By Awa Macalo
Dr Isatou Touray, the former vice president, has taken back her role as the executive director of Gamcotrap, an orgnisation she founded before joining politics in 2016.
“I am pleased to say that I am back as the executive director of Gamcotrap. I am here to work with both men and women. We are looking carefully and effectively at the issues and we appreciate the efforts of the United Nations. They have been very catalytic, they have been facilitating, and they have been objectively engaging on both sides within the civil society, organisations and the government agencies,” she said.
Former VP made these remarks at a press conference organised by the United Nations on promoting women’s leadership.
She urged for a serious mobilization of both men and women to tackle gender concerning issues and create room for equity in all facets.
“We need to engage in a serious mobilization of both men and women because men are our husbands, they are our colleagues and they are also interested in power. Women are your mothers, sisters and are interested in power. So I think people have to look at ways and means of how we change perception towards women and having come out, I have learned a lot, I am now coming to engage, to support the works on the ground for us to improve the perception on women through social mobilization, advocacy, reaching out to the people, to the grassroots, reaching out to different targets and also the young people. You are the leaders today and the future leaders. What needs to be done is to have a society where you don’t feel that this is a man or a woman. It is about the issues and not the gender. Because if you look at it, men and women have something great and it is those competencies, it is those qualities that we should think about in order to make the world a better place.”
“How can you move when 50 percent of the population is not empowered to join you to move with you with the vision? So these are critical issues I am reflecting on, to support the government, to support the civil society and to also engage my organization that I founded many years ago that was very instrumental in mobilizing the young, the women and those who believe in the reason why we came out, the effects and bringing democracy to the country,” she said.
