Agricultural training school completed in Njongon
April 03 2009
Training Centre completed in Njongon.
The boys and girls who have started to attend the Training Centre in Njongon are fulfilling a life long dream of Momodou Joof our partner in the Gambia.
Over 25 years ago he set up the Future Farmers of the Gambia to provide training for the rural youths. It seemed like it would never happen but with a lot of work by the young people, some help from Swedish friends and our donations for the building materials we now have a school which can take up to 20 students . They can stay on site full time and learn all aspects of agriculture and animal husbandry. This knowledge & skill will encourage and enable them to stay in the rural area and develop market gardens and animal breeding and discourage them from the towns with their bright lights & inevitable problems of urban poverty & unemployment and all that that leads to.
This year there is no charge for the course, hopefully this will avoid any dropout. It is expected that we will get government approval & this will allow us to levy a small fee & “perhaps” attract some Gov’t support. Currently there are beehives, a garden, a brick machine to train on, some animals and very importantly, use of the new tractor which can be hired out with the students to local villages. Under supervision they can learn and earn some income for the Centre.
We are still looking for help to provide toilets and showers but the project is ‘ploughing’ ahead with a very enthusiastic bunch of students.Here are photos showing the buildings at the training school as they developed over the last 4 months to completion.
