By Maimuna Sey-Jawo
At least 30 Gambian security personnel drawn from the police, immigration, Gambia revenue authority, fire Services, drug law enforcement agency and the prisons, have been trained by Caritas Gambia Social Cohesion and maintenance of peace in the society.
The 3-day training was meant to build the capacity of the nation’s men and women in uniform on peace building and social cohesion. It also sought to help identify potential cause of violence.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the 3-day training, Pedro Gomez from Caritas Gambia said: “the project started since 2019 where they bring cross section of the population to talk to them about peace, because since the former Government left there has been a lot of noise about democracy and people tempted to abuse the word democracy.
Mr Gomez described the training as timely “because the country is in election year and the only people who can serve Gambia are the Gambians, no matter what amount of money is given, a reason this workshop is organise to train Gambians.”
“And similar trainings were conducted before for teachers, students, women groups, journalists and here today is the security services this is all gear towards contributing our part to peaceful Gambia, and the 30 participants present here are key players in keeping the country peaceful,” he said.
He recalled that the project is ongoing project under Caritas Gambia in partnership with Catholic Relief Service, started since 2019 and it will end in 2021 but we are going to enroll it and continue after 2021 with availability of funding from partners.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, ASP Lamin Badjie, expressed delight about the training and described it “very timely and educative and I have learned a lot during the 3 days, especially on bidding which is all about trying to know yourself.”
He urged the participants not be selfish as they should share what they have learned with friends and families while he called on the organisers of the training to conduct more trainings of this kind and expand it to the Regions.
Sebastiana L. Kolly also a participant thanked Caritas Gambia for boosting her knowledge and understanding during the days of interaction, saying she learned a lot and more trainings of such kind is needed to maintain peace and stability in the country.
