Seventeen soldiers’ wives Thursday ended a five-week paper art and Chinese knotting course. The closing ceremony of the course, which was presided over by the Taiwanese ambassador to The Gambia, Samuel Chen, took place at the Taiwan Culture Centre at the Gambia National Petroleum building along the Bertil Harding Highway in Kanifing.

The course was organised by Madam Leigh Chen, wife of Ambassador Chen, who has taught paper art and Chinese knotting for 30 years. The course is also supported by Ambassador Chen and promoted by the chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of GAF, Lieutenant General Ousman Bargie. This is the second batch of participants for the course.

The weeklong course aims at teaching participant’s paper art and Chinese knotting to achieve the goal of culture exchange between Taiwan and The Gambia. It is also observed that focusing on the soldier’s wives is good for the development of military exchange and the mutual handiwork will help to learn the skill and exercise in many ways.

Delivering his closing remarks, Ambassador Chen told the gathering that the course is a kind of cultural exchange in which one can find the world interesting where people learn and appreciate one another’s talent. “To be an artist, you must always be able to organise your work in good order and try very well to learn from others,” he said. He stressed that the course was not only meant to design beautiful materials but also as a resource re-cycling to utilise the used papers into another useful product.

Haddi Sanneh, who spoke on behalf of the soldiers’ wives, thanked the Taiwanese Embassy and Madam Chen for initiating the course, saying “our group is just a few among others who will benefit from the initiative”. While further commending Ambassador Chen and wife for the initiative, Sanneh equally assured that they would do their best to maximally utilise the knowledge they gained from the course.

The deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Fatou Mbaye, also expressed gratitude to Madam Chen for the initiative, describing it as worthy.  The chairperson of the Gambia Women’s Federation, Fatoumatta Jah and staff of the Taiwan Embassy attended the ceremony.