Mrs Jagne-Jobe said this in celebrating this year’s World Thinking Day celebrated in The Gambia last Saturday. The Gambia Girl Guides Association over the weekend joined the rest of the world to observe this day at its headquartersin Kanifing. The World Association of Girl Guides chose ‘Achieving Universal Primary Education for Boys and Girls” as the theme for the celebration.
The local theme however, is ‘Education Opens Doors for Girls and Young Women’. It is a day of reflection and celebration of the birthday of Lord Baden–Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides movement and his wife, Olave, who served as world chief Guide. “This goal is a key issue affecting girls and young women around the world,” said The Gambia’s chief guide, in delivering her statement at the event.
“The UN MDG 2013 progress report noted that the slow progress in achieving MDG2 are linked to household poverty which is the single most important factor keeping children out of school. Children and adolescents from the poorest households are at least three times likely to be out of school as urban children,” Mrs Jagne-Jobe noted. “This challenges The Gambia Girl Guides Association to redouble our efforts in working with the Ministry of Education to accelerate progress in this area and work towards more meaningful outcomes in the light of the government’s development agenda,” she said.
She recalled that the Government of The Gambia has put in place several projects and efforts to make sure MDG 2 is achieved in The Gambia, while commending the president for creating a conducive environment for the advancement in education, especially of girls and young women.
According to the chief guides commissioner, her association has responded to this call for development not only through their global action theme, but also in pursuit of Vision 2020, and the programme for accelerated growth and empowerment (Page) as a national development strategy for the attainment of MDGs.
She announced that her association’s programme areas have been developed to include priority areas of the government within their resource capabilities, ‘while it purses institutional capacity development. “A Girl Guides Association strategic plan draws its inspiration from the urgency of the development intervention with a story focus on the girls and young women for social inclusion and advancement,” she noted.
The association has also established a skills training centre at its Kanifing headquarters and Soma which annually caters for over 200 young girls, most of whom are early school leavers who couldn’t continue with their education due to socio-cultural problems such as poverty, early marriage, and teenage pregnancy.
Author: Sainey Marenah
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