Hello! Welcome to another edition of your weekly Youth Matters column, where issues relating to youths are being discussed. In our today’s edition, we look at the recently concluded  Kombo East Youth and Children Dervelopment Association (KEYCDA) 5th annual empowerment forum held in Jiboroh.  

The Kombo East Youth and Children Development Association (KEYCDA) on Sunday ended its 5th annual youth and children empowerment forum at Jiboroh Basic Cycle School ground in Kombo East. The forum brought together one hundred and twenty participants from the thirty-three communities of Kombo East, including those of their sister youth associations in the country. The theme of this year’s forum is “Creative engagement: A new strategy to a new horizon”. KEYCDA is the coordinating body mandated with the responsibility of all youth and children’s affairs in Kombo East.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ebrima Sanneh, Federation manager of Kaira Nyining Child Fund Federation in Kombo East, commended the members of KEYCDA for their steadfastness and dedication to the development of their district. Sanneh told the gathering that his federation’s collaboration with KEYCDA has yield impressive developments in the district, in the areas of youth empowerment and development and child protection.

Momodou Jallow, Area manager for Kaira Nyining and Samasang Federations, called on  KEYCDA to effectively prioritise child protection in their activities. He told young people of KEYCDA that they must be well abreast with the ChildFund global strategy of the ‘deprived, excluded and vulnerable’ in order to be effective youth and child empowerment advocates.

Presenting his annual report, Amadou Jallow, coordinator of KEYCDA, expressed gratitude for sharing the occasion with the participants, saying “this is indeed a dream come true” for all.  According to Jallow, they decided to make ‘Creative engagement: A new strategy to a new horizon’ as the theme of the forum because it can serve as an inspiration to the young people to renew their commitment to the sustainable socio-economic development of their district. “Five years of existence today has taken KEYCDA on an adventure that has in so many profound ways, shaped our young people to become what they are today,” Jallow said.

Achievements
Reporting on the achievements registered by KEYCDA since he became coordinator during the 4th youth and children empowerment forum in Kafuta, Jallow said much achievement was registered. This, he said is due to the unreserved commitment of the young people of the district and those of their friends and stakeholders. According to Jallow, in September last year, KEYCDA with support from the ChildFund –Gambia through Kaira Nyining Federation trained forty young people from communities in Kombo East on Junior Achievement- an entrepreneurship training that focuses on education of the free enterprise system. It also focuses on work readiness, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and teaches young people important skills to help them become economically empowered.

After the training, Jallow went on, three companies were formed with an amount of twenty five thousand dalasis disbursed to each of the companies as starting capital. According to him, these companies are now operating their businesses within the district, thereby impacting positively on the negative influence of rural-urban migration and the discouragement of the deadly venture of illegal migration.

Jallow also announced that one of the greatest achievements that KEYCDA has registered in their thrive to empowering youth is the formation of a credit union called KEYCDA Cooperative Credit Union. The creation of this credit union, he said emanated from the first Junior Achievement training last year in which participants made direct registration from their transport refunds. He said KEYCDACCU today has a membership of 143 members. “I am proud to announce before this gathering that we are currently having a standing balance of D153, 413 in our credit union account. This will no doubt give young people the opportunity to take loans to start businesses or education as must of them cannot bank with big financial institutions because they cannot meet collaterals,” he explained.

From September through November this year, Jallow added, KEYCDA has embarked on massive cleaning exercise (Set-Setal) in seven communities in Kombo East. He said the exercise targeted mainly public places like markets and schools and they were successfully done and earning KEYCDA  respect from the people.

However, Jallow observed that the commitment and dedication from the people of the communities would never go unnoticed. Other achievements registered by KEYCDA, Jallow said included quiz competitions it organised among lower basic schools in the district, the KEYCDA children committee’s participation in the celebration of the 2009 international Children’s Day of Broadcasting through a radio programme at the Brikama Community Radio Station (FMB) with other children groups within Western Region and the conduction of growth monitoring exercises for Kaira Nyining Federation, for children from 0 to 5 years in the communities of Kombo East as well as taking strong part in updating files for Kaira Nyining at its Jiboroh, Kuloro, Faraba, Sohm and Kafuta community centers and also helping in letter writing for Kaira Nyining sponsored children. “As part of our collaboration with ChildFund through Kaira Nyining, five young people in Kombo East are currently learning bakery at our Kuloro skills centre. This is in line with the theme of this year’s forum to engage our young people into meaningful activities for sustainability and self reliance”.

Challenges
Jallow further told the gathering that despite the handsome achievements mentioned and while his executive pushes for sustained socio-economic growth and improved living conditions of the young people of Kombo East, some elements still remain untackled thereby posing some challenges to their cherished goals and aspirations. According to him, they are still confronting some challenges mainly in the area of transport, office equipment and other social needs.

The membership of KEYCDA, he said is mainly youth who are poor and therefore face difficulties in travelling from their communities to attend KEYCDA activities.Also, as they intend to transform KEYCDA from an community based organization to a non governmental organization, Jallow said: “we need some more materials like computers, printers and photocopiers to enable our operational configuration effective, which should enable us to carry out our activities and clock for longer periods”. He called on stakeholders to come in and collaborate with them in order to enable young people attain their set target goals.

In conclusion, Jallow used the occasion to thank ChildFund-Gambia and Kaira Nyining Federation for their immense support to KEYCDA. He also thanked the chief of Kombo East for his support and Momodou Jallow, Area manager of Kaira Nyining and Samasang Federations for his support to uplifting KEYCDA from where it is, saying: “one word that could serve as a principle of conduct for life is reciprocity, which provides the basis for action that is mutually beneficial to two parties”.

Jallow told stakeholders that KEYCDA may not be in the position to reciprocate the privilege that The Child Fund through Kaira Nyining extends to them in this socio-economic development partnership, but they shall abide by their pledge of unreserved friendship and commitment to them and stand by their side at all times in defence of their interest and just cause.