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Momodou
Denmark
11717 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Sep 2018 : 15:15:36
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Lesotho King hails Njoben women gardeners
The Point: Monday, September 24, 2018
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/lesotho-king-hails-njoben-women-gardeners
 King of Lesotho, His Majesty Letsie III who was in the country for a three-day working visit as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations Special Ambassador for Nutrition has hailed Njoben women gardeners in Central River Region for their efforts in fighting malnutrition and improving the income of their families.
Accompanied by senior government officials and FAO country representative, King Letsie last week visited the hardworking women of Njoben to see first hand, their gardening activities. With support from international partners, little over 500 Gambian women in Njoben have built a successful garden and made a savings of over half a million in 4 years.
King Letsie said he was pleased with FAO’s organisation of the visit to the garden to see some of the good works that the UN food agency in partnership with the EU is doing to combat malnutrition.
“From what I heard from the beneficiaries, I am so much happy with the project because with the garden, the communities seem to have tackled two problems if not more.”
He added that the problem of malnutrition and lack of household income has been addressed by the women. “We have had from the beneficiaries that the garden does not only provide nutritional support for families but also support families so that they can have income to do other things that they need for the families. This is a wonderful achievement and I really commend and congratulate all of them in this specific project.”
According to him, what is most important is the fact that the project has reached to a level of sustainability. “We all know that in Africa, many of the projects that we embark on fall short for sustainability particularly when the donors withdraw their support.”
But he said from what he heard what he saw, he is confident that the project has reached at a level of sustainability. “I believe it is mainly because of the commitment of the villagers that we reached this level of sustainability and success at the moment,” he stated
Njoben garden started in the 1980s by Action Aid-The Gambia. In 2008, the International Fund for Agricultural Development helped the community to re-fence it after the initial fence collapsed.
In 2018, the Food and Agricultural Organisation helped through the funding of the European Union to expand the garden from one hectare to five hectares.
The community was further trained on gardening and helped by agricultural extension workers to introduce more variety of vegetables.
Perpetua Katepa–Kalala, FAO country representative said the EU-funded project supported 8 gardens in the country, which are mostly run by women.
Darrell Sexstone, an EU official among the delegation said they spent about €40, 000, 000 of aid in Gambia’s agriculture sector in the past decades, half of which is on nutrition related issues. “EU is very interested in the fight to end stunting and malnutrition,” Sexstone said.
Shering Ceesay, one of the villagers who benefited from the garden said the garden has been very beneficial to the community in providing nutrition and income.
There are currently 504 female and 14 male working at the garden. Njoben has 119 households with a population of 2349.
Author: Momodou Jawo
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Lesotho King hails Njoben women gardeners
