By Yero S. Bah
Dawda’s Foundation was established recently to solely help young people who are always regarded as the cream of society, and the future of the Gambia, according to its Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Dawda Touray–a young Gambian humanitarian guru.
“It has always been my dream to establish a foundation of such to offer support to young people in my country,” the motivational speaker and radio presenter told Mansa Banko Online on Monday, 13 July 2020 in a telephone interview with this reporter, during which he enumerated his Foundation’s aims and objectives.
Touray said he likes supporting young people who are obviously the hope of the country, stating it’s good to motivate young people about life and encourage them to achieve their endeavors. CEO Touray he made it a point of duty to come up with such an initiative to purposely offer a helping hand to Gambians in the entire nation by offering career development, mentorship and motivational speaking skills to the young.
“We also want to combat negative vices in society that we see young people are into,” he stated, adding his foundation runs on donations from Samaritans and personal contributions of members. They are frantically searching for external support to sustain the foundation but also stand a chance of fulfilling their mandate or endeavors, he indicated.
“We are working on to make sure we have funds from NGOs, Government and stakeholders.”
As he puts it, change starts from the foundation and that is the youth folk. He continued: “When we say a better Gambia, we have to start from the foundation. And the foundation is the young people on the ground who need to prepare for the future tasks ahead.”
Stating he couldn’t do it alone, Touray said that’s why a colleague of his Mariama Kuyateh and others joined him in his endeavor. “We are inviting everyone to join this crusade,” the founder of Dawda’s Foundation remarked.
Meanwhile, he admitted that the coronavirus has also affected their operations, and “we could not do a lot of things”. But he asserted that after the pandemic, they have great activities to implement which will have impact on society. He cited some of their challenges which include limited funds and that people sometimes see the foundation as “personal business”.
CEO Touray held that humanitarianism has lot of impact in the lives of many people because the field teaches people to be problem solvers for others in need; that venturing into it is like bettering the lives of people in society.
In concluding, he charged that people should live their lives in their own course and need to know that the future belongs to those who prepare for it. “The world has lots of opportunities and it ultimately depends on how one sees it,” Touray rounded off.
