The two-day student development workshop organised by the Institute of Domestic and International Affairs (IDIA), an America based organisation in collaboration with the Better Africa Youth Initiative (BAYI) The Gambia, is currently underway at the Rosi-Kali Senior Secondary School, Banjulinding.

Annually, the Better Africa Youth Initiative select some number of students from different schools across the Greater Banjul and Western Region to participate in an empowerment programme sponsored by the Institute of Domestic and International Affairs. The aims of IDIA is to work with BAYI in order to help develop and run programmes that will help to empower youths with leadership thought and development, public speaking skills and self-skills development among other activities.

Welcoming participants at te start of the workshop, Michael Hinchliffe, executive director of IDIA, said this year's workshop would be more interesting compared to the previous years couple with the number of university students from America that participates.

He reminded participants on the importance of their participation in the workshop noting that it will enable them realise how best they can develop and mode themselves to fit into the society. He added that the workshop will also give them more scope on how to discover themselves hence they are going to work in series of groups.

Gwen Prowse, one of the participating students from America said the workshop is a forum to share information and knowledge among the students and ability to disseminate the knowledge to other fellow students. Afolabi Emmanuel and Fatou Billow, students of Gambia Senior Secondary School both share the same sentiments about the knowledge they will benefit from the workshop.

Jestina Harding, secretary general of NAPSA, advised the students to make the workshop a participatory one, as there are a lot to gain from it. According to her, the workshop is another opportunity for students to discover themselves naturally.

The participants to this year student development program were drawn from various schools namely Nusrat, Rosi-Kali, Saint Joseph, Charles Fowlis, Gambia Senior Secondary Schools among others.