Simma Vocational Training Institute and Women's Resource Centre, a charitable organisation which based its training on skills, has just concluded a one-week skills training for over fifty students from East London University and Denmark, on soap making, batik, tie and dye and some needle works.

SIMMA was established in 1991 by the late Satang Jobarteh in response to the need for vocational training centres to complement and support government's efforts to make education accessible to all and to equip youths with the vocational qualifications for the labour market.  Its operations are in line with the education policy of The Gambia.

The training school has about 98% of its students as females.  According to Mr Ousainou Jobarteh, the Director of SIMMA center: "our emphasis is on access, quality and relevance with specific focus on the girl child".  He added that about 98% of their students are "females who frequently have the least advantage in our society with little or no education and few marketable skills."

He said that its thematic areas of operations include education and skills training, sensitization and awareness raising, advocacy and counselling, publication and  documentation, and capacity building, among others.  Mr Jobarteh continued that the main purpose of the resource centre is to showcase the vital contribution of females in national development in order to strengthen women's participation in the socio-economic development of their respective communities for gender equality through genuine partnerships, participatory approaches, dialogues, understanding and recognition of each other's role.