By Maimuna Fatty
The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS) in collaboration with the European Union (EU) together with Spanish Red Cross (SPC) has begun a project to assist migrants who find it difficult to reach their destination or return home.
Modou Touray, communication and dissemination officer, said GRCS deems it necessary to venture into migration because they want to help the most vulnerable who, in this case, are migrants.
Touray said as the migrant issue worsens, those intercepted at sea would need psychosocial support, clothing, shelter and food.
“We also train volunteers on community and accountability; how to talk to communities on the effects of migration. We also train them on what is migration and how it occurs and what are the driving factors,” he explained.
“According to the migrants, some of the factors that made them venture into the journey is to make money because there is no job in The Gambia. Peer pressure is also a contributing factor,” he said, “We believe in order to change the attitude of people towards migration, we must create the foundation at the community level. That’s why we are doing community engagement and accountability.”
