By Ramatoulie Jawo
Ms. Fanta Darboe, Gender Minister, Social Sciences and Humanity Students’ Association (SoSHSA) at the University of the Gambia urged the public to empower women for sustainable development in The Gambia.
“I urged the public to empower, celebrate and recognize the efforts of women in the country for sustainable development,” she said at the commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD) by her association on Thursday.
Darboe described IWD as a ‘very important day’ for everybody because women are the most vulnerable people in the societies; thus, SoSHSA deemed it necessary to commemorate the day.
For Fanta, to be able to break the gender biases against women and girls, everyone needs to be a change agent.
“How can we break the bias? It’s for everybody to be your own agent of change because I believe without change, we can never break the bias and it’s high time for us to break the bias and promote gender equity,” the SoSHSA Gender Minister added.
Also speaking, Aminnata Jaiteh, representative, Girls Agenda said the Gambia has many laws to tackle the issues affecting women and girls, yet they continue to face the same problems in the country.
MS Jaiteh added that the biases against the women and girls still exist and urged them not to expect anyone to come from somewhere to break it for them, but themselves..
“We as women should take off the responsibilities to break it by ourselves by going out to take leadership positions so that we can decide things for ourselves,” she recommended.
Dr. Abdu Karim Kamara, Dean, School of Arts & Sciences, University of the Gambia said women have a big responsibility which is to work hard so that they can reach their goals; saying ‘they can’t be where they want to be, without hard work’.
The event took place on Brikama campus on the theme: Gender Equality Today For A Sustainable Tomorrow; and it was punctuated by blood donation by the students for women at the hospitals.
Meanwhile, Social Sciences and Humanity Students’ Association (SoSHSA) is a student-led sub-association at the University of The Gambia comprising students under the Division of Humanity and Social Sciences at the School of Arts & Sciences.
The association, currently led by His Excellency President Ismaila Jobarteh, is tasked with the responsibility of steering the affairs of the social science students in the university.