By Omar Bah
Ebrima L. Dampha, the President University of the Gambia Students’ Union, has said that the UTG, VUB partnership is the best thing that has ever happened to the country’s university.
Dampha who was recently awarded as the ‘Emerging Youth Leader of the Year’ in the West African Leadership Summit in Lagos, Nigeria in recognition of his exemplary leadership said the UTG students are doing all they can to ensure that the partnership continue to grow stronger.
“The benefits that the UTG is enjoying in this partnership are overwhelming…It is through this partnership that the University was able to have its first recognize Hub, online library and an exchange program were students of the university will go to Europe to learn about their modalities and comeback to share with their fellow students,” he told The Standard on the sidelines of a visit in Juffureh.
Dampha said he cannot express how much his fellow students feel about the partnership.
“The relationship is more than the student level; we have our management and lecturers going to VUB through the exchange program.
As we speak we have about five students going to VUB for three months exchange visits,” he added.
He thanked Jimmy Hendry Nzally, a graduate of the University of The Gambia, who is currently doing his PhD in political science at VUB, for spearheading the partnership, saying they are very much happy to have someone selfless like Jimmy and “if Gambia had ten people like him (Jimmy) the future would have been brighter”.
Dampha said apart from the overwhelming benefits, “We also learn through our fellow students from VUB that when one wants to be successful you have to respect time and try to adapt to any situation that you find yourself”.
He thanked the University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Faqir Muhammad Anjum for being there for the UTG students whenever they knock on his door.
“We are also glad that he sponsored part of our trip to Juffureh”.
Visit to Juffureh
Alexandre Kahn, one of the visiting students, said: “It was a very nice trip with the student council to Juffureh to have a firsthand history of Kunta Kinteh”.
He said before visiting Juffureh he knew very little about Kunta Kinteh, “In Europe we read history but the story of Kunta Kinteh is not much talked about and I am very glad to know that his story is very interesting, especially the fact that some of his family members are still alive”.
His colleague Steven Denys, described the visit as both interesting and educative, adding that he was glad to have learned that Gambia is blessed with a very rich history “when it comes to slave trade”.
“It was a pleasant trip.
The history of the Island was not something we covered in school we just had little history about Africa generally, so really the visit was very interesting,” he concluded.
