NRP Sanementereng candidate decries segregation in politics

By Isatou Jawara Mariama Saine, the only female candidate in the Sanementereng Constituency running under the NRP ticket, has decried what she described as the “segregation of women in politics”, vowing to change all that if she is elected as the National Assembly Member. Saine was speaking to The Standard yesterday at the NRP office on Kairaba Avenue. “Some people definitely help me but some make sure I do not succeed in politics. Some are encouraging me especially my honourable Minister; he doesn’t look at me as a woman. But I know that I have a lot of challenges ahead,” she said. Saine, who is among a few female NAM aspirants in the entire West Coast Region, said her active participation in the community development and girls’ empowerment gives her an edge over her opponents. “I have a project called ‘mentor a girl’ through which I trained 100 girls into mentorship programmes to empower vulnerable girls from poor communities to support their education. I campaign against child exploitation in the tourism sector. I fought to make sure young girls are protected from child sex tourism and child marriage. “Women in my constituency are very much into gardening but they lack support. “Looking at the education sector, we have only few schools in my area but I believe we have the advantage to convince our development partners to invest in education,” she said. She added: “In the area of tourism, we need good structures at the beaches to boost the tourism sector. As a former activist, I make sure women get the support that they need in business. They need to have access to finance and entrepreneurship skills. “We have only one main hospital in my Constituency that is in Sukuta. The people of Brufut have to struggle to access to healthcare. “At the moment we have conquered Sanimentereng. It’s all about what we are able to offer to our people despite being a woman. Our manifesto is good and it will convince our people because it’s not about gender, it’s about what we are able to achieve.”]]>