By Olimatou Coker
The Jama Youth Organisation (JYO), in partnership with the Brikama Area Council, the National Disaster Management Agency’s West Coast Regional Office, and the Gambia Red Cross Brikama Branch, recently held a daylong cleansing exercise.
The organisation organised the cleaning exercise to clean Brikama market and raise awareness of communities’ responsibility to keep their surroundings clean to promote a healthy environment.
The Brikama Area Council chairman, Yankuba Darboe, said the cleansing activity focusing on the town’s biggest and most populated market is crucial.
“It means a lot to us because the council alone cannot do it. I want to take advantage of the occasion to call on other youth groups to emulate the Jama Youth Organisation,” he said.
Modou Bajan, the secretary of the Jama Youth Organisation, said the youth-led organisation has organised similar activities in other councils geared towards promoting hygiene in markets.
“We are aware of the fact that the councils cannot do this all alone. As a youth organisation, we want to collaborate with them and other stakeholders to ensure that the environment is clean because when the environment is clean, it promotes a healthy living condition,” he said.
Sarra Baldeh, the organisation’s vice president, appealed for support to fund the organisation’s implementation plan of an integrated solid waste management strategy in partnership with councils to address waste management.
“We want to turn waste into a lucrative business that will create employment for young people and help alleviate poverty,” he said.
