-confidence and courage as he was among the first batch of the programme which started some fifteen years ago.
Now a qualified teacher, Mr Bah said the organisation has made tremendous achievements including establishing the first community forest in Mandinaba with the target to turn it into an eco-Tourism center and preserving the nature.
He said the organisation’s secretary was also awared as a human rights champion by Beakayang in 2019.
