Activista is an internationally sanctioned campaign forum with membership in a number of countries around the globe. Its expressed mission is to fight against the most persistent of human scourges, hunger.

A coalition of organizations championed by the world's formidable youth organisations, Actavista, an Action Aid network of students and young people across rich and poor countries, seeks to address core issues responsible for the causes of hunger, especially in the developing world, the most affected by hunger. A hunger-free world is the common language.

Brazil, The Gambia, Italy, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Thailand, and the UK are currently the countries in the lead on this global campaign. And in The Gambia, the Africa Coalition Against Hunger (AYCAH), is spearheading the campaign. Through support from Action Aid The Gambia AATG, this youth organisation recently organised a four-day training session for junior and senior secondary students across the country to, in their words, sensitise them on the causes of the scourge. The workshop was held in the village of Jenoi, LRR.

The training session focused on practices that restrict access to land by our women folks, the leading force behind food production on the continent. As future leaders, the organizers argue, these students are the most appropriate group to target, given that they will be taken over the mantle of leadership, as they will have gotten an insight on the effect of the repressive attributes of our cultural heritage, which will allow them make genuine judgement, With special emphasis on empowering the women for increased agricultural production.

It could be recalled that Action Aid had unveiled its campaign last year. With AYCAH as one of its major partners in the global fight, they conceived the idea of training core volunteers whom they will be working with in the course of the campaign. The session, which ran from Thursday 29th to Saturday 31st, brought together two students each, from 12 schools, 2 schools from each region (regions 1-6). A series of presentations, from   the role of school education in agricultural development to the role of the media in the campaign, amongst others, were delivered.

A representative of the country director of AATG, Dr Kujejatou Manneh, hailed the organizers for the initiative, describing it as timely. On behalf of her director, Madam Jainaba Nyan-Njie reiterated the significance in involving the youth, the world over, in the fight against hunger. She disclosed to the participants that a staggering 854 million people go to bed hungry everyday. This, she said, was the basis of their motivation and the reason for them initiating the campaign.

The regional education director for the area, region 4, Mr Modou Touray, described as unacceptable, revelation that a child dies every 5 seconds from hunger. In his short speech, Mr Touray sought to establish a link between agriculture and education, emphasizing that the former was a top priority for his department. While promising his directorate's unflinching support for the campaign, he recognized the need for acquiring knowledge and skills as the best means of "breaking the ice."

The coordinator of AYCAH Gambia, Sanna Bah, called for collectiveness if "we are to be effective in our mission." "Hunger-free Africa is what AYCAH is all about", posited Mr Bah. And he went on, "the core volunteers are the life blood of this campaign." As the session proceeded, the AYCAH coodinator interrupted it with a breaking news, quoting the UN as saying that "the long era of cheap food are over." Apparently, that was a vivid reminder of the uphill task that awaits the campaigners.

On his presentation, the food right manager, Action Aid The Gambia, Mr Buba Khan, delved on the need for teamwork. Understanding hunger and its causes, he said, is a crucial tool in fighting it. His presentation centred on these, with specific references to the Gambia.

The right to food for the people, Mr Khan went on, is incumbent on all government the world over. His presentation touched on key issues including food security and food sovereignty as well as empowerment of women, vis-à-vis their ability in food production. The Action Aid food right manager argued that a threat to food security anywhere is a treat to national security, citing Senegal, Haiti, Cameroon, etc., as examples of countries whose citizens earlier on went on the rampage, for lack of the basic food stuffs, thanks to the souring if prices. 852 million people worldwide, Mr Khan disclosed, are under nourished. He said that the bulk of that figure, 815 million people, are found in developing countries.

What turned out to be a striking revelation during the session was that only 6% of the population of the United State of America was responsible for the feeding of that country. And report has it that even if that fraction of the US agrarian community ceases cultivation, they can still feed the whole world for a whole 6years, without any shortage. But that record food production is under threat by the immoral human want of worldly life. We now have food for fuel, instead of food for human consumption. However, as for Mr Khan, Activista is a means of changing the attitude of Africans towards agriculture, thus rendering the effect of food for fuel neglible.

Mr Buba Sowe, the agricultural education officer at the department of state for Education, coordinated the whole program from the part of the department. He chose to hip all the blame on the colonial education system we inherited. He however called for emphasis on both the theoretical and practical aspect of agriculture, rather than stressing on only theory, as has been the case in not only the Gambia but the whole of Africa. Mr Sowe assured the gathering that the latest education policy takes care of all the problems the sector is encountering.

Jainaba Nyan-Njie, the Women's right manager at Action Aid The Gambia, expounded on the role of the media in the fight against hunger.

The workshop, which lasted for three days, concluded with a group work and presentations of a plan of action for the core volunteers in the next 7 months.

Watch out for more reports in our subsequent issues.