In her opening remarks, Mrs Kaddijatou Jallow-Baldeh, the chairperson of Fawegam said: “Looking around the hall you can see a lot of female faces which is an indication that in the near future we will have a lot of girls in the sciences and mathematics. I recall in the early ’90s when we were campaigning for the enrollment of girls at schools, there was a community that said they do not want male nurses. Their complaints were that they do not like male nurses to attend to their pregnant women. And we told them, ‘if you do not want male nurses then you must take your girls to school’. And from 1994 to date, there have been remarkable achievements in the enrollment of girls. So looking across this hall today, I am tempted to say that our campaign is yielding fruits. Because at least we are sure to have inspired many some of whom are now nurses, doctors, and pharmacists…”
The competition featured five competitors including Isatou Bahoum from SOS Hermann Gmeiner whose project was on ‘burglar buzzer’; Ajuwah Jobe from Nasir in Basse did a project on ‘fish storage’; Amie Cham from Kiang Kaiaf worked on ‘climate change’; Aminata Jobe from Bansang worked on ‘hazardous effects of indiscriminate littering and pollution’; and Mariama Jallow from St Joseph’s performed ‘chemical equation for the production of bio-diesel’ as a project. Mariama Jallow from St Joseph’s emerged as the first winner while Ajuwah Jobe from Nasir Senior Secondary became the second winner.
According to Fawegam officials, Mariama and Ajuwah will be sponsored to go to Nairobi, Kenya, with their teachers to represent The Gambia at the African competition with other FAWE chapters in Africa scheduled from 14 to 16 August. The event was attended by Ms Yadicon Njie-Eribo, the national coordinator of Fawegam, Adama Jobe, the director of science and technology at the Ministry of Secondary and Basic Education, Kumba Sey, CEO of Fanta ‘Maths-Science Competition’ and also the chief Judge of the event, Kumba Konjira a mathematician from Armitage, and Baba Jadama from MDI. The ceremony was chaired by Mrs Absatou Saidy-Camara while Ms Joanna Mendy of Fawegam gave an overview of Stem during the event. Meanwhile, the preliminary rounds of the competition were sponsored by the participating schools themselves and the regional ones were funded by the regional directorates of the ministry.
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