By Aisha Tamba
The Gambia National Youth Council in partnership with Konrad-Adenaver-Stiftung recently trained 20 young leaders on social media, micro-blogging and storytelling.
The exercise was organised to support young actors in networking, accessing and disseminating effective information to support national development through proper usages of social media as the country witnessed unprecedented scales in internet usage.
The 20 participants were drawn from government ministries, youth wings of political parties and regional youth committees from across the country.
In her opening remarks, the deputy Permanent Secretary Ministry of Youth and Sports, Fatou Sosseh Jallow said the training is very critical and timely, coming at a time when social media usage becomes unprecedented especially among young people of the country.
“You will agree with me that, social media, a product of information, communication and technology (ICT) is one of the most important facilities of the modern era,” DPS Jallow said.
“It is an avenue of opportunities for many including social interaction as well as education and innovation. Therefore we should use this platforms to better humanity, improve social cohesion and for peace building,” she added.
According to her, the NYC, which is one of the satellite institutions under the youth and sports ministry, is very committed to promoting the productive and effective use of social media and new technology tools for young people to participate and promote ideals of the new Gambia.
“Investment in technology alone will do little to alleviate poverty or improve the lives of our people unless they are matched by efforts to build their capacities to harness the opportunities that the social media and other new technology tools offer,” she said.
The executive director NYC, Lamin Darboe called on the trainees to communicate the knowledge they gain in the training with their communities and fellow young people.
Meanwhile, Volk Gormy, Konrad Resident coordinator in Senegal said Konrad is a German political foundation operating in over 100 countries worldwide.
“We decided very clearly that we want to boost our presence and activities in The Gambia because after the transition of January 19 the country is in a critical situation,” he said.
“Our foundation wants to support The Gambia and the new government in their democratisation in other to assure freedom, justice and solidarity which are very important principles to our foundation.
He said democracy could not exist without democrats and “it is proven it does not come over night because Rome was not built overnight. It is a long process if the willingness is there to work in the democratisation process.”
