Empowering Rural Girls: Catch Them Young-Gambia Teams Up with UN Agencies for Life Skills and STEM Training

By Landing Ceesay

In celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child, Catch Them Young-Gambia, in collaboration with UNICEF Gambia, UNFPA Gambia, and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, has launched a transformative five-day boot camp designed to empower 20 rural girls.

This boot camp aims to equip participants with essential coding and digital skills while offering hands-on learning experiences through field visits to various sites. Additionally, the girls will have the opportunity to engage in conversations with successful women across different professions, drawing inspiration from their stories and experiences.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Luise Moses Mendy, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), urged the girls to remain determined and focused on their aspirations.

“Don’t see barriers as challenges in your careers. If you go to our hospitals, We have more women as medical doctors than men. If you go to engineering, the same thing. You have the potential, and you have the ingredients, all that you need is to push yourself to the top and have a belief that you can do it.

“I want to encourage you, I want to commend you, I want to challenge you to tell me PS, I will be a PS one day too, and I know you can do it. If you are hopeful that you can do it, you will do it. I am challenging you to seek knowledge so that you can become the person you want to be in the future,” PS Mendy told the participants.

Mr. Lamin Camara, the Deputy Country Representative of UNFPA, emphasized the significance of training programs for young girls from rural Gambia.

“This is very critical for us to bring 20 girls from the rural Gambia and St John School for Deaf. This is very important because it is part of our programs to empower young people, but more importantly to ensure that we do not leave anyone behind. A Lot of time, development initiatives are focused on the Greater Banjul Area, as a result, some of the young people in the rural communities are not exposed to the realities like other young people.

“The reason for this boot camp is to bring the young girls from rural schools so that they can also benefit from some of the initiatives that take place within the Greater Banjul Area. It is important that every girl gets the level of education that they need but also the exposure they require to reach their full potential,” he said.

Catch Them Young-The Gambia is a non-governmental organization dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and unleashing the potential of children while safeguarding and promoting their rights and interests in accordance with the principles and standards outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights frameworks.

Fatou Suno, a representative from Catch Them Young-The Gambia, believes that the upcoming event will be a pivotal moment for girls from rural Gambia.

“We hope that this event will be a source of inspiration, encouragement, and motivation to you young girls. Now is the time for our efforts, time and commitment can ensure that someday, every girl, regardless of your background, or geographical location will dream big and achieve it,” she said.

On behalf of her fellow participants, Oulamatou Kandeh, a student from Armitage Senior Secondary School, expressed her heartfelt appreciation to the organizers.

She believes the boot camp organizers aim to empower young women and foster a sense of responsibility within society.

“This is very important for us as girls. They are teaching us to know our rights and responsibilities. They want us to be responsible when we are grown up. Because it is important for us to know our rights and responsibilities. I am happy to be part of this training. It is very important for us to come here and meet with different people to share their experiences with us.

“They are helping us to build our careers. They are helping us to know our values in society, especially us girls from the rural Gambia. There should be enough experienced teachers for the rural schools to help us the girls to know what the future holds for us,” she said.